Visual Delights: Baked Spinach Rice and Cheese

Roasted Vegetable Couscous

It would appear that my addiction to nuts and seeds is beginning to fade and I am now on some kind of grain eating spree-which I suppose isn't a bad thing, I'm guessing grains are lower in fat and that's what I'm aiming for.
Anyway, after milling about Carrefour after a dance class yesterday (which by the way, is a horrible weekend activity in China, it is crazy packed and everyone's yelling and snatching vegetables and blocking the aisles with their shopping carts-Carrefour I mean, not the dance class)I bought some brown rice and couscous,assuming that these would be healthier options to satisfy my new eating preferences.
Couscous are about 176 calories a cup cooked, so I don't feel THAT much carb guilt, even they they are supposedly not "whole grain" but "refined, processed grains".
I kind of like them because they are so easy to cook (just add water!).

This recipe is an inspiration from something I found on Sanitarium's website, except I've modified it to the point where I don't think it's much of a salad anymore.


This is pretty good with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese

Roasted Vegetable Couscous
½ medium sized red pepper, sliced
½ medium sized onion, sliced
½ sweet potato, cut into small cubes
½ small carrot, cut into cubes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
½ teaspoon rosemary
1 teaspoon thyme
Salt and pepper

½ cup couscous
½ cup water
2 teaspoons vegetable bouillon granules
Salt
Paprika
Fresh cilantro

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celcuis. In a plastic container, combine peppers, sweet potatoes,carrots and onions. Pour in olive oil, vinegar, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper. Cover the container and shake well, until vegetables are well coated. Roast for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, stirring every 10 minutes, or until vegetables are cooked through and browned.
2. Place couscous in a bowl. Dissolve granules in boiling water and pour over couscous. Cover and stand for 3 minutes until liquid is absorbed. Stir with fork.
3. Toss warm couscous and roasted vegetables together. Mix in salt and paprika according to your taste. Serve garnished with cilantro leaves.

Roasted Tomato Rice Salad

So I'm trying to eat healthier now (ignore the previous post with cinnamon rolls), by eating less fat during the day and less carbs and fat for dinner.
Learning to cook rice (and eat them) has opened up the doors to a bunch of new recipes. One of which I really wanted to try was the rice salad.
The concept of rice in a salad is kind of weird for me, and yet, so novel enough that it's almost intriguing. (yes, i am aware that i am a moron who has never heard of rice salad before)
I couldn't find any good recipes that didn't include salad dressing-which I don't have-so I ended up improvising from a roasted tomato salad recipe instead.



Roasted Tomato Rice Salad

1 big tomato
1/2 onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon dried basil
3/4 cup cooked rice (cooled)
2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
1 teaspoon raisins
3 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

1.Slice tomato lengthwise into three pieces.
2.Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C (392 degrees F). Combine the 2 teaspoons olive oil, garlic, basil, salt and pepper in a bowl, add onions and tomatoes and toss lightly until coated.
3.Place a piece of tin foil on your roasting pan, arrange onions in the base and place tomatoes on top of the onions. Fold up the sides of the tin foil to cover the vegetables.
4.Roast for about 20 minutes. When the tomatoes are soft, remove from the oven, discard the excessive juice and transfer to a serving dish.
5.In another bowl, mix together rice, seeds, raisins, 1 teaspoon olive oil, vinegar, sesame oil, sugar and salt. Pour over tomatoes in the dish and serve-or-if you want to make a rice tower thingie, use a piece of tomato as the base, then add a layer of onions, then a layer of rice (and so on). It’s a cute presentation~

You know...

You know you're not sick anymore when you have the energy to bake cinnamon sticky rolls...and eat them.

Porridge for the sick girl

What's this?! you sneer, this colorless, unpretty bowl of carbs, what is it doing here, displayed for all the world to see?

Well, this happens to be the only thing I could actually stomach for the past 5 days: a bowl of porridge (or "congee" I suppose).

Basically I've had a nasty stomach virus since last Wednesday night (which was ironic, because that was the day I had planned to start my latest diet) and...well...you don't want to know the details of that but the point is my stomach refused everything I fed it, plus it hurt like a bitch all the time.

It occurred to me around the third day that it might help to bland down my foods-after trial and error with Indian food, and later with white wine and random street food-and I was finally sensible enough to cook a pot of porridge.

Unlike some people who hate porridge (like my best friend, who associates it with being sick), I used to love porridge and could and did, at one point, eat it for every meal during high school.

Unfortunately, being the carb wuss that I have been, rice has been off my diet for quite a long time, as far back as before I started cooking, and well...the truth is...I don't know how to and have never successfully cooked rice. I don't know how to use a rice steamer. In fact, I may or may not have tried to microwave rice about 2 years ago, and that did not end well-unless you like crispy, crunchy (and slightly burnt) rice, which now that I think about it, wouldn't be that bad really.

The funny thing is, I was miraculously successful with congee on my first attempt.

