Carrot Cake with Mock Floss

Lately, there are lots of dishes using Floss - Chicken Floss, Pork Floss! Look like it is another way to market the product - FLOSS!  I chance upon this recipe - Meat Floss Carrot Cake (non-vegetarian) and modified the recipe to make a Vegetarian Carrot Cake with Mock Floss. No recipe for this yet, until I give it another one or two more tastings to fine-tune it.  I might want to do a one with pumpkin and carrot and yam cake with floss ...

Steamed Vegetarian Fish with Enoki Mushroom

Ideal for busy people who have little time to spare meal especially during weekday. For this dish, the emphasis is more on the natural food like tomatoes and mushrooms, which is a little different from my earlier version of Steamed Vegetarian Fish. It required very little and simple seasoning. You can opt to sprinkle sesame oil after steaming, if desired.  

Preparation:     7 mins, Cooking time:  8 mins

           

Ingredients (serves 2)

°         1 vegetarian fish slice

°         2 tomatoes, cut into 4 wedges

°         100g enoki mushroom, base trimmed

°         2 thin slices ginger, finely shredded

°         1 teaspoon sesame oil

°         1/4 teaspoon salt or to taste

°         1-2 mini dried Chinese mushroom (optional), soaked

°         coriander leaves and chilli/wolfberries, for garnish

Method

1.      Arrange the enoki mushroom, tomatoes, vegetarian fish, ginger shreds, mushroom ion a heatproof serving plate.

2.      Sprinkle salt, oil and steam for 8 minutes.

3.      Garnish with coriander, chilli and serve immediately.

Silken Tofu with Wasabi

For kid - without wasabi ... 

Simple and fun to serve as side dish or salad! Omit tofu and replace with oil if desired.  Add few shreds of carrot for a colourful presentation.

Preparation:      10 mins  Cooking time:   5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2-4)

°         150g French bean, trimmed, cut into small section and blanched

°         Some sesame seeds and chilli flakes or shichimi for garnish

Miso Tofu Dressing

°         100g silken tofu

°         ½ tablespoon miso paste or to taste

°         1/3 - ½ tablespoon sugar or to taste  

°         Few drops of sesame oil (optional)

Method

1.       Combine the miso tofu dressing ingredients in a bowl. Mix and mashed well.

2.       Add in the French beans and mix well. 

3.       Garnish with sesame seeds, chilli flakes or shichimi and serve. 

French Beans Salad with Miso Tofu Dressing

Simple and fun to serve as side dish or salad! Omit tofu and replace with oil if desired.  Add few shreds of carrot for a colourful presentation.

Preparation:      10 mins  Cooking time:   5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2-4)

°         150g French bean, trimmed, cut into small section and blanched

°         Some sesame seeds and chilli flakes or shichimi for garnish

Miso Tofu Dressing

°         100g silken tofu

°         ½ tablespoon miso paste or to taste

°         1/3 - ½ tablespoon sugar or to taste  

°         Few drops of sesame oil (optional)

Method

1.       Combine the miso tofu dressing ingredients in a bowl. Mix and mashed well.

2.       Add in the French beans and mix well. 

3.       Garnish with sesame seeds, chilli flakes or shichimi and serve. 

Simple Gomoku Gohan (Japanese One-Pot Mixed Rice)

I had GOMOKU YASAI KAMAMESHI  @ Miyako and decided to re-create it. Well, this is like Gomoku Gohan (five ingredients mixed rice) cooked using dashi stock. To skip the process of making dashi stock, I added the ingredient for shojin dashi (fish free stock for vegetarian) which consist of shiitake and kombu plus the carrot to the rice and cooked together.

Replace chicken with king oyster mushroom or add vegetable like burdock root, bamboo shoot to it, if desired.  The light green shiraganegi (Japanese-style spring onion) thinly sliced would be the classic garnish which can impact flavour and visual appeal to this rice dish.  I had added a little too much of spring onion for garnish, reducing it a little would make it more presentable.

Kids would like this too … Serves with miso soup, pickles and few side dishes to make a complete meal set.

