Mushroom curry

In the past, I do not know how to cook curry and always end up in disaster! I know that it's very easy to cook them but somehow they ended up too spicy or too bland. After countless of trial and error, I managed to come up with a decent curry and I have grown to love to cook curry! Serve the mushroom curry with Basmati rice and it's a good meal for me! Yum!


MUSHROOM CURRY
Serves 2

INGREDIENTS
1 packet of oyster mushrooms (about 150g)
1/4 cup of fresh or frozen corn kernels
1 teaspoon of chopped ginger
1 teaspoon of chopped garlic
2 tablespoons of chopped onion
1 teaspoon of mustard seeds
3-4 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 cup of water
2 tablespoons of vegetable curry powder mix
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
1/2 teaspoon of sugar (optional)

METHOD
1. Heat olive oil in pan.
2. Add ginger, garlic and onion. Stir fry till fragrant, about 3mins.
3. Add mustard seeds. Stir fry for about 30 seconds.
4. Add curry powder and water. Mix well.
5. Add the oyster mushrooms and corn. Mix well.
6. Cover and simmer on low heat for about 10 mins.
7. Add sugar and salt to taste.
8. Serve with rice.

You can always use vegetables such as ocra, carrots, potatoes or eggplants instead of mushrooms. Do let me know whether you like this curry! Enjoy! ^_^

Blueberry grunt and a martian pillow

I was drooling over the post by vegan yum yum the other day when she veganized the blueberry grunt. The ingredients are really simple and I happen to have three packs of fresh blueberries in my fridge. I half the recipe as I am not a big dessert eater. I quickly went about preparing the blueberry fillings and the biscuit dough. I also took the 20 minutes of baking to teach Georgia.

Here is the finished dessert. I must say that this recipe is a keeper and the sweetness is just nice with a hint of lemon. Yummmm!

I also took a little time to make a cute pillow for my brother to put in his car. The martians are from Toy Story and they are soooo cute! I used denim for the other side of the pillow.

Cupcakes for a rainy day

Today was such a grey and wet day. The moment we woke up the sky was dark and two hours later, it started to pour and it went on and off throughout the day. The rain was great as it lowered the temperature but personally, I really dislike rainy days. I prefer the sun and that probably explains why I have naturally tan skin. I can tolerate heat but not cold and wet days. That aside, after I was done with teaching Georgia (I'll blog about our homeschooling tommorow), I went about baking some cupcakes. Georgia has been requesting for cakes for the past few days so it was perfect to bake some since we can't play outdoors.

I made Golden Vanilla cupcakes with thick chocolate fudgey frosting (VCTOW). Today's cupcakes were really moist and soft. It's my first try on the fudgey frosting and I must say it's quite yummy. Georgia likes it and she usually doesn't like creams on cake. So I must say this particular frosting is a winner! Well according to the book, it's perfect for kids who doesn't like buttercream toppings.

Georgia helped me with the frosting of cupcakes and sprinkled some cute sprinkles that my flickr friend, Honor, sent me. She has so much fun making them and I had to prevent her from licking the frosting! That's because we are sharing some of the cupcakes with our neighbours' kids!

Here is Georgia having fun with decorating the cuppies!

Finally, she can sink her teeth into it!

I simply piped the frosting to the remaining cupcakes.

Mummy, I want noodles!

Whenever I ask Georgia what she would like to eat for lunch or dinner, she'll always tell me noodles. Always noodles. But of course I'm not going to cook her noodles everyday. I'll get sick of it! I do cook noodles for her at least three times a week. So today I granted her wish for noodles when I asked her what she wants for lunch.

I usually would whip up something quick and easy for our lunch as before that we would be doing some homeschooling, playing, reading and also in between some house work. So lunch has to be prepared and cooked in less than 30 minutes. My family and myself have come to love eating soba more after our trip to Tokyo. We would either have it in soup or stir fry. For today's lunch, I stir fry an easy peasy soba in less than 30 minutes as the little one was telling me she's hungry every few minutes! ( I guess she's all hungry after our morning walk around the neighbourhood ^_^)

I also prepared soup. Our family cannot do without soup. We have to have soup everyday otherwise the man and the little girl would be asking me why I never cook any. I cooked watercress soup today. It's considered a 'cooling' soup and it's especially good for hot weather.