Mustering up every last bit of breath in me (or what felt like it), I threw less than a cup of rice (bought at some point by my housemate), a piece of ginger, 2 shiitake mushrooms and some spring onions in a big pot, filled it up to almost the brim with water, boiled it and let it simmer for about 40 minutes while I went to lie down. When it was done, I added plenty of salt and pepper and feasted like a sick person.

I don't know if it was the fact that it was warm or bland or liquid-or all of the above, but it was fantastic for my tummy and it was nice to revisit something I haven't had for such a long time.

The next time I made it, I grated half a carrot and half a turnip in about 20 minutes into the simmering, it was yummy.


NOW ON A SIDE NOTE

-and I stumbled upon this while googling the word 白粥, which is plain porridge-

There is a porridge weight loss plan-which really doesn't sound all that bad-not that I would try it, non of these things sound very exciting to cook, plus get-skinny-quick diets have never worked for me in the past. But anyway, apparently,you could potentially lose 4-6 pounds in 3 days eating congee.

The Congee Diet
Day 1
Breakfast: Plain congee, 1 mantou (steamed bun)
Lunch: Plain congee, 1 boiled egg
Dinner: Plain congee, 1 plate stir fried vegetables
Day 2:
Breakfast: Plain congee, 1 sesame paste bun
Lunch: Plain congee, 1 boiled egg
Dinner: Plain congee, 1 plate stir fried vegetables
Day 3
Breakfast: Plain congee, 5 pieces chocolate biscuits
Lunch: Plain congee, 1 raisin bun
Dinner: Plain congee, 1 plate stir fried vegetables

Apparently you can eat all the congee you like as long as you don’t add on the other food.
Apparently it is good for detox.
Apparently it might cause a bad reaction with your stomach.

Meh.If anything all my past diet attempts have made me, if not skinnier, is a skeptic.

Bamboo Shoots

To make it a little more relevant, my recipe today is based on bamboo shoots, one of the giant panda's food of choice.

Bamboo shoots are lovely little things.
They are high in fiber and really good stuff for the digestive system(they help relief constipation to a degree) It is also said that they decrease the amount of fat absorbed in the intestines.

They work well for dieters because they are low-starch, low-sugar and low-fat. 100 grams of fresh bamboo shoots amounts to 40 calories with 0.1 grams fat.

(If you're wondering why there aren't many skinny pandas around, my guess is it's because their lives are pampered and because they don't move)


Braised Bamboo Shoots
2 pieces packaged bamboo shoots
1/2 a carrot
5-6 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 spring onion, chopped into short sections
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 tablespoon oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon cooking wine
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon Szechuan hot pepper oil (optional)

1. Chop bamboo shoots and carrot into bite sized pieces. Marinade bamboo pieces with 1 tablespoon soy sauce.
2.Soak mushrooms in a bowl of warm water until softened. Reserve liquid.
3. In a pan, heat oil and fry ginger, onions and mushrooms over moderate heat.
Pour in 3/4 cup mushroom water. Add soy sauce, cooking wine, sugar and pepper, bring liquid to a boil. Add carrots and bamboo shoots, cover and simmer for 10 minutes until most of the liquid has dried up. Drizzle some hot pepper oil if you want a little spice to it.

Notes: If you are using fresh bamboo shoots, you'll probably want to boil them in salted water for about 10 minutes before using them.

Talia hearts pandas

I've decided that this is going to be a tribute post to giant pandas. (even if this is supposedly a cooking blog)


LOOK at this face and tell me it isn't the cutest thing on Earth.

I love pandas. One of my biggest dreams to one day encounter a wild panda. However, friends and acquaintances from Sichuan have informed me that climbing off into a random mountain in that province would unlikely generate any results.
They are probably the most spoiled animals on the planet...and the laziest...but the idea that a species that would have easily gone extinct survived for such a long time simply by looking cute fascinates me to no end.
Honestly, had they been slimy or nasty looking, I'll bet they would have died off ages ago.
Instead, pandas get treated like total rock stars. They travel in private jets. They eat special food. Everyone wants their picture taken with them. Plus, the media eats it all up when they give birth to babies.


THANK YOU WWF for your efforts to preserve awesomeness

Green Baos and Eggs

Jiaozis (饺子) have never been one of my culinary strengths-which is weird, considering the fact that dumplings were the only thing my mom would let me help out with in the kitchen (besides peeling carrots and hard boiled eggs).
When I was really little, my mom would let me press down the dumpling skin dough before she rolled it out with a rolling pin. (she happens to be very proud of her dumpling skin rolling skills by the way, as is my grandmother)
When I got good at that, I was allowed to help fold the dumplings. Though despite years of experience, my dumplings still look hideous and are always easily recognizable when brought out to the dinner table ("oh, those two ugly ones are the ones Talia made, who will eat them...*pause*... why don't YOU eat them, Talia?")

About 4 years ago, when I was spending two months with my grandfather in Xinjiang, I attempted to make the dumpling skin from scratch for him and it ended up so hard that he promptly flattened them and cut them up into noodles instead.