Preparation:     15 mins  Cooking time:            15 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)

°         200g rice, washed and drained

°         450ml water

°         4 chinese dried mushrooms, reconstituted and diced

°         25g carrot, peeled and shredded

°         10 kelp in knot

°         3 tablespoon light soy sauce

°         1 tablespoon cooking rice wine (optional)

°         ½  tablespoon sugar or to taste

Garnish

°         some coriander leaves or spring onion shreds 

°         sesame seeds and chilli flakes or shichimi (optional)

Method

1.      Combine all the ingredients into an electric rice cooker, mix well and turn it on.

2.      When done, leave the cooked rice to rest, covered, for 5-10 minutes. Fluff with a fork and garnish with coriander leaves or spring onion, sesame seeds and chilli flake or shichmimi and serve hot.

Watercress Miso Soup

Yes, it can be so simple and yet delicious. Add udon or rice vermicelli to this, you have a bowl of noodle soup.

Preparation:     8 mins, Cooking time:  8 mins  

           

Ingredients (serves 2)

°         100g watercress

°         500ml water

°         1 slice ginger

°         Miso to taste

°         Some sesame seeds or chilli flakes or wolfberries, for garnish

Method

1.      Place the ginger and water in a pot and bring to a boil.

2.      Add in watercresss and season to taste with miso.

3.      Ladle the soup into individual serving bowls and garnish with sesame seeds or chilli flakes or wolfberries.

4.      Serve immediately.

Sandstorm Snack ...

Sandstorm Snack  

The original is just a simple glutinous rice ball but I shaped it to be like a cube after pressing the round glutinous rice ball at six sides to look like a mini cube. Then boil in boiling water (steam it, if desired) and place on a plate of glutinous rice flour (toasted in the oven) to coat it.

Lastly, into the Macha Peanut Coating and giving it after a sandstorm effect!

Hmmm … cooking can be a creative activity if you want it to be, so just unleash your creativities and imagination…. Have fun! 

Macha Peanut Coating ...

Kinako (soybean powder) coating is a basic ingredient for Warabi Mochi. And there is a different variant – Macha Kinako Coating,with green tea powder added to it (other spices like cinnamon can be used). Since I don’t have soybean powder in the kitchen, I used grounded peanut powder to make Macha Kinako Coating which is not as delicate and fine comparing to soybean powder …

From Essentially Japanese Cooking & Cuisine, Mattcha-kinako coating recipe – Mix 1 teapsoon mattcha (grean tea powder), 20g sugar and 15g kinako (soybean powder)

Winter Solstic Dessert ...

Abacus Shape Glutinous Rice Ball with grounded peanut powder …

 Mini Glutinous Rice Cake with Azuki Bean (stuff it in, if desired ...)

Sprinkle or sift some macho powder on it ...  

I am not a big fan of Glutinous Rice Ball or Dessert and why are there so many postings related to it?

Just that I haven’t got bore with photographing these mini creations using the ingredient glutinous rice flour. And I find that dessert and snack can be made more interesting with slight modifications that do not required lots of work or cost a bomb and yet can be served in a small portion to enhance a bento set or as a beautiful snack in any party menu.

Simple ingredients like glutinous rice flour which are not costly at all and yet it can be use to make mochi, mua chee, glutinous rice ball, kueh etc. With different ingredients added and methods used, it can make into different desserts/snacks with many different variants.

Must Winter Solstice Dessert which is the traditional glutinous rice ball be round (round shape symbolize 团圆), of standard size, in red and white colour, in sweet soup or coated in grounded peanut powder?

In fact, it can be unique and different … I have few other ingredients in mind that I wanted to test out when I am free …  It is quite fun, mixing the flour with water and shaping those tiny little balls and throwing them into boiling water and seeing them floating … sound like Clay Therapy …

So, be daring, create a new Winter Solstice Dessert this year and maybe a different one for every other year! 

Macha Peanut Coating! 

Kinako (soybean powder) coating is a basic ingredient for Warabi Mochi. And there is a different variant – Macha Kinako Coating,with green tea powder added to it (other spices like cinnamon can be used). Since I don’t have soybean powder in the kitchen, I used grounded peanut powder to make Macha Kinako Coating which is not as delicate and fine comparing to soybean powder …

Vegetarian Siew Mai ...