Here are my recipes for the easy peasy stir fry soba and the watercress soup.

EASY PEASY STIR FRY SOBA


For two
INGREDIENTS
A handful of dried soba ( I prefer using the dried ones than the pre-cooked soba)
1/2 cup buna shimeji mushrooms (trim the base)
1/4 cup button mushrooms (fresh or canned), cut into half
1/2 cup broccoli
1/4 cup carrots, sliced
1 small piece of garlic
1 tsp of black sesame seeds (lightly toasted on pan)

2-3 tbsp of olive oil
1-2 tsp of sesame oil
3-4 tsp low sodium soya sauce
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp of vegetarian G powder (optional), you could use 1 tbsp of mushroom sauce
pepper to taste

METHOD
1. Boil the soba in boiling water for about 8-10 minutes until al dente. If too soft, it will stick to the pan during stir fry.
2. Drain soba and soak in cold water for 1 min and drained off water. Keep aside.
3. Add olive oil to cooking pan, then add garlic and stir fry for 30 seconds.
4. Add broccoli and carrots, stir fry and cover for 30 seconds.
5. Add shimeji and button mushrooms. Add a pinch of sea salt and stir fry till well mixed.
6. Remove vegetables and mushrooms and put aside.
7. Heat olive oil in pan and add soba on low fire. Toss around and make sure soba is covered with some oil.
8. Add the soya sauce, vegetarian G powder (optional) and stir well.
9. Next add the vegetables and mushroom and mix them up. Add the sesame oil, sesame seeds and also pepper to taste.
10. Turn off heat, prepare cutleries and you're ready to eat!

NOTE: You can always vary your ingredients like adding pine nuts, cashew nuts or anything you fancy!

-----------

WATERCRESS SOUP


For 2-3
INGREDIENTS
5-6 cups of water
A packet of watercress (trim off the base and washed with water and drained)
A handful of red dates (soaked in water till soft, drained)
1-2 mi zao (these dates are bigger and sweeter than red dates)
2 tbsp of wolfberries (soaked in water till soft, drained)
2 tsp of vegetarian G powder (optional) or vegetarian stock
1/2 tsp of sea salt

METHOD
1. Add red dates, wolfberries and mi zao into boiling water. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.
2. Add watercress and cover. Cook in low heat and boil for 20-25 mins.
3. Add vegetarian G powder or vegetarian stock (optional) and salt. Stir well and turn off heat.
4. The soup is ready to be served!

Have fun cooking!

^_^

Love-hate relationship with cookie cutters

I love cookie cutters but I also hate to use them! That's because very often the dough will stick to the cutter no matter how much I dust it with flour. I always have a tough time especially when I use the Disney characters. Mickey mouse ears will be stuck on the cookie stamp (it has a cutter for the shape and a stamp for the face features). Same goes for Piglet's ears and Tigr's face. Urgh! Maybe it's just me. I'm just bad at using them or maybe I should look for another cookie or shortbread recipe. Hahahaha!

Today I tried the cookie cutters that my friend, Salihan, sent to me from down under. It was a war zone in the kitchen! Seriously! The weather was sooooooo warm today (34 deg C but it felt like 36 or more!) and Georgia was helping me to bake some chocolate shortbread using the new cutters. I had so much difficulty trying to get a good cutout of the dough while Georgia was enjoying herself making a mess on the counter top playing with the flour and getting it all over herself! I almost had a meltdown when Georgia said, "Mummy, don't be angry. It's OK. I make messy but I having fun! See, so fun!" Well that kinda relaxed me and it's her way of telling me to not be so hard on myself and simply enjoy the process. In the end I did. Despite having flour all over us and on the floor and just about everywhere, I did get some OK cutouts from the cookie cutters. I had used the Espresso shortbread recipe from Martha Stewart. I think there's too much fat in there and that might be one of the reason why I kept getting dough stuck on the cutters (or it could be an excuse of mine to put the blame somewhere :-P)!

Here are the finished products after 25 minutes of baking in the oven.