Personally I'm not a big fan of dumplings on account of the carb factor and everything. Plus I feel kind of jinxed.

However, considering how everything's starting to get busy, I thought it would be a good idea to freeze some for a quick lunch or dinner.

I found a recipe for dumpling skin that replaced water with spinach juice instead, which I felt was healthier. I didn't have the ingredients my grandmother usually uses for her vegetarian filling (mushrooms, rice noodles, tofu etc) so I used eggs and tomato instead.

Amazingly enough, the dough turned out alright. As did the filling.
It was rolling out the dough to make the skins that was hard. I had trouble making them nice and round, and I suspect I made them too thin.

My boyfriend came in after I'd rolled out a couple and offered to help.

His method was to roll out the dough as use a cup as a cookie cutter-which helped with the shape but not with the thickness.

Eventually, I accepted the fact that we weren't going to be able to make actual jiaozis with the skin we'd made, so we decided they were going to become baozis (包子） instead (their skins are slightly thicker)

They ended up tasting alright, albeit deformed. We ended up with less than 20 baozis/jiaozis (because some of the skin became unusable) and finished them for dinner so I didn't have any to freeze after all.

If I ever try to make jiaozis again I will probably just buy the ready made skin. It saves alot of time even if I question the nutrition value ><

Anyway, I've tried to describe the recipe the best I can here, I expect a more expert dumpling skin maker would get better results than I did with this.

Steamed Tomato Egg Dumplings
Wrappers
300 grams fresh spinach, washed
1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
¼ teaspoon salt
Filling
2 eggs
1 big tomato
1 piece spring onion, chopped finely
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
½ teaspoon white pepper

To make spinach dumpling skins:
1.Juice spinach to make roughly 130 ml spinach juice.
2.In a bowl, combine flour and salt. Pour in spinach juice and mix with a spoon until a soft dough forms (it’s very sticky so don’t be tempted to use your hands just yet). Keep adding flour until the dough can be worked with your hands.
3.Turn out the dough on a floured surface and knead it into a smooth ball. Cover the dough with a wet towel and let it rest for 15-30 minutes.
4.Cut the dough snake into around 25 pieces using a knife. Flatten each ball of dough with your palm and cover each with enough flour to prevent sticking.
5.Roll each piece out into a circle about 3-inches in diameter using a rolling pin, making the edges thinner than the center.* Dust the dumpling skins with flour if you stack them or they will stick together.

To make the filling: Place tomato in boiled water for 20 seconds and peel off the skin. Chop tomato into small chunks, discard juice and set aside. Beat two eggs and ¼ teaspoon soy sauce in a bowl. Scramble eggs in a non stick pan. Combine eggs, tomatoes, spring onions, sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil and pepper in a bowl.

To make the dumplings: Put about 1 tablespoon of the filling in the center of each skin, holding the skin in the palm of one hand. Wet the edges with water, then seal the edges with 2-3 pleats on each side and transfer to a lightly floured plate or tray.

To steam dumplings: Place as many dumplings as you can into a steamer, without touching each other. Cover and steam for 10 to 12 minutes over medium heat. Serve warm with your favorite dumpling dipping sauce.







For an American and a banana, we didn't do so bad. Really!

Two days of kao fu

So I was at the dried foods section at the Lotus supermarket grabbing a packet of jujubes when I spied something that looked strangely familiar. A closer examination of the label informed me that this was a packet of sea kelp-but I knew better!


This was no sea kelp!!!

I recognized it as "kao fu" (烤麸), something I had seen at the dinner table but once in my life. If I recall correctly, my mom had tried to get me to try some and I had refused like a little brat.
The texture reminded me of frozen tofu because it is spongy. (which makes it a high risk to pop it in your mouth when it is soaking with hot liquid-but that is another story). Anyway, seeing it there and then filled me with curiosity as I never quite learned of its taste so I decided to take it with me (for 3.14 kuai)

At home, I wasn't entirely sure what to do with my new plaything (which according to whoever wrote it on wikipedia, is called "baked spongy gluten" in English).

I'd found a recipe that resembled the dish I'd seen that fateful day but wasn't quite sure how to cut it.


Here's a tip: Boil first, cut later. I learned the messy way.

Here's what I made ^^

"Honey Braised" Kao Fu

100 grams baked gluten
½ cup peanuts
10 grams black wood ear fungus
5 grams shiitake mushrooms
10 grams dried daylilies

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Minced ginger
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1½ tablespoons dark soy sauce
½ teaspoon light soy sauce
1 clove
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon sesame oil

1.Soak wood ear fungus, daylilies and shiitake mushrooms in a bowl of water until softened. Cut mushrooms into bite sized slices and set aside.
2.Place gluten and peanuts in a pot, add just enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, remove gluten (using chopsticks or something) and continue to boil peanuts for about 15 minutes(it takes a while for them to become soft, just add more water when needed).
3.Place gluten in cold water, then squeeze dry and into bite sized cubes.
4.Heat oil in a pan and fry the gluten until slightly browned and crispy. Remove gluten from pan.
5.Heat oil in pan, add ginger and fry until fragrant. Add fungus, lilies, mushrooms and stir fry for 1 minute. Add gluten pieces and peanuts. Then add 1/2 tablespoon sugar, soy sauce, cloves and water. Bring water to a boil and reduce heat. Add the remaining sugar. Cover and braise for 20 minutes until it is no longer watery. Turn off heat and drizzle in sesame oil.