I just like the combination of a piece of coriander leave and just one wolfberry for garnish. Simple yet it makes a big different to the food. I saw this in a beautiful food photo of shark’s fin dish and therefore try it out on instant vegetarian siew mai which I bought from Friendly Vegetarian Food Suppliers – 25pcs for S$5.

You just have to steam them and place on a small white porcelain plate use for sauce or arrange in a row on a oblong plate, Next, just place coriander leave and reconstituted wolfberry on it (kid can help out with this).  That’s!  

Frozen Vegetable Dumping

Served in Sauces Plate with Mushroom Broth and garnish with coriander and wolfberries ...  

Served in a Chinese Tea Cup with Mushroom Broth, mini dried mushroom, wolfberries and coriander ...

Various presentation ... 

Frozen Vegetable Dumping 450g @ S$2.50

Yes! This is instant vegetarian food and with simple food presentation, it can look beautiful and use that for buffet or party food for a no-cook.

I got this from Friendly Vegetarian Food Supplier – 1 pack (450g) for S$2.50 (Product of Taiwan by Chimei). 

Macha Soy Milk with Azuki Bean ‘N’ Glutinous Rice Ball

I passed by MOF Japanese Sweets & Coffee and saw a dessert that uses Macha, Azuki Bean and Rice Cake, it is something like red bean in macha soup with few oblong rice cake (looks like mochi or glutinous rice cube). It was too early and the eatery hasn’t open yet. So, I decided to re-create it when I reach home.

I had some red bean soup in the refrigerator anyway and I scoop out the red bean and add them to the soy milk with added matcha powder. Then, I add one traditional glutinous rice ball to it (which I think I had made it a little too big for a well balanced presentation in a Chinese Tea Cup). Shape it into a cube, if desire.

It is served in a traditional Chinese tea cup and just the right portion for a small dessert. So, if you think Red Bean Dessert or Red Bean Dessert with Glutinous Rice Ball is boring. You can give it a twist, just like this or create a totally new combination … 

Azuki Bean ‘N’ Mini Glutinous Rice Cake Desset

Adding Glutinous Rice Ball to Red Soup Bean is not something new … I change the size and shape of the glutinous rice ball. Make it into a mini cube, if desired.

Recipe for Azuki Bean or Red Bean Soup and Traditional Glutinous Rice Ball can be found in this blog. 

Homemade Vegetarian Furikake

Homemade Vegetarian Furikake 

Sprinkle Vegetarian Furikake on Steamed Rice 

Vegetarian Salted Fish 

Furikake is a type of Japanese Condiment that is usually used to sprinkle on top the rice. You can create your own style … here is another variant …

The ingredients for the above Vegetarian Furikake are Vegetarian Salted Fish, White Sesame and shredded nori.  Quantity as per individual preference. Mix well and store in a container.  Use it for rice, congee or salad! 

p.s : still in hibernating mood … : )

Hi … into hibernation mood again …

A simple Healthy & Nutritious Dessert - Red Bean N Mini Glutinous Rice Snow Balls

Feel like taking a long break again and into hibernation ….

Take care and happy cooking … 
cheers : ) 

Easy Shark’s Fin Melon Soup

I had some shark’s fin melon left after whipping up the Mock Shark’s Fin with Shark’s Fin Melon recipe. What I did was cut the Shark’s Fin Melon into thin shreds, together with carrot shreds, enoki mushroom, ginger and water (enough to cover 1cm above the ingredients in a pot) and threw them into a claypot.  Bring to a boil and simmer till the ingredients tender. Season to taste with salt, pepper and granulated mushroom bouillon. Garnish with few drops of fragrant oil and spring onion shreds and 1-2 slices of chilli (optional).

And here, a bowl of piping hot  -  Easy Shark’s Fin Melon Soup … 

Homemade Simplified Shichimi

Shichimi Togarshi is the Japanese spices mix that contains 7 ingredients.  For this version, I used black/white sesame seeds, 5 spices salt (or just salt and sugar) and dry chilli flake.  For a more spicier version, use more chilli flake …

Use it to garnish the dishes or as furikake (Japanese Rice Seasoning) …

Potatoes ‘N’ Veggie Salad with Paprika Mock Floss Furikake

Potatoes Salad with a different twist 

As filling for Sandwiches ...