These are Australia native animals. The features of the Echidna (bottom) can't be seen. The kangaroo is missing as no matter what I did, I just can't get it out of the cookie cutter!

Arthur Adventure Club. The imprint on the first Arthur is not that good. Not enough depth.

You can get the recipe from here. I tweaked it a little by using non diary margarine, substituting 1/2 cup of normal flour with whole wheat pastry flour, added 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseeds and used 1 tablespoon of Valrhona 100% cocoa powder instead of Espresso powder. The shortbread are quite good except that it might be better if it's a little sweeter. I usually reduce the sugar required in a recipe by 30% but I did according to what this recipe required.

I only made one shortbread for each cookie cutter. Trying to get that one complete is already killing me. I used some simple generic shapes like heart, star and mushroom for the rest of the dough. Well I'm not giving up. I try another favourite recipe of mine and see if I can get perfect cutouts! ^_^

Our new favourite vegetables

Broccolini is our new favourite vegetables especially Georgia. Well in fact there are only a handful of vegetables that she's willing to eat! Hahaha...However we do not get broccolini that often in our local markets mainly because they are imports and are more expensive than the normal broccoli. It's 30%-40% more expensive than the normal ones. But they are also a lot greener and sweeter too. I will buy two to three packs of them if I see them in the markets or supermarkets.

Here is a sample of how I prepared them. I diced three garlic cloves into little cubes and stir fry them in olive oil for about 30 seconds (when they are fragrant). Then I added the broccolini and stir fry them for about 3-5 minutes. I seasoned them lightly with Shitake mushroom sauce and a tablespoon of sesame oil and they were ready to serve. Georgia gladly devoured them. ^_^


[Broccolini is a green vegetable resembling broccoli. Although often mistakenly identified as young broccoli, it is actually a natural hybrid of the cabbage family Brassica oleracea, a cross between broccoli and kai-lan (chinese broccoli). It was developed by the Sakata Seed Company of Yokohama, Japan. It is generally agreed that broccolini has a sweeter flavor than broccoli. - Excerpt from Wikipedia]

Pita pockets, yum yum

Sometimes Andy will send me to work in the morning and we'll have breakfast in my office before he sets off to work. I will always try to make different breakfast if we are having breakfast together. Andy prefers savoury food in the morning. So I made pita pockets one morning. The pita bread is wholemeal and is store bought. I will try and bake them in the future. Then I filled them up with lettuce (these are from Genting Highlands in Malaysia and they are very crunchy and sweet!), tomatoes, Five Spice tofu and Vegetarian Ham. I used soyanaise as the dressing and sprinkled some black pepper. It was a great and simple breakfast. Andy loved it so much that he requested for it the next day too!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!!

Wishing everyone who's celebrating the Lunar New Year, years of happiness and good health!

It's such a hectic week for us as we have loads of spring cleaning to do and it's the same with all chinese families too!!! Then there's also the baking of Chinese New Year goodies as well. I baked Chocolate Chip cookies (VwV), Terry's favourite almond cookies, Pistachio and Rosewater cookies, Almond and Rosewater cookies, Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti and Fudgy Wudgy Blueberry brownies (all from Veganomicon). Here are some of our CNY photos! More visiting to do today and the next two days too! Have a great holiday everyone!!!

CNY goodies! Yum!


Georgia looked so sweet in her new dress and she insisted on not having her hair tied as she said that princess doesn't have their hair tied!!! She's in that 'I want to be a princess' phase now! Haha!

There are more photos on my flickr album!

My favourite soup

Lotus soup is my favourite soup of all time. This is a vegetarian version. I would like to share my recipe with all of you and I hope that you like it too!