Notes:
-This dish is normally eaten cold but eating is warm is nice too
-I read on a Chinese site that the cloves are used to give the dish a hint of a honey-like taste. They can be replaced with a star anise.
-Mine didn't turn out completely authentic because you're supposed to really deep fry the gluten in step 4, I just can't quite bring myself to do it ><. Also I didn't have daylilies so I had to use enoki mushrooms instead



I've found kao fu to be a pretty versatile ingredient. You can use some in a stir fry with your favorite vegetables to add protein to the dish...which is what I did with my leftover ones.


Mixed Vegetables Stir Fry with Kao Fu

1 block kao fu
1 bamboo shoot, sliced
1/2 a broccoli, cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 a carrot, sliced
3 green beans, cut into 4 cm pieces
1 piece black fungus, sliced
1/2 a tomato, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1 tablespoon soy sauce
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
goji berries (optional)

1. Soak gluten in boiled water until softened. Squeeze dry and cut into bite sized chunks. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in a wok. Add garlic and tomato and stir well. Add veggies and gluten all at once. Add some goji berries too, if you like. Stir fry for 3 minutes, pour in stock and bring to a boil.
3. Reduce heat and cook vegetables until tender but slightly crisp. Add oyster sauce, soy sauce and sprinkle with pepper. Stir well and cook for another minute before serving.




More kao fu information:
Kao fu is made by leavening raw gluten. It's high protein and low sugar, low fat.
100 grams of kao fu amounts to 121 calories, 20.4 g protein and 0.3 grams fat.

Talia bakes a cake and a cupcake

I was surprised to find carrot cake categorized under "kid friendly" recipes on allrecipes.com.
As a child, I'd seen carrot cakes in cake display cabinets and always imagined them to be yucky.
Don't get me wrong, I love carrots. I was brought up to believe that carrots would make my eyesight stay as sharp as a bunny rabbit's. My mother even reinforced this belief by telling me, at the dinner table, the tales of Little Rabbit who liked to eat carrot dishes not unlike the ones she made.
My point is, Little Rabbit-my carrot chomping role model- never ate no carrot cake. He had em' in soups, in roasts, boiled, steamed, even mashed but never as a dessert. I always imagined that carrots were meant to be savory, which is why I've never eaten a carrot cake before...until today.
Since I love spices so much, my boyfriend had mentioned that I might like it. So I found this recipe, with over 1,600 reviews on allrecipes.com (which I suppose, means at least 2,000 people have probably thought that this recipe was worth trying).


I have to admit, I still had my doubts as I mixed the batter...


....but the first bite of the warm, vitamin A packed sweet and spiciness changed my mind



Carrot Cake
-adapted from allrecipes.com-

¾ cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon white sugar
½ cup olive oil (or vegetable oil)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1-1/2 cups grated carrots (I used 2 carrots)
1/2 cup raisins

1.Grate carrots, soak raisins in hot water, set both aside.
2.Preheat oven to 175 degrees C (350 degrees F).
3.In a large bowl, mix sugars with oil, beat in eggs, and vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Stir dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Stir in carrots.
4.Squeeze water from raisins and fold into the batter. Pour into prepared pan.
5.Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely

Note: The recipe comes with a cream cheese frosting which I skipped because I neither like nor possess any of the stuff


I baked mine in a dish and had some some batter leftover to fill a cupcake cup.

cookies and flowers

It's been a really long, rough week for both my boyfriend and me. After my class finished on Friday, I thought I'd bake some chocolate chip cookies to cheer him up.
Just as I was going to pop them into the oven, the door clicked...
he'd brought a bunch of roses for me because he wanted me to feel better.

Life can be so cute

almost like an O Henry story, with less loss and more awwww

*Edit*
Boyfriend loved the cookies a lot and suggested I put up the recipe here:
Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies
-modified from allrecipes
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 stick butter, softened
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup dark and milk chocolate chunks

1.Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
2.In a large bowl, cream together the butter, oil and sugars. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chunks.
3.Chill cookie dough for two hours or overnight.
4.Preheat oven to 175 degrees C (350 degrees F ). Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown. If you use butter, the cookies will probably spread.

Strawberry Bread

I can't believe we ate up the apple bread in 2 days. It was good stuff and I was eager to fill the bread box up again as soon as the last crumb had been devoured (by me).
The concept of adding strawberries to bread is one that is quite new to me, but they are still in season and the recipe that I found from joyofbaking.com looked so easy that I decided to try it out.
I love baking with spices, it makes the house smell really nice, plus the scent of cinnamon apparently helps boost brain activity and relaxes the tired mind. It also works effectively as an anti-depressant-just the smell I need to get through the midterms!