Paprika Mock Floss as always be used in Potatoes Salad to give it a new twist and you can also use it as filling for sandwiches! No Mock Floss for this furikake, just omit it! For children who do not take spicy food, omit the chilli flakes. This would be a good dish to introduce children to eat raw vegetables like celery, carrot and onion cut into tiny bits and by mixing them with cooked potatoes.

Preparation:      15 mins Cooking time:    15 mins

Ingredients (serves 2-4)

°         2 potatoes, peeled, cubed and steamed

°         2 stalks celery, chopped or diced

°         1 onion (optional), chopped

°         ½ carrot, peeled and chopped

°         mayonnaise/vegetarian salad cream or to taste

°         salt and pepper to taste

°         Paprika Mock Floss Furikake to taste 

Method

1.       Combine all ingredients in a salad bowl and mix well. Serve chilled.

Paprika Mock Floss Furikake

Furikake is a type of Japanese Condiment that is usually used to sprinkle on top the rice. You can create your own style … 


The ingredients for the above Paprika Mock Floss Furikake is Mock Floss (i am trying to finish up my mock floss), Black Sesame, White Sesame and Dry Chilli Flake, Sugar and Salt (optional).  Quantity as per individual preference. Mix well and store in a container. Simple isn’t it?  Use it for rice, congee or salad! 

Porridge with Lettuce ‘N’ Mock Floss

Just a simple bowl of porridge, enhance it with some lettuce and Mock Floss …. The trick to having porridge or congee cooked in 10-15 minutes is here - Quick Congee

French Bean N Mock Floss

Deep-fried French Beans with Mock Floss

Toasted French Beans with Mock Floss

Mock Floss, Vegetarian Floss, Pumpkin Floss …  Floss again?

Haha… I am not a big fan of Floss, just like other ingredients or recipes in this blog. I brought to create the recipe and now I still have half a bag of floss left. Therefore, thinking hard on how to finish them. Besides this recipe, there is another recipe using floss, yet to be post on the blog  … 

For this recipe is inspired by the Celebrity Chef – Sam Leong’s cookbook – A Wok Through Time. There is a dish -  Wok-fried Long Beans with Homemade XO Sauce, is  a green cylinder of long beans topped with a dry, fluffy XO sauce. The Dry homemade XO Sauce look like pork floss to me, therefore I substitute with Mock Floss for a vegetarian version.  A lot of time, by flipping cookbooks and those lovely pictures are a great source of inspiration, with little modification or improvising them, you get the vegetarian version and or maybe something totally new …   

 I used French bean and for a healthier version,  by mix ¾ teaspoon of oil with a pinch of salt to the French bean and toasted them in Toaster Over for 10 minutes instead of deep-frying.  Deep-fried or poaching in oil look much better in term of the colour. 

Next, arrange them on a plate and topped with mock floss. I added more sesame seeds (black and white) plus a pinch of dried chilli flakes as I don’t have shichimi togarashi.

So, here is the output! Does it look good? Do you feel like having some?

For a more presentable look, you can tie the deep-fried French beans into a knot, arrange either one or few on a small serving plate and garnish with mock floss.  If you want to place them on a porcelain spoon, arrange the spoons in circle on a plate facing outward. Just play with it and explore …

Steamed Eggplant in Tangy Chilli Sauce

Steamed Eggplant with Tangy Chilli Sauce 

Steamed Eggplant with Chicken Rice Chilli N Tomatoes Sauce

This is an Indonesia Dish with I had in the 90s at an Indonesia Restaurant in Shenton Way for our monthly departmental lunch. It is known as Terong Balado –Baked Eggplant in Spicy Chilli Tomatoes sauce. I just discovered a quick and easy version, if you find the below too troublesome and want less cooking. For the Tangy Chilli Sauce, use the chicken rice chilli sauce (http://crystalbyblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/chicken-rice-chilli-sauce-with-garlic.html) and add tomatoes sauce (ratio 2:1) or to taste.  If you don’t consume any shallot and garlic, omit those and increase the ginger but not too much.
Preparation:      15 mins Cooking time:    10 mins

