Roasted Vege Satay

Ingredients (Serve 2):
- 7 oz firm tofu (aka taokua)
- 1 small-medium sized bell pepper
- 1 small zucchini
- 5 oz fresh button mushroom (about 10-15 mushrooms)
- 1 tbs soya sauce
- dash of white pepper
- dash of sesame oil
- 6-8 satay sticks

Preparation of "satay":

1. Drain water from tofu. In order to "squeeze" water out of tofu, wrap tofu in paper towel, place on plate, and put a heavy object on top of the tofu (e.g. bowl) and wait for at least 30mins for extra water to be drained.
2. Cut tofu into cubes of approx. 1" x 1"
3. Cut bell pepper, zucchini and mushroom into similar size as well.
4. Place above ingredients in a big bowl, add soya sauce, pepper and sesame oil to marinate for at least 3omins.
5. Use satay sticks and assemble the ingredients.
6. Preheat oven toaster (or oven) at 400F (205C).
7. Place sticks on wire rack, with a drip plate at the bottom.
8. Roast for 30-40mins, or until you observe browning.

Ingredients for sauce:

- 3/8 cup coconut milk
- 1/4 cup crunchy peanut butter
- 3/4 tsp curry powder
- 3/4 tsp brown sugar
- 1/2 tbs lemon juice
- 1/2 tbs vegetable oil
- 3/4 tbs soya sauce

Preparation for sauce:

1. Mix above ingredients by hand in a bowl or blender.
2. You're done! ;)
3. Tip: If you are using the oven toaster, you can place the sauce bowl on top of the toaster to make hot, while you're roasting the satay...saves energy!

Basically for the sauce, you can also use ready-made satay sauce..can save a bit of time. And as usual, you can roast any kinds of vege you like.

Tofu Burger

This is one recipe I am quite proud of..;) Of course, i did not "create" it from scratch, but I modified it, and i thot the "final product" was quite tasty!

Ingredients for tofu patty (makes 4-5):
- 7 oz mashed firm tofu (basically it's taokua 豆干)
- 1 shredded medium carrot
- 1 tsp black sesame seeds
- 2 large sheets of nori seaweed (roasted Japanese seaweed) cut into small thin slices
- 1/4 cup bread crumbs
- 1.5 tbs soya sauce
- dash of white pepper
- dash of sesame oil

Preparation:

1. Mix all ingredients above in a bowl.
2. Preheat oven (or oven toaster) at 350F (approx. 180C).
3. Lightly grease the baking sheet or Al-foil (which I prefer) with vegetable oil.
4. On the sheet, scope out the mixed ingredients and form 4 patties (using a spoon will do).
5. Bake for 20-25mins, until you observe browning of the patties.
   

Ingredients for burger:

- 4 burger buns (100% whole wheat)

- Mayo (or butter/ magarine)

- Lettuce

- 4 slices tomato

Preparation:

1. Spread Mayo on one side of buns.
2. Place lettuce, a slice of tomato and top it with tofu patty to make a tofu burger.
   
   

Depressing Day...

Sigh, it was a depressing day for me and hubby yesterday.

Hubby's conference paper did not get a good review, and he was rather upset about it. He had put in quite a bit of effort into it, and I could attest to it. But he was rather unlucky, as his reviewers were not really into his field of work, and thus could not really understand the impact of his work fully. And in this HARSH academic life, as what my hubby said, "it is publish or perish loh".

Sometimes I wonder...frankly, what's all the hype about getting your work published?? How many people actually read them? And many professors in universities are all stressed up about being able to publish as many papers as they can, in order to secure their place in the academic world. So, there are many stories in which professors treat their students as "publishing slaves"; students helping profs to do research, and the profs put their names on the papers, which they contribute little! Some profs even intentionally hold students back, and not allowing them to graduate, so that they can "squeeze" more out from them!

Luckily, and hopefully this is not going to happen to us...my hubby has a dynamic supervisor..and i hope all goes well for him!

Hubby, dun be depressed ok!

Why go Vegetarian?

Of course eveyone knows that eating more vegetables is healthier for you...this has been shown again and again by different scientific health studies. However, besides just being healthy, your action of being a vegetarian not only prevents cruelty of animals, but has a much larger impact on the health of the Earth.

Read this article: http://www.vegsoc.org/info/why%20its%20green%20final%20small.pdf
to understand and act now!

For your well-being, for others, for mother Earth, and for your future children.