Strawberry Bread
-recipe from joyofbaking, with minor changes-
1/4 cup butter or olive oil
1 ripe banana
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 1/2 cups chopped fresh strawberries

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F ) and place the oven rack in the middle position. Butter and flour the bottom and sides of your loaf pan. Set aside.
2. In a bowl, mash the banana with the sugar using a spoon (it’s almost like creaming it, but stickier),mix in the oil and vanilla. Then, beat in the eggs one at a time.
3. In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon.
4. Add the flour mixture (in three additions) and yogurt (in two additions) to the wet mixture alternately, starting and ending with the flour. Mix only until combined. Gently fold in the chopped strawberries.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake about one hour, or until the bread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool and then remove the bread from the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Makes 1 loaf.


Note: Definitely bake this for at least 45 minutes, I took mine out a bit too early and the center was a bit gooey (I'm not complaining though). You also want to make sure you wash the strawberries thoroughly before you use them in China because they use quite a bit of pesticide

Kale (Gai Lan) with Oyster Sauce

My boyfriend bought me a bunch of kale today, thinking it might be spinach, which was what I'd asked. (He was being sweet because I was stuck at home writing assignments and out of veggies)
What can I say? When life gives you kale...make dinner.
I honestly don't know why I've never bought kale in the past. They actually taste pretty good, the stems are really crunchy.
According to WHfood, kale is actually really good for you too, it protects you from ovarian cancer and slows the loss of memory. What more could a girl ask for, really.


My dad was the kale cook at our house and he cooked them using oyster sauce, and that's really the only way I've ever eaten them (bad vegetarian!)This is his recipe:


Kale with Oyster Sauce
1 bunch kale, washed
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon oil
3 tablespoons oyster sauce (or vegetarian oyster sauce)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons water

1. Heat oil in a pan and fry garlic until it turns brown. Set aside.
2. In a bowl, combine oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil,1/2 teaspoon sugar and water. Set aside.
3. Boil 2 cups water in a pot, add 1/2 teaspoon sugar and some of the garlic with the oil, then boil the kale for about 3 minutes.
4. Arrange kale on a plate, add the garlic with the oil, and pour in the oyster sauce. Serve.

Spiced Apple Bread

After a horrendous week of midterm assignments and (ugh) group presentations at the university, baking was wonderful way to de-stress.
I've been spending alot of time at the Starbucks outside of my school(they upgrade your the size of your coffee if you flash your student ID, it's awesome)because I had to be on standby near school grounds as my presentation group kept calling group meetings out of nowhere.
They've got some new zucchini bread thing that they keep trying to get you to get on top of your coffee purchase because it's their job. Anyway, I didn't get it because, well, I'm me. But I had a look at it through the glass shelf and thought, "I'll bet I could make something that looks like that".
And so I did. Except with apples.



Spiced Applesauce Bread with Peanut Crumbs
-modified from allrecipes
1 1/2 cups applesauce
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
3 tablespoons milk
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup dried currants

Peanut Crumb Topping
3 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon peanut butter

1.Soak currants in hot water and set aside. Preheat oven to 175 degrees C (350 degrees F). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2.In a large bowl, combine the applesauce, sugar, oil, eggs and milk; beat well. Sift in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and salt; stir until smooth. Fold in the currants. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
3.For crumb topping: In a bowl, mix flour, sugar and peanut butter together with your fingers to create crumbs. Sprinkle over batter.
4.Bake bread in preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean.



The bread turned out really nice and moist, I liked it a lot. There's not alot of fat in it, but I used quite alot of sugar.

Applesauce doesn't come cheap or easily in Beijing so I made my own using another recipe adapted from allrecipes. It made the bread even better because it was chunky, plus mashing is always fun^^
Here's the recipe

Chunky Homemade Applesauce
4 medium sized apples
½ cup white sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ cup water
1 tablespoon lemon juice

1. Put all ingredients into a large pot. Bring to boil and simmer on low hear for about 20 minutes.
2. Remove from heat and mash apples with potato masher

Potato Coconut Curry with Eggs

Even though I'm always whining about the carbs and fats in the food whenever I go home, I have to admit that I do miss Malaysian food sometimes. I miss the spices. I miss the coconut aftertaste. I miss the guavas.
Quite frankly, the Chinese-style spicy food I've been making has been really good, but at the same time, it gave me cravings for some good ol' South East Asian style curry (I say South East Asian instead of Malaysian here because the curry paste I had was the Thai kind)
I had this recipe I'd copied from one of my aunt's Thai cookbooks a really long time ago which uses peanuts and peas. I didn't have peas so I used another starch-filled vegetable instead-potatoes.