          

Ingredients (serves 2)

°         1 (200g) long slender eggplant, sliced

°         a small handful fresh coriander leaves, for garnish

Spicy Sauce

°         1 (125g) tomato, poached and peeled

°         25g ginger, sliced

°         25g shallot, peeled and sliced

°         25g garlic, peeled and sliced

°         2 fresh red chilli, seeded and finely chopped

°         1 tablespoon olive oil

°         1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

°         1 teaspoon sugar

°         1/3 teaspoon salt

°         1 tablespoon tomatoes sauce or to taste

Method

1.       Arrange the eggplant in a heat proof serving plate and steam for 10 minutes or until soft.

2.       Put tomato, ginger, shallot, garlic in a blender and blend till smooth.

3.       Heat the oil in a wok and pour in the spicy paste, Stir-fry for 2-3 minutes, add in the chilli and season to taste with vinegar, sugar, salt and tomatoes sauce.

4.       Pour sauce over the eggplant, garnish with coriander leaves and serve immediately.

A Cup of Simple Crispy Shallot Rice

For Little Girl ...

For Little Boy ...

Super simple and delicious …

When I was a little gal, my late mother whipped up this Rice with Raw Egg for us. What she did was when the rice was cooked, threw in the eggs (raw), shallot oil, spring onion, crispy shallot, and season with salt, light soy sauce and then mix well.

Yesterday, I was making some shallot oil by deep-frying some freshly cut shallot in oil. It was aromatic and I decided to mix the shallot oil, crispy shallot and some chopped spring onion to the cooked white rice. Season to taste with light sauce and mix well.  Spring onion and shallot lends its unique flavour to the plain rice, making it real fragrant.

Then, to make it interesting for kid, I serve it in a round Tea Cup with cute little cartoon on it (freebie). It looks good and delicious, my boy finished up all the tasty rice very fast.

Visual impact is important to kid too! It helps to make the food look more appetizing. Try this, if you have a fussy eater at home. It does not need lots of time to churn out something simple yet delectable.

For a healthier version, use brown rice (those that are light brown in colour). Substitute shallot with ginger, spring oil with Chinese parsley if desired. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds if preferred.

Steamed Eggplant with Mock Floss (aka Purple Eggplant 'N' Auburn Floss)

Want some? It looks good and tastes good too!

This dish is inspired from two non-vegetarian restaurants – Taste Paradise and Peach Garden. Taste Paradise has Crispy-fried Japanese Egg plant topped with Pork Floss. For Peach Garden is thin crispy fried egg plant strips fried in light batter and tossed with generous helping of pork floss and a touch of garlic.

Anyway, I haven’t taste these 2 dishes at all, pork floss isn’t vegetarian! Am I going to miss out delicious food, of course -  NO, I decide to whip up and share this with all Vegetarians and Vegan -  a simple and healthy vegetarian version – Steamed Eggplant with Mock Floss.

Here you go, just simple 3 steps where anyone can cook :-

·        Slice the eggplant (or cut into long thick strip), arrange on a serving plate and steamed for 8-10 minutes.  

·        Drizzle shallot/olive oil, little amount of light soy sauce (optional) over the eggplant.

·        Topped with generous amount of mock floss, garnish with coriander leaves and chopped fresh red chilli.

For a special feel – instead of chopped fresh red chilli – use shichimi togarashi (seven spice chilli mix) where you can get from supermarket.

Food presentation isn’t difficult at all, sometime, it can be labour intensive and time consuming but there are also some very simple and yet elegant that can be done up real fast. There is no fix rule, how edible food garnish should be placed, so loosen up and play with it. The more you do it, it just come naturally, without even having to think about it.

So, hurry grabs some eggplant, mock floss and cooks this …

Mock Shark’s Fin with Shark Fin Melon

Ready-to-cook Mock Shark's Fin 250g @ S$8.50

Another green Shark’s Fin dish which everyone can indulge in without hurting the environment. Mock Shark’ Fin soup is not that difficult to find in any vegetarian restaurant that serves Chinese cuisine.

