French Beans with mock meat

Beancurd stuffings

Cabbage

My hub wants me to remember how I cooked this because this is the way he wanted cabbage to be cooked from now on.

The truth is, I didn't follow any receipe so it was plain luck that I whipped out something that catered to his taste buds! >_<"

Ingredients

• Cabbage
• Fried vegetarian fritters? (Sorry, Not too sure how to call that)
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 3/4 cup of water
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• Sprinkles of sesame oil

Method

1) Stir fry some ginger in heated oil
2) Add cabbage and oyster sauce
3) Pour the water in and simmer until the vegetables are moderately soft.
4) Add sugar and sesame oil before switching off the fire
5) Mix the fritters with the cabbage just before serving

Voila! Simple and yet tasty. :)

Fried Mushroom

"You must have vegetarian food for breakfast on the first day of Chinese New Year. It's a tradition.", my mother instructed.

I had mee sua soup with mushrooms last year. So for variety's sake, I decided to fry the mushroom this time round. It turned out great! The best thing is, it's so easy to prepare and cook!



Ingredients

• Mushrooms
• Flour
• Salt

Method

1) Soften the dried mushroom by soaking them in the water
2) Cut into strips
3) Squeeze the mushroom dry
4) Coat the mushroom with flour
5) Deep fry
6) Drain and sprinkle with salt while the mushrooms are still hot

I couldn't help popping the fried mushrooms into my mouth and only stopped when I realised that it will not be enough for the breakfast the next day. Opps! :P

Crispy Mock Meat

Vegetarian Congee

How to know I am cooking for myself only

1) I re-use utensils and bowls so that I don't need to wash additional ones later on. (My hub usually does the dish-washing)
2) I dump all the ingredients available into the pot to make it into a one-dish meal so that I can save on the effort and time on preparing different dishes
3) I am easy on the taste. Anything edible goes. :)
4) I... I don't care about the food presentation... pls see the photo below. :P

Sweet and Sour Beancurd

Repeated dish. For my records.

Spicy French Beans

Fried Bee Hoon

Peanuts and Mock Ikan Bilis

The Ikan Bilis are actually fries potatos. Very crispy with a ka-zi ka-zi crunch. :D Bought it at Jurong Point vegetarian stall to go along with today's dishes. Serves as a good snack too. Anyone knows how to cook this dish? :P

Stir Fry Lettuce

Sweet and Sour Mock Chicken

Ok... I am repeating my recipes. Just want to keep it as a record for looking different. :)

Bittergourd Soup

"hmmm... this is nice" my hub commented as he tasted the soup in the pot that was still on the stove.

Trying to act like a food connoisseur, he added, "But there is something missing. I think you just need to add that something and it would taste like the one in kopitiam"

"Prawns lor", I immediately replied. In which, he responded 'ya ya ya'.

1) It does not make economical sense (cents) for me to buy prawns as I will only be cooking it on one day of the entire week.
2) I only need 2 or 3 of it and I guess nobody in the right mind would want to sell that pathetic number to me.
3) I don't like to handle prawns. Kinda scary to remove the legs and stuff, if you ask me. :P

In any case, I do believe that prawns play an important role in making this soup even tastier. So feel free to add it to the recipe below. :)

Ingredients

• 8 halves of Bittergourd
• Button mushrooms
• Corn cobs
• Sliced Carrot
• 1 Egg (beaten)
• 5 cups of water
• Ginger
• Mock Meat (optional)

Seasonings

• 1/2 tbsp concentrated chicken stock
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp cooking wine
• 1 tsp sugar
• Salt to taste
• 1 tsp seasme oil

Method

1) Add concentrated chicken stock and ginger to water and boil

2) Add carrot, mushroom, corn cobs and Mock Meat

3) Add bittergourd

4) Add the remaining seasonings except for sesame oil

5) While the soup is boiling, slowly pour the egg mixture in and stir

5) Add sesame oil 1 minute before switching off the fire and serve

Stir Fried Dou Miao with Mushrooms

Ok Ok, I agreed that the display of the food was a lil' too deliberate, with the carrot and mushroom all lined up in an orderly manner. (Wait till you see the whole photo, with the carrots round the whole plate. Hee!)

But I had to do a bit of housekeeping because this dish would look extremely weird with all the button mushrooms and carrot slices scattered around... :P

I have a slightly varied way of cooking dou miao this time... glad it works for my hub. In fact, he prefers the way it was done up for this round. :) So here goes the revised receipe...

Ingredients

5-6 slices of Ginger

Dou Miao (pea shoots)

1/2 a Carrot (sliced)

10 Button Mushrooms

1 cup of stock (from soaked mushrooms)

1 tbsp cooking oil

Seasonings

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp light soy sauce

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tbsp cooking wine

Salt to taste

Method

1) Stir ginger in heated oil

2) Add carrot and mushroom and cook under moderate high heat

3) Sprinkle 1 tsp sugar and stir

4) Add 1/4 cup of stock

5) Stir fry Dou Miao with light soy sauce and oyster sauce

6) Add remaining stock, cooking wine, remaining sugar and salt to the wok

7) Add sesame oil just before switch off the fire

Kung Pao Mock Meat

"You should cook and sell vegetarian food", commented my husband, after sampling the dishes for today.