Potato Coconut Curry with Eggs
3 tablespoons red curry paste
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon juice of lime
some sticks of fresh ginger
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon fish sauce
4 eggs, boiled and peeled
2 medium sized potatoes, cut into chunks
1/4 cup chopped peanuts

1. Cook potatoes in salted water for about 7 minutes, drain and set aside. Chop up the boiled eggs.
2. Heat the first five ingredients in a pan over low heat. Add 1/2 cup coconut milk to the curry paste mixture and cook for about 1 minute until fragrant.
3. Add remaining milk, sugar and sauce into the mixture. Add potatoes and stir until cooked. Turn off heat, stir in eggs.
4.Pour potato curry into a serving dish and sprinkle with chopped peanuts. Makes about 4 servings.

Note: If you like me, are too lazy to reheat food, this works as a potato salad after you refrigerate it.

Strawberry Yogurt Jelly

We're in the middle of strawberry season and I'm reaching the point where I'm getting bored with smoothies and salads. So I decided to get creative before my last jin of strawberries rotted.


Strawberry Yogurt Jelly
5-6 fresh strawberries, washed, tops cut off
¾ cup low fat milk
¼ cup plain yogurt
2 tablespoons sugar
½ envelope vanilla flavored agar agar powder (or gelatin and ½ teaspoon vanilla)

For chocolate layer:
1 cup chocolate milk
½ envelope envelope vanilla flavored agar agar powder
1 tablespoon sugar

1. Chop strawberries into chunk sized pieces. Fill bottom of jelly molds with a thin layer of strawberry pieces (or shot glasses in my case)
2. Combine milk, yogurt and sugar in a medium saucepan. Heat up until almost boiled and sprinkle in agar agar powder. Turn off heat and stir until powder has dissolved. Pour liquid into jelly molds (or shot glasses in my case), leave some space in the mold if you are planning to add another layer. Let stand for about 30 minutes or until a firm surface forms.
3. Heat chocolate milk and sugar in a saucepan. Stir in agar agar powder and allow mixture to cool. Pour over strawberry yogurt jelly and let stand for another 15-20 minutes. Chill the jelly for more than an hour before serving.

Tofu Stuffed Mushrooms

My mom has a friend who makes these amazing stuff mushrooms using homemade fish balls that I used to love back when I was a carnivore.
While browsing a Chinese recipe site, I came across a recipe for these tofu stuffed mushrooms and I got hopeful about recreating them. They weren't really the same,but they weren't bad and looked pretty enough.

Tofu Stuffed Mushrooms

1.Soak dried mushrooms in water for about 15 minutes, until softened. Remove stems, if any.
2.Combine the mushroom water, soy sauce, sugar, spring onion and ginger. Place mushrooms in a bowl and pour in the mixture. Place bowl in a steamer and steam for 10 minutes, drain the liquid and sprinkle some cornstarch on the mushrooms. Set aside.

3.Cook the Chinese yam in boiled water for about 5 minutes. Combine tofu, yam, carrot, minced mushroom, cornstarch, sesame oil, salt and pepper in a blender and blend until smooth.

4.Spoon tofu mixture into mushroom caps. Arrange on a plate with cilantro and goji berries. (decorate with bok choy stems if you like) Cover and steam for about 12 minutes.
5. Combine oyster sauce/soy sauce and stock in a bowl. Pour over mushrooms and serve.

Notes:
-The cooked tofu stuffing gets more firm after it has cooled down so don't worry if it's wobbly looking
-The mushrooms taste fine with or without the sauce, they actually make a pretty good snack
-I think a potato can be used in the place of the Chinese yam


A quick note on Chinese yams (shan yao)

I don't know about you, but direct contact with Chinese yams make my skin itchy so I wear gloves when I peeled and cut this one up. Soaking the Chinese yam pieces (after they are peeled) in salted water keeps them from turning black.
Chinese yams are very filling and low fat. In case you were curious, they are apparently for people with chronic diarrhea.

Kung Pao Mushrooms

The food I've been eating over the past few months have almost all been soupy and on the bland side-but the weather's changing, and some spice is always fun to experiment with ^^


Meet my new little friend: Szechuan hot pepper oil, cost me 6 kuai if I recall correctly

Kung Pao Mushrooms
2 king trumpet mushrooms (xing bao gu)
¼ cup edamame beans, cooked and squeezed out from pods
¼ cup roasted peanuts
2 small red chillies, chopped (I added some chopped green ones as well)
1 piece ginger, minced
1 ½ mushroom flavored seasoning
½ teaspoon brandy
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 ½ tablespoons dark soy sauce
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon Szechuan hot pepper oil
½ teaspoon sesame oil

1.Boil mushrooms for about 3 minutes, cool and cut into cubes. Marinade with a pinch of salt, brandy, ½ teaspoon seasoning and 1 teaspoon cornstarch.
2.Combine water, soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, seasoning, cornstarch in a bowl. Set aside.
3.Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a wok, add chili and ginger, stir fry until fragrant. Add mushrooms and stir frequently (it’s a bit sticky). Pour in soy sauce mixture and cook over high heat. Add beans. Then stir in hot pepper oil, sesame oil and peanuts. Eat it hot. Makes 3 servings (I think)