Tortilla Wrap

Again, for lazy people like me...Easy to make, and you can make it 1-nite before, and put in the fridge. I do that typically for my hubby to bring it to school the next day for lunch, without having me to wake up early to prepare lunch for him! ;)

Ingredients (Servings 3 wraps)
- 3 x tortillas (if you're staying in Pittsburgh, you can buy them from Giant Eagle)
- 1/2 cup shredded cheese
- 8 oz ready-to-serve black beans (canned)
- shredded lettuce (optional)
- small cubes avocado (optional)
- dash of salt
- dash of black pepper




Preparation:

1. On the tortilla, spread shredded cheese, followed by shredded lettuce.
2. Top it with about 2oz black beans, add salt and pepper.
3. Wrap it up (like a spring roll; except leave one end open).
4. Place in Al-foil (prevent charring) and make hot in toaster; or place in microwave (without Al-foil of course!)
5. Follow above steps to make another 2 more.

And, just like making sandwiches, you can be as creative as you like in terms of the ingredients. I am not a big fan of black beans, but i think black beans goes well in this...so, give it a try!

Hawaiian & Mushroom Pizza

This is for lazy people like me...who basically use ready-made pizza base, and just top ingredients on it..and whola..in 10mins, you get a delicious pizza!

Ingredients (Makes 2 personal pizza):

- 2 x 8" pizza base

- 2 tbs tomato paste

- 2 cup shredded cheese

- handful of pineapple tibits (canned)

- 1 sliced vegetarian ham/ hotdog

- 4-5 sliced fresh button mushroom

- 1/4 cup sliced bell peppers (red, yellow or orange)

Preparation:

1. Apply tomato paste on pizza base, and then spread 1/4 cup shredded cheese.
2. Place pineapple tibits and sliced ham/ hotdog.
3. Spread another 1/4 cup shredded cheese on top.
4. Send into oven toaster and toast for 7-8mins (or follow instructions of the pizza base product).
5. Follow step1, 3 and 4 to make another pizza using mushrooms and bell peppers.

For the pizza base, if you have Indian store nearby, and can buy ready-made nuns, they make excellent base. Below is the one I use, which I bought in the nearby indian store in Pittsburgh. I believe Giant (in Singapore) sells the same brand..but unfortunately it's rather expensive, as it's imported from the US...quite an irony, isn't it?

And as for the toppings, you can be as creative as you like!

Black Sauce Taokua (黑酱油豆干）

I am a taokua lover! I've been eating taokua since I was able to...eat! haha....

In fact, I remember, nearly every meal with my family had taokua, and my favorite is deep-fried. Now a days, too lazy to deep-fry on my own...creates a mess in the kitchen, and I don't know what to do with so much oil left-over?

Anyway, the taokua can be cooked in variety of ways, and i still love to eat. So here is the typical black sauce taokua (again...without the pork, of course!)

Ingredients (Serves 3-4)

- 14 oz (about 400g) fresh taokua

- 9-11 dried shitake mushroom (small-medium size)

- 1 cup raw peanuts (w skin)

- 1/2 tsp five spice powder (五香粉)

- 1 tbp black sauce (黑酱油)

- 1/2 tbp brown sugar

- 6-8 small pieces of taopok (豆卜) - optional

Preparation:

1. Soak peanuts in hot water till water becomes room temperature (this soften the peanuts and can reduce cooking time)
2. Soak dried shitake mushroom for at least 30min. Cut bigger mushrooms into smaller pieces for softer texture.
3. Cut taokua into small pieces of about 1" x 1" x 0.5" (can be square, rectangular or triangluar shapes)
4. Boil 2 rice bowls of water (you can add the water used to soak mushrm for richer flavor).
5. Add peanuts, mushroom, five spice powder, black sauce and brown sugar.
6. Add taokua, and when it boils again, turn to small-medium fire and cook for 1 hour.
7. Add taopok 20mins before fire is turned off (or you can add together with the taokua if you like them very soft)

Moral dilemma

One of the most recent big news in the US is with regard to methods of torture used to obtain information from terrorists....which is of course approved by Bush, and denounced by many other people.

Last sunday while I was having "big breakfast" with my hubby in front of the TV program "Meet the Press", the reporter asked Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson, whether he would employ torture method to obtain information if he's the president?

Whereas I was thinking to myself, if it was me, would i torture someone to obtain information that may save other people?