For a change, I decide to test out a slightly different way to present the Mock Shark’s Fin dish. Instead of cutting the melon in shreds, I cut them into a cube (just happened that I got ½ of shark fin melon @ S$1 today in the wet market, rare find). It is quite fun actually, if this is the dish for Chinese New Years, be extra careful with the “number” of ingredients used and ingredients that carry special symbolism in the Chinese culture. There are many different way to arrange the ingredients, like the Black Moss can be placed on the top, garnish with coriander leaves and a wolfberry. Or put a simple Japanese lucky knot made using carrot and daikon strands as garnish. 

Without a supreme broth, as usual I make use of granulated mushroom bouillon and mushroom. For a good classic shark’ fin dish, good tasty supreme broth can’t be compromised.

Preparation:      20 mins, Cooking time:    10 mins

           

Ingredients (serves 4)

°         200g Shark’s Fin Melon, cubed

°         few brown shimeji mushroom, based trimmed

°         some black moss hair seaweed (Fatt Choy)

Mock Sharks’ Fin

°         50g mock shark’s fin

°         1 teaspoon light soy sauce

°         ½ teaspoon granulated mushroom bouillon

°         pepper to taste

Broth

°         75ml vegetable/kelp stock

°         ¼ teaspoon granulated mushroom bouillon

°         1 teaspoon light soy sauce

°         ¼ teaspoon sugar

Method

1.       Combine all the mock Shark’s Fin ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

2.       Arrange the shark fin melon, brown shimeji mushroom, black moss hair seaweed, mock shark’s fin, and wolfberries on each individual serving plate.

3.       Mix all the ingredients for the broth well and ladle on each serving plate. Steam for 10 minutes or until the ingredient become tender and serve immediately. 

Mock Shark’s Fin Ramen

Ready-to-cook Mock Shark's Fin 250g S$8.50

After having the delicious Mini Pot Vegetarian Shark’s Fin at Eight Treasures Vegetarian Restaurant in Singapore Chinatown, it strikes a chord - that Shark’s Fin itself is bland and it needs other ingredients and good tasty broth to enhance its soft gelatinous texture. Therefore, why kill Sharks for their fin, after all preparing Shark’s Fin is so labour intensive, so go for the mock Shark’s Fin which has its texture.

So, I bought 250g ready-to-cook Mock Shark’s Fin @ S$8.50 and decide to cook this noodle. However, a lazy person like me, who won’t spend time making good tasty broth, I used granulated mushroom bouillon and light soy sauce for the soup based, which of course lack the natural sweetness of good broth you would find in a good restaurant.

The mock shark’s fin itself is tasteless, I tried to cut short the progress by adding Vegetarian Oyster sauce, light sauce to it and steamed for 10 minutes. The amount of Vegetarian Oyster sauce should have been reduced, as it gives the mock shark’s fin a not so natural colour. The process should be changed to simmer instead. Since this should be a simple bowl of Shark’s Fin noodle and I decided to arrange the main ingredient - mock shark fin on top of the noodle.

Preparation: 10 mins, Cooking time: 30 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)

 2 Japanese Ramen, cooked

Mock Sharks’ Fin

 100g mock sharks’ fin

 2 – 3 teaspoons vegetarian oyster sauce

 2 teaspoons light soy sauce

 pepper to taste

 100ml water or vegetable stock

 2 teaspoons corn starch

Broth

 600ml water or vegetable stock

 2 chinese dried mushroom, soaked and sliced

 2/3 teaspoon granulated mushroom bouillon

 ¼ teaspoon salt

 1 teaspoon light soy sauce

 ¼ teaspoon shallot/olive oil

Garnish

 some freshly spring onion or coriander leaves

Method

1. Combine all the mock Shark’s Fin ingredients in a bowl and steamed for 10 minutes and set aside.

2. Meanwhile, place the mushroom and water/vegetable stock in a pot and bring to a boil. Season to taste with granulated mushroom bouillon, salt, light soy sauce, oil and pepper. Set aside.

3. Arrange the cooked ramen in each individual bowl and top with the mushroom. Ladle the soup into each individual serving bowls.

4. Place the mock shark’s fin on top, garnish with spring onion or coriander and serves immediately.