Spicy Flavor Packed Eggplant

Out of impulse, I bought myself a big round purple eggplant, and I couldn’t figure out what to do with it. The last time I’d tried to make a cold eggplant dish using a Chinese recipe it’d ended badly so the vegetable itself was a little intimidating to begin with.
So I went to consult my local vegetable man, who suggested that I make the following dish (well, what he actually did was sell me a green chili pepper, I had to figure out the kinks myself)

Anyway, I've been wondering why the stuff I cook at home never tastes quite like what they make at Chinese restaurants here. Many of the Chinese recipes I refer to don't come with specific ingredient measurements, some just tell you the name of the ingredient and expect you to just KNOW.

Well, today I decided to just use ALOT of everything. Pouring in soy sauce, tossing in ginger and chillies~the works.

Definitely a good call, the eggplant turned out nice, spicy and flavorful~

Spicy Eggplant Stir Fry
1 eggplant
1 green chili, diced
1 small tomato, chopped
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine (liao jiu)
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon mushroom seasoning
½ teaspoon sugar
1 strip spring onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 piece ginger, cut into thin strips
½ teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon cornstarch

1. Peel eggplant and cut into 2 inch pieces (like fries), soak in salted water for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, dice the chili and chop up the tomato.


2. In a wok, heat 1 tablespoon oil and stir fry eggplant until browned and soft. Remove from wok and set aside.



3. Heat another teaspoon of oil in the wok and fry onions, garlic and ginger until fragrant. Add tomatoes and chilies and stir fry for about a minute.
4. Add soy sauce, rice wine, salt, seasoning, sugar and water. Add eggplant and cook over high heat for another minute.



5. Add cornstarch until sauce thickens. Drizzle sesame oil, turn off heat and serve.


Makes about 2 servings.

Lazy Person's Egg Salad

Have you ever wanted to have egg salad, but was simply too lazy to bring yourself to boil and peel the main ingredient?
Do you, like me, not like egg yolks to begin with?
Then this tofu salad is the thing for you!
(I know I’m unlikely to be the first person to discover this but) Tofu has a very similar texture to boiled egg whites and since egg whites don’t have much taste to begin with, and since traditional egg salads are so drowned in dressing anyway, it’s more or less replaceable.


Looks like egg whites, tastes like egg salad, no boiling involved~^^

Pretend It’s Egg Salad
½ block firm tofu
2 tablespoons mayonnaise*
1 teaspoon whole grain mustard
1 strip spring onion, chopped
Salt, pepper to taste (I used ground Szechuan pepper for fun)
½ teaspoon sesame oil
1. Chop up tofu the way you would chop up eggs.
2. Mix tofu with spring onion, mayonnaise and mustard. Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle a bit of sesame oil. Chill in refrigerator or eat right away. It makes enough for me to eat in one go.

*I’m not a vegan so I don’t mind using mayonnaise for this recipe save for the fact that it’s fat.

My favorite Chinese cabbage dish

I love Chinese cabbage, especially when they're cooked REALLY soft. They come with vitamins C and E, plus studies have linked them to linked to a moderately lower breast cancer risk. Best of all, the ones sold in Beijing are HUGE and very cheap.

They go really well with tofu... (another food I love alot, I'm currently more hooked on them than usual)

...and beehoon (or rice vermicelli noodles to you none South East Asians), I don't love as much. There was a small bunch of them left in the kitchen- I don't remember why I have them to begin with-and they add a nice enough texture to the dish I suppose. Still, they're carbs and this dish works fine with or without so I normally skip the noodles.


-though I did look up their nutritional contents after eating them though and to my surprise (and relief, if you will), they're only about 142 calories per half cup.


Try to imagine that there's more soup in the dish because they're a little drier than they should be~

Stewed Chinese Cabbage with Tofu
500 g Chinese cabbage, chopped
300 g firm tofu, diced
100 g rice vermicelli noodles
1 strips spring onion, chopped finely
1 small piece ginger root, minced
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine (liao jiu)
150 ml vegetable broth or water
1 teaspoon mushroom seasoning
1 teaspoon oil
Salt

1.Soak noodles in warm water until softened (10 minutes), drain and cut using scissors. (or knife if you prefer). Set aside.
2.Heat oil in a wok, add spring onions and ginger and stir fry until fragrant. Add broth and heat through.
3.Add tofu and cook over moderate heat for about 2 minutes, then stir in wine, followed by cabbage and noodles.
4.Simmer for about 15 minutes until cabbage and noodles are soft. Add seasoning and salt to taste. Drizzle with sesame oil if you like. Serve warm.

Note: The noodles tend to suck away the broth so you might want to add more broth if you want a soup-ier dish. Mine ended up drier than I would have preferred.