Let's say, we're 100% sure that this terrorist has vital information, would you employ ANY methods in order to obtain that info? I think I may...reason, this information has large potential to save many more people. Would you??

However, the tricky part is, how are we going to be 100% sure that this person has that information?? And if it turns out that this poor soul has nothing to offer, and yet was subjected to torture, wouldn't that violate his rights, and of course add to our sins.

Tricky question...

Wolfeberry (枸杞)

I often use wolfeberry in my dishes. E.g. I add them into my spinach soup, stir-fry 奶白菜, or in snow fungus dessert.

They have great medicinal properties. According to chinese medical dictionary, they are good for liver and kidney, and improves eyesight (and many more...)

The most famous wolfeberry in China are from Ning Xia (宁夏), which I happened to visit during one of my trips to China in Aug 2005. There are many "fake" wolfeberries" out there that claim to be from Ning Xia, when they are actually grown somewhere else.

One of the feature to identify whether they are truly from Ning Xia is to see whether there is a tiny white spot at one end of the dried fruit. This was told to me when I visited the farm there.

One easy way to consume dried wolfeberry is to eat it directly. They taste like raisins.

Another way is to add into chrysanthemum american ginseng drink. This is something you can make everyday, and it's good for your health!

Ingredients (Serving 1 person):
- 黄山贡菊 or 杭白菊 (7 - 9 flowers)

- 3-5 thin slices of American Ginseng

- 7-9 dried wolfeberries

- 5-7 small cubes of rock sugar

Preparation: Add all ingredients in a drinking cup. Add hotwater. Drink after 5-7 mins.

Make sure you buy "organic" chrysanthemum, or else chrysanthemum flowers have a lot of pesticides on them, which is definitely very detrimental to health!

Lotus Peanut Soup

Without pork ribs! Haha...

Ingredients (Serve 4-5)
- 400g - 450g (0.9lb - 1lb) Lotus (莲藕）

- 1 cup of raw peanuts (with skin)

- 2 dried honey dates

- 9-11 dried shitake mushroom (small - medium size)

- 5-7 red dates (optional)

- mushroom essence

Preparation:

1. Soak peanuts in hot water till water becomes room temperature (this soften the peanuts and can reduce cooking time)
2. Remove skin of lotus using a peeler. Slice cross-section of lotus into thin slices.
3. Soak dried shitake mushroom for at least 30min.
4. Wash honey dates (according to packaging instructions), use knife/ scissors to make slits on the dates so that they can "disintegrate" into the soup; or else it will remain as one big date, and the sweetness can't get into the soup.
5. Boil 5-5.5 rice bowls of water (you can add the water used to soak mushrm for richer flavor).
6. Once the water boils, add honey dates, red dates (optional), peanuts, lotus and mushroom.
7. Wait for the soup to boil again, add a little mushroom essence, then turn to small-medium fire to cook for 1 hour.
8. Just before turning off the fire, add salt/ soya sauce (if desire), white pepper, and a bit of sesame oil.

When sesame oil is added to soups and various stir-fry vegetable dishes, it adds rich flavor. However, sesame oil should only be added near the end of the cooking process, and not be subjected to high heat (e.g. deep-frying) or long cooking process.

Enoki Mushroom (Winter Mushroom/JIN-ZHEN-GU) - Prevents Cancer

Golden-needle-mushroom (Jin-Gen-Goo) sucessfully kills 95% of cancer cells (Taiwan Report)記者 : 范文欽　柯勝雄 台北報導

Research done by NUS shows that eating this mushroom can destroy 95% of cancer cells in our body by boosting our immune system.

Professor Phan Hwai Chong of Yang Ming Research Centre in Taiwan told Reporter that consuming this kind of mushroom, one of the ingredients in the mushroom can trigger the multiplication of our healthy "defensive" cells. By out-numbering the cancer cells, healthy cells help eradicate cancer cells.

American scientists have since run tests on this particular type of mushroom extract with blood, done outside human body. Results show that mushroom extract is able to destroy cancer cells.

According to Taiwan professor, since healthy "fighting" cells can be multiplied to tens & thousands of times, it can either be used as drip or just by eating mushroom. The mushroom is most frequently taken with steamboat. Cooking time should be less than 3 minutes, or the healing property would greatly diminish.

