Vegetarian Hor Fun

Hor fun is a flat rice noodle, looks sort of like linguine. The noodles can be bought fresh from the grocery stores here. I made hor fun for dinner last night, upon request of my DD.

Ingredients
1 packet of fresh hor fun (500g)
2 cloves garlic, minced
some chopped ginger
1 tablespoon oil (for frying)
1 cup of vegetable stock (or clear soup)
1 tablespoon of corn starch
1 piece of tau kwa (or tofu)*
1 can of braised gluten*
2 stalks of green vegetables*

Procedure:
1. heat the oil and fry the garlic and ginger until garlic browns.
2. add tau kwa, gluten and vegetables, fry until cooked
3. pour in the vegetable stock and bring to a boil
4. mix in the hor fun and add the corn starch to thicken the stock