Gone Hiking

Oatmeal cookies...check
Bag of trail mix...check
Soy milk...check
Apples...check
Water...check

Off we go to hike in Henan!

Fun with Tofu

Time to clear out the vegetable compartment, and what better way to do so than to chop everything else and toss em all into a stir fry?

(Literally) Toss Everything In Stir Fry

½ package firm tofu, sliced
¼ cup green peas
1/3 medium sized carrot, cut into chunks
¼ small bell pepper, cut into strips
2 water chestnuts, peeled and sliced
1 small handful spinach, washed and de-stemmed
2 shiitake mushrooms, sliced thinly
3 pieces wood ear fungus, softened and sliced thinly
2 strips spring onion, sliced thinly
1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
½ teaspoon white pepper
¼ cup vegetable stock or water.
1 teaspoon cornstarch

1. Boil water in a pan over high heat and cook tofu, peas, carrot chunks and wood ear fungus for about 2 minutes. Remove from heat, drain water, and set aside.
2. In a pan, heat 1 tablespoon oil over moderate heat and fry tofu until both sides turn golden brown. Remove tofu from pan and set aside.
3. Heat 1 teaspoon oil in pan and fry spring onions until fragrant. Add bell pepper strips, and the rest of the vegetables in and stir fry until tender. Add tofu to the stir fry. Add soy sauce, sugar, and pepper to taste. Pour in vegetable stock and allow to simmer for half a minute. Stir in cornstarch until the sauce thickens.
4. Serve warm

Banana Date Streusel Bread

I was shopping at the Lotus supermarket when I spied by the fruit weighing counter, bags of overripe bananas going really cheap. It was like 2 kuai a jin! I mean come on, what did I REALLY have to lose? (or so I reason)

With the help of google, I figured out that the best way to use up 7 overripe bananas was to bake banana bread with them. So I did. And I'm telling you, it was well worth my kuais!

Banana bread is a lot of fun to make because it involves mashing up bananas. You wouldn't believe how much fun banana mashing can be until you've tried it yourself.
Got an anger management problem? Take it out on some bananas!

Ah, carbs can be fun after all...




Banana Date Streusel Spice Bread
modified from Allrecipes

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
110 ml oil
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
6-7 mashed overripe bananas
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Nutmeg
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1/2 cup chopped Chinese dates

Streusel Topping
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons wheat bran
1 teaspoon cinnamon

1.Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius (350 degrees F).
2.In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda,cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together oil and brown sugar. Stir in eggs, vanilla and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Mix in chopped dates.
3. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. (I had enough batter for 2 loaves)
4.In a small bowl, mix together flour, sugar, cinnamon, bran. Pour in the oil mix them by hand until it looks coarse and crumbly. Sprinkle topping over the bread batter.
5.Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Allow the bread to cool and then turn it out of the pan to eat or store.

Spinach with Century Egg Bits

I have never bought or cooked a century egg before. I was never too crazy about them, in fact, I have probably not eaten one for at least 2 years now.
These preserved eggs are usually eaten with porridge or as a cold dish, at least in my family. Anyway, I found this recipe on a Chinese site and decided to try it out because I love spinach (like Popeye,come to think about it, all Popeye eats is friggin' spinach, does he ever eat carbs or fats?)


I added chopped salted duck eggs into mine and it got too salty. So...don't.

Spinach Stir Fry with Century Egg Chunks
1 bunch spinach, washed
1 century egg
1 small piece of ginger root, cut into thin strips
1 tablespoon oil
100 ml vegetable broth
salt
white pepper

1. Steam century egg for about 7 minutes. Then soak it in a bowl of cold water, peel it, and chop it up coarsely (the cold water makes it easier to peel)
2. Heat oil in a pan and stir fry the ginger until it becomes fragrant. Add the egg and stir fry for about half a minute.
3. Add the spinach and cook until soft. Add salt and white pepper to taste (if your broth has enough flavor, you can skip the salt)
4. Pour the vegetable broth and cook until it's heated through. Serve warm.

Sweet Lilies in Pumpkin

Pumpkins are the featured food item of this month's issue of Self (China) magazine. They're full of vitamins, fiber, potassium, antioxidants etc, plus they fill you up pretty well at 50 calories a cup.

So what better way to finish off the godforsaken lily bulbs of last month than to cook up them in a pumpkin?


Sweet lilies in pumpkin
1 small pumpkin (squash)
2 lily bulbs, cleaned and flaked
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons rock sugar
3/4 cup water

1. Cut the top off the pumpkin and scoop out the seeds.


2. Steam the pumpkin for about 10 minutes until cooked.


3. In the meantime, bring water to boil in a pan and dissolve the honey and rock sugar. Add the lily bulb flakes into the sweet liquid and stir over low heat until they are cooked (about 2-3 minutes)


4. Pour liquid into the pumpkin in the steamer. Cover and let it stand for about 20 minutes before serving (or longer, I was hungry).


(Normally this is cooked with the pumpkin cut into cubes, but I wanted it to look prettier,don't judge me ><)