Western Tomato Soup

Even though western tomato soup can be easily found in canned form, I typically cannot take them, as they usually contain onion and/or garlic. So, this is a simple recipe which taste quite wonderful...haha...at least in my opinion. ;)

Ingredients: (Servings for 2)

- 1 can 14 oz crushed tomato (usually with no added ingredients. Sometimes salt/ basil is added)
- 1 medium-large carrot (diced to very small cubes of about 1/4")

- 1-1.5 cups milk (or soy milk) - depends on whether you like thick or thin soup.

- mushroom essence (if not, use salt or msg)

- dried/ fresh parsley or basil (chopped)

- black pepper (grounded)

Preparation:

1. Heat pot using medium fire with a little oil. Add carrots and stir-fry for about 2 mins.


2. Add crushed tomato. When it boils, turn to small-medium fire and cook for 15mins (to soften the carrots).


3. Switch off fire, and let cool. Pour into blender to puree.


4. Pour puree back into pot on medium fire, add milk, mushroom essence and parsley. Off fire once it boils.


5. Serve with a dash of black pepper.
   

If you don't have a blender, then you can chop the carrots into very very small pieces, and cook for longer duration,, about 20-25mins. So, you can skip step 3.

PS: Prompted by comment given by SF, i remembered that I've also cooked pumpkin soup in the similar manner. Except, of course, rather than using carrots and tomato, i used canned pumpkin paste (saves time).

Chinese Dessert - Snow Fungus w Dried Longan

Yesterday is the first time I cooked this dessert in the US...I did it often back in Singapore. A very healthy dessert, which can eaten both warm (esp. during winter!) and cold (of cos in the summer!).

Ingredients (Servings 3-4)

- 5-6 dried snow fungus

- About 1/3 cup dried longan

- A handful of wolfeberry

- 3-5 red dates (optional)

- Rock sugar

Preparation

1. Soak snow fungus for at least 1 hour. You can change water once or twice to clean the fungus. The fungus will be "bloated" as they absorb the water.


2. Cut the fungus into small pieces.


3. Boil approximately 5 cups of water. Once water boils, put in snow fungus and dried longan. After it boils again, turn fire to medium and cook for 15-25mins, depending on how soft you like the fungus to be. (Some people like them crunchy; some like them very soft). Add more water if you think it's too little.


4. Add a handful of wolfeberry just before you switch off the fire, and add suitable amount of rock sugar (depending on how sweet you like it to be).


5. YEAH! you're done! ;)
   

You can get all the ingredient in Chinese stores (if you're in US). Wolfeberry is good for eyesight. Also, even though snow fungus means fungus that are white, do not choose fungus that is too white...a little yellowish is good. Cos, when fungus are too white, they usually are chemically whiten, which is definitely not good!

Singapore student Gathering on Oct 27

This is the first Singapore student gathering we'd attended since we're in Pittsburgh for 2 yrs! What an accomplishment!

We are "anti-social" cos of our "special diet"..since we presumed (rightly!) that all Singapore student gatherings center around FOOD, and we can't eat 99.9% of the stuff (cos we are weird aliens from another planet who are vegetarians and dun eat garlic and onion), we thot it won't be that fun watching other people gobbling down their food, while we stand and starve...

Anyway, i decided that we should stop being "anti-social", and cook 2 vegetarian dishes so that i can bring those dishes to contribute as part of the party-food, as well as ensure our "survival" for the nite...

So, as we've guessed rightly....99% of the food are "non-edible" for the 2 of us....meat (chicken cooked in variety of ways, what curry chicken, tao yu chicken aka. black sauce chicken, and fried chicken strips...and whatever else!) And of cos the 1% is the 2 dishes i brought...one is vegetarian mutton curry, and the other is chinese soup (with golden needle mushrm, black fungus, bean curd sheet, corn nibblets, vege ham and winter melon).

My chinese soup sounds delicious and healthy right?! But unfortunately, dun think it was very much appreicated...i think me and my husband drank the most...haha..and we brought half of the soup back for dinner next day!

Whereas my vegetarian mutton curry fares better! But nothing for me to be proud of...since the mock mutton was not made by me...i "imported" from Singapore one! Haha...but anyway, some of the students like the mutton, cos they taste like mutton, but do not have the smell...

But anyway, we enjoyed ourselves...made some new friends, and some people were quite understanding of our diet. So, all is well....

Except, when we got out of the house to attend the gathering, we locked ourselves out! In the end, we had to call for lock smith to open our house door when we got back. And guess what!? The bill to open the door is US$105!!!!!!!!!!! And that guy only spent 3mins to get the job done. What an expensive meal! ;(

Will Singaporeans sing National Anthem in a public concert?