Some information about the ingredients. Lotus root is warming, good for lung ailments and increasing energy. It is also a digestive aid and helps control blood pressure. White fungus is beneficial to the lungs, liver, kidney, eyes. It also contains anti-oxidants to combat free radicals and improves blood circulation as well as calcium absorption capability. Red dates tones the spleen, improves blood circulation and aids breathing. Wolfberries or Goji berries are beneficial to the liver and kidney, promotes increased energy, improves blood circulation and enhances general well-being.
(Source from Chinatown food and Sacfood Coop)

Lotus Roots Soup
RECIPE
Servings 2-4

INGREDIENTS
300g of lotus roots, cut into small discs
10 red dates
A handful of wolfberries
1 medium carrot, cut into small discs
1 1/2 tbsp of low sodium Miso
1 tsp of Organic Vegetarian G powder or Dashi or vegetable stock
2 litres of water

METHOD
1. Pour the water into a pot and bring it to a boil. Soak red dates and wolfberries in a bowl of water to soften them.
2. Once water has started boiling, put in lotus roots, red dates, wolfberries and carrots. Simmer heat and cover.
3. Continue cooking soup till water level drops to 1/4 of the original level which may be about 30-45 minutes. I always like to cook soup on low heat for longer periods so that the broth will be thick.
4. Then add the vegetarian G powder or Dashi or vegetable stock. Stir and simmer for about 5 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and add the miso paste. Make sure miso is completely dissolved in soup.
6. Serve immediately.

I always add carrots to my soup to make the soup sweeter and also carrots are good for the eyes and they have beta carotene! I hope you like the soup too! Enjoy!

A great time at the playground

I haven't been doing much for the past two days as my energy levels are like yoyo and it goes the same to my appetite. Today I'm glad I'm feeling much better. After I picked up Georgia from the daycare, I brought her to the playground down my block as she wanted to play with bubbles. And she had a great time as all the children at the playground were glued to her!!! Bubbles work magic on children!


Look at how happy she was!


These two girls are twins and I like them as they are very polite children. They would always greet me whenever we happen to be at the playground and would also approach Georgia and play with her. We are all living in the same block. ^_^

I also made these konnyaku jellies in the shape of mini donuts. I used the usual cartoony moulds and I just thought I wanted to make something different. So I took my mini donut pan and used it. I think it does the job well. ^_^


I have made more jellies to bring over to Georgia's nursery class tommorow so that the little ones can have some dessert after lunch. I also helped myself to a couple of the jellies and I must say they are my favourite and I can't seem to stop eating them!!! Haha!

Continental fingers

These fingers are oh so good! They melt in your mouth! They were kinda fragile that when they are done, I had to remove them from the baking tray carefully so as not to break them. Paired with chocolate coating and they are perfect! A few of them were gone before the chocolate has a chance to harden!!! Andy and Georgia were busy helping themselves!!!

Georgia caught in the act by Andy!


Continental Fingers
RECIPE
Makes 20

INGREDIENTS
200g margarine
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup cornflour
40g dark chocolate, chopped
40g white chocolate melts (optional for vegans)

METHOD
1. Preheat oven to moderate 180 degC. Line two trays with baking paper.
2. Using electric beaters, beat margarine and sugar until creamy and light. Add vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add sifted flour and cornflour and mix to a soft dough.
3. Spoon mixture into a piping bag fitted with a plain 1cm nozzle. Pipe strips, cutting at pipe end into 8cm lengths. Bake for 15 minutes until just golden. Transfer to wire rack to cool.
3. Place dark chocolate in a small heatproof bowl. Stand over simmering water until chocolate is melted and smooth. Stirring frequently. Cool slightly. Drizzle or pipe decorative lines across the fingers with the melted chocolate and place on wire rack to set.

Storage time: Biscuits may be stored up to five days in an airtight container.


This is what you get when you get the man to help. There were also faces but they were gone before I had the chance to take photos of them! ^_^

Craving for Bubor pulot hitam

I have been craving for bubor hitam for so long and especially today as I have been feeling under the weather lately due to certain reasons which I will reveal later. Also I am in no mood to make any crafts which I am supposed to do. I guess eating was the best way to put me back on track. I remembered I had a recipe on it and I also have a pack of glutinous black rice in my pantry. I made a huge pot of it and will be sharing it with my colleagues and Andy's. The taste is just perfect. Not too sweet nor bland. It kind of does the trick to make me feel better but physically I am still very feeling drained and tired.