I looked up at him in disbelief, as he seldom give compliments like this. Just when I was about to jump up and down in excitement, he added the following.

"But maybe not for other non-vegetarian dishes." kwa kwa >_<''' Thanks hor!

That's when I was reminded of this song title... "哭笑不得" :P

Click here for recipe

Sweet and Sour Crispy Mock Chicken

Yippee... I am getting the hang of it. I guess practice really makes perfect. Here's another sweet and sour dish. =)



















Ingredients

Mock Chicken
tomato (optional)

Sauce

• 2 tbsp Tomato Sauce
• 1 tbsp Chilli Sauce
• 2 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp water

Method

1) Roast Mock Chicken in Healsio for 20 minutes at 190 degrees
2) Once the Mock Chicken is ready, heat the sauce over low fire for 10 seconds
3) Add and coat the Mock chicken with the sauce and switch off the fire immediately.

Crispy Mock Meat

Ingredients

• Mock Meat

Method

• Just leave the Mock Meat in Healsio to roast for 20 minutes and you've got yourself a crispy treat! Goes very well with congee (beh) :)

Stir-Fry Cabbage

Ingredients

• Ginger
• Cabbage
• 1/2 a carrot
• 1 tbsp cooking oil

Seasonings

• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 cup of stock (from the soaking of mushroom)
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• salt to taste

Method

1) Stir fry ginger in high heat
2) Cook carrot over moderate heat
3) Add cabbage after carrot is moderately soft
4) Add oyster sauce
5) Pour stock in and the remaining seasonings
6) Simmer

Vegetarian Fried Rice

I wanted to cook porridge today, but I had to choose fried rice instead.

Fried rice is especially useful when I am cooking dishes that I am not too confident of. To elaborate, if one of the side dishes I have cooked doesn't turn out good, I still have the fried-rice to fall back on. Fried rice is 'self-sufficient' and is a 'so good, you can even eat it on its own' staple. :P Most importantly, I have hardly gone wrong cooking this one-dish meal. It's a safe bet. :)



Ingredients

• 1 cup Rice (cooked overnight so that it will be easier to manage)
• 3 tbsp of mixed vegetables (comprising green peas, carrots and corns)
• 3 tbsp of mock ham cubes
• 5 tbsp of mock char siew (cut into cubes)
• 2 tbsp cooking oil

Mixture

• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp dark soy sauce (for colour)
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 6 tbsp water

Method
1) Heat oil in high heat
2) Add mock char siew and ham cubes, followed by mixed vegetables
3) Pour rice into the wok
4) Add mixture
5) Mix thouroughly

Sweet and Sour Beancurd

"It taste like a dish that we usually find 'outside'!"

This comment made by my hubby swept me off my feet. For home-cooked-food to be rated as good as 'outside' (meaning those sold in Tze Char and hawker) is the utmost honour that any 'wokking' wives could receive, I tell ya! :D

It may sound a bit thick-skinned, but I have to agree with him that this is a dish that deserves compliments. The beancurd is crispy on the outside, soft and moist on the inside. The sauce is sweet and had just enough to coat the beancurd with a thin layer and not too overwhelming to sog the crispyness.

"What changes did you make this round?"

I was stumped for a while but rattled on with a long list.

1) I sprinkled some salt after cutting.

2) I used flour to coat the beancurd before deep frying.

3) I used the non-stick pan to deep fry the beancurd. I tried to give it one more chance by throwing one beancurd into my steel wok and it sticks! As usual! I transferred the beancurd into the teflon pan. It makes a whole lot of difference. No more sticking to the wok. No more burnt patches. No more frustration! However, due to health reasons, I promise myself to use the teflon pan less.

4) I used soya bean oil. I have previously used olive oil and almost instantly knew that was a wrong move. My suspicion was further affirmed when an author of a cookbook wrote that deep frying should never be done with olive oil. But there was no mention why. :(

5) I used a different brand of ketchup. His preferred.

6) I added green pepper.

7) I added vinegar.

"Wah, so many. How do you know which is the change that makes it nice then?" my husband asked.

That's a good point. It could be all of the above, but who really cares? As long as it comes out good, I am following this method for good. :P

Still remember that I wanted to improve on sweet and sour dishes? Now, THIS is what I wanna achieve. :)

Ingredients

• 2 small beancurds (sliced into four each and sprinkled with some salt)
• 1/3 green bell pepper (cut into triangles)
• 2 chillis (cut into triangles)
• 1/2 cup oil

Sauce Mixture

• 2 tbsp tomato sauce
• 1 tbsp chili sauce
• 2 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp water

Method

1) Deep fry the beancurd under high heat
2) Remove beancurd from pan
3) Drain oil from pan until 1 tbsp of oil is left
4) Stir fry green pepper and chilli for 30 seconds
5) Add sauce mixture and stir until it bubbles
6) Add the beancurd to the pan, stirring to coat
7) Remove immediately after the beancurds are coated with the sauce