Me and my husband attended an Italian opera at Academy of Music, Philly. It was the oldest operating opera house.

Just before the start of the opera, the orchestra played the US national anthem. Everybody stoodup and sang...of course, those who knew how to sing the anthem (not us!) It was loud, clear and i could sense the pride in their voices.

Will Singaporeans sing their national anthem if SSO plays it before start of every concert? Will it be loud, clear and full of pride? Or are the lyrics long forgotten?

Ribena

I was born in the 70s. I think anyone born during that period will know how i feel about Ribena.

Do you still remember the chinese Ribena commercial?

You have these 2 little kids sitting beneath this huge tree, and this plump little girl holding a water bottle containing the Ribena drink, and sipping this seemingly delicious drink. And then, this poor thirsty boy asking the girl "给我一点好吗？”translated means "Give me a little, can?"

I remember whenever i saw this commercial, my urge to taste this wonderful drink will be really strong. But i don't understand why, though my family is relatively "wealth-off", but my parents never really buy this drink for me. I guess, to them, this is a waste of $$. My parents are thrifty people...haha..unlike me!

So to me, this is always the exotic drink, far from my reach!

And now, being an old hag already, this drink remains exotic nonetheless. But the problem is, you won't believe how expensive a tinny bottle of Ribena cost in Pittsburgh! Look at the price yourself! (And if you can't figure out, let me tell you...it's $6.49!) And remember, this is US$!

I think i need to import this drink into the US! This is simply ridiculous. But till i can do that...

Making of Pineapple Tarts

I've always been crazy about pineapple tarts! During Chinese New Year, I am sure to buy at least 3-4 big containers of pineapple tarts from Similing Orchids, which i think makes one of the best pineapple tarts in Singapore. But anyway, since i've become vegetarian from 2005 (that is I do not eat egg, onion and garlic and all 'vegetables' belonging to family of onion and garlic, and do not drink alcohol -- now as to why i do not take onion and garlic, that's another long story, which i am not going to explain today), i have not been eating pineapple tarts, as most contain eggs.


I currently reside in Pittsburgh, USA. And one fine day, my dear hubby, insteading of buying pineapple tibits to make pizza, he bought crush pineapple. And then he just said: "perhaps you can start making pineapple tarts!". And all because of this tiny little mistake, i searched high and low for a suitable recipe to make pineapple tarts without using eggs, and i did a little modification as well. And of course...haha...i could not overcome my "craze" to eat pineapple tarts!


Here's the recipe for about 70 pineapple tarts.



Pineapple Jam

Ingredients:
- 2 cans crushed pineapple (500g x 2) - I like Dole brand!
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tbs lemon juice
- 1 tbs corn flour

Preparation:

1. Drain the can pineapple as much as possible.
2. Place crushed pineapple in a non-stick pot and add sugar and lemon juice.
3. Using small-medium fire, stir the sugar evenly and continue to stir occasionally for 30-45mins, till most water is nearly evaporated.
4. Add in corn flour to thicken.
5. Set jam to cool. Can be stored in the fridge for 3-5 days before using.
   

Dough


Ingredients:
- 1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 and 3/4 cups self-raising flour
- 16 tbs (8oz) butter (place at room temp. for 30mins to soften)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 4 oz (120 ml) cold (soya) milk

Preparation:

1. Sieve flour and add salt.
2. Using fingers, rub the butter into the sifted flour till coarse crumbs are formed
3. Make a well in the dough center, add milk.
4. Gently bind together, do not knead too much.
5. Shape dough into ball (better to make into 4 small balls), wrap in plastic and refigerate overnight. (Take out of fridge for 20-30mins before rolling; or else it's like rock!)
   

Making Pineapple Tarts

1. Preheat oven at 400F.
2. On a lightly floured work surface, roll the dough to about 1/4" thickness.
3. Use an approximate 2" cookie cutter to form the base of the tart.
4. Spread about 1/2 tbs of pineapple jam (or whatever amount you like) at the top. (And you can design interesting patterns using some dough on top of the jam
5. Bake the tarts for 20-25 mins. (I actually use oven toaster to bake 15 tarts at a time, and will require 25mins. I guess if you use a normal baking oven, it could be faster..so do check the tarts after 15mins.)

These tarts taste delicious when eaten on the day it's made....not so nice after that :(