Recipe
Black rice pudding with coconut milk (Bubor Pulot Hitam)

Servings for 4

INGREDIENTS
I cup (200g) glutinous black rice, washed in several changes of water, drained
6 cups (1.5 liters) water
2 pandan leaves, rinsed, raked with a fork, tied into a knot
2 tablespoons dark molasses or gula melaka
1 cup (250ml) coconut milk
1 - 2 tablespoons sugar, or more to taste
1 cup (250ml) coconut cream
pinch of salt

METHOD
1. Put the rice in a large saucepan and add water. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Cover, lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
2. Add the pandan leaves, molasses and coconut milk. (I only used half of it)
3. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered, stirring from time to time, until rice is soft and swollen, 20 to 25 minutes.
4. Remoce pandan leaves.
5. Taste and add sugar if desired.
6. Combine coconut cream and salt.
7. Serve warm and drizzle with coconut cream and enjoy!

Bubor pulot hitam is loved by Indonesians or Malaysians and is also very popular in Singapore. They can be enjoyed any time, for breakfast, snack or dessert.

Gingerbread cupcake for Xmas

I made Gingerbread cupcakes (VCTOW) yesterday and they were soooo good! Perfect for the holidays! I love anything with ginger and when I saw this recipe, I just have to make them. I made orange cream cheese frosting instead of lemon as I had ran out of lemons! And it's really yummy too! Georgia prefers eating the cake on its own and she keeps asking for more!

Homemade chapati

I made chapati for Georgia and myself tonight as Andy is working today. I usually make simple meals for the two of us so that I have more time to play with Georgia. She requested prata but we just had prata in the morning!!! So I made chapati instead which is a healthier choice (wholemeal flour). She likes it. I made a simple (or rather lazy) chutney using Prego chunky tomato sauce, chopped some asparagus and white button mushroom and added a teaspoon of nutritional yeast. Good, simple and satisfying dinner.

Recipe

Makes about 10-15 chapati depending on individual dough ball
Chapati

INGREDIENTS
350gm wholemeal flour/Atta flour
350ml of water (more or less)
1 tsp of sea salt

METHOD
1. Sift flour and salt together.
2. In a bowl, mix flour and water gradually. When combined, knead to make a soft dough.
3. Divide into equal portions and roll into balls.
4. Flatten each ball with a rolling pin and shape into round discs.
5. Cook on a heated non-stick pan/griddle, pressing the edge of the chapati.
6. Cook for about 5 mins or so or until done.

Marble yoghurt pound cake

I have been waiting for a vegan pound cake recipe for a long time (well since I became vegan in April!). When Kinokuniya had a 20% sale, Stella told me that I can go and get any book I want on discount on her member card. How can I resist! So I bought a Japanese felt toy craft book (which I made the toy lipstick for Georgia), a Tokyo city guide book (I'm going there next April!!! Yay!) and the wonderful and long awaited VEGANOMICON!

I saw the recipe in the book and I just had to try it! I added two tablespoon of 100% Valrhona cocoa powder (hmmm...heavenly chocolatey) to 1/4 of the batter, used Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla extract and omit the lemon zest. Verdict: Yummy to my tummy! The aroma of the cake fills up my senses! I love the smell of the orange in the cake. I really like the combination of orange and chocolate especially the orange pudding cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World! Georgia had a bit of the pound cake and kept asking for more. She's very fussy over her food and I'm glad she likes the cake. I love it too! I'll be trying out pandan flavour the next time round. I've got pound cake for tomorrow's tea time!

Cereal Abalone mushrooms

These are oh so good and they are on Andy's list of favourite food! He'll always ask me when I'm going to cook them! I don't do it often as it's fried!!! But for a treat now and then, I don't mind!

Here's the recipe.

Cereal Abalone mushrooms

Servings: 2-3
INGREDIENTS
1 pack of Abalone mushrooms, washed and drained
5 tablespoons of rice flour (makes the fried batter light and crispy!)
1 pack of cereal (the pack where it said it's for cereal prawns and these are non-diary ones)
Canola oil for frying

METHOD
1. In a bowl, mix the rice flour with cold water. The batter should not too runny nor too thick. If you have accidentally added too much water, add a little rice flour to achieve the consistency.
2. When the oil is hot (to test it, drop one drop of batter and when it fizzles, the oil is hot enough to start frying your mushrooms).
3. Coat the mushrooms in the rice batter and cover them with the cereal and slowly lower into the hot oil. DO NOT DROP OR THROW into the oil as this will cause spills!!!
4. Fry till they are golden brown. Put them aside on a strainer to drain off excess oil and lay them on baking sheet to absorb more oil.
5. Serve immediately and garnish with lettuce.

P.S. You could also use white button mushrooms or Golden mushrooms too!

I hope you enjoy eating them as much as we do!

Honey, some tiramisu...

Ohhh! Tiramisu cupcake (VCTOW) is so addictive! Andy ate two and can't keep his hands off them!!! They are really yummy and decadent! Golden vanilla cupcake filled with cream cheese (Tofutti cream cheese, of course!), espresso and kahlua and topped with little Valrhona chocolate pearls. Dusted with 100% Valrhona cocoa and cinnamon powder. I want more now, honey!

My brown rice

This was last night's dinner. I added chickpeas, corn and raisins and cooked them together with the brown rice in the rice cooker. Then I topped it with Tofutti mozzarella cheese. It would be better if the cheese was melted but since I don't have the time to bake it in the oven (definitely not nuking my food!!!), so I just make do with that! ^_^ Side dishes were stir fry Kailan with Shitake mushrooms and celery with carrots, Shitake mushrooms and sliced almonds. Simple, yummy and healthy!

Recipe

Servings for two
Brown rice with chickpeas, raisins and corn
INGREDIENTS
1 cup of brown rice (gently rinsed and soaked in water for at least two hours or more if you want a softer texture)
1/4 cup chickpeas (soaked overnight)
1/4 cup corn kernels
2 tablespoons of natural raisins soaked in water to plumb them (those green ones with no sugar added and no preservatives)
Tofutti soy mozzarella cheese (optional)

METHOD
1. Cook all the ingredients in the rice cooker. 1 cup of brown rice to 1 3/4 cup of water. I used 2 cups as I prefer softer rice.
2. Let stand in cooker for ten minutes after the rice is cooked.
3. Scoup a portion of rice onto oven bowl and place mozzarella cheese on top and bake in preheated oven at 150 deg C for five to ten minutes or until cheese has melted.
4. Serve immediately.

You can add any other ingredients of your choice. Hope you enjoy this simple rice as much as I do.

^_^

Cookie jar

My colleague has ordered a jar of hazelnut cookies from me (my very first order!!!) for Diwali on Thursday. I do not like the usual plastic containers that are being sold in the baking supplies stores. They look rather unpleasant. So I decided to make it a little special by dressing it up (well, the graphic designer in me just have to do something about it!). I designed a simple label and covered the awful red cover with a brown wrapping paper and secured it with a string. I think now it is a cookie jar! A rather pretty cookie jar! (a little bragging here!!!)


I used the disney cookie cutters to make the cookies. I am sure getting better at handling the cookie cutters. Lesser mistakes!


This is the label that I have designed. I have also included the ingredients.

I hope Rani, my colleague, and her family will enjoy eating the cookies and have a great Diwali!

Happy Diwali to all Hindu friends!!!

Miso soup

We are almost having miso soup everyday as Andy loves them so much he wants to have them all the time!!! So I usually change the ingredients to give the soup a little variety. Here I used Shitake mushrooms, golden mushrooms, tofu and kelp. Even little Georgia loves miso!

Recipe

Servings for four
INGREDIENTS
I pack of organic vegetarian dashi
2 tablespoons of organic low sodium miso paste
1 teaspoon of kirin
1/2 pack of silken tofu, cut into cubes
2 pieces of organic kelp, cut into small strips
5 shitake mushrooms, sliced
1 pack of golden mushrooms, pull the mushrooms apart
1 to 1.5 litres of water

METHOD
1. Boil the water.
2. Cook kelp and mushrooms in boiling water for 10 minutes on low heat.
3. Add tofu, dashi and miso paste and stir to dissolve the contents. Cook for another 5 minutes.
4. Serve warm.

This is a light and brothy soup which children will love. You can always change the ingredients or add on more if you like.

P.S. Sorry for the bad photo as I have a hungry kid and I have to rush to get this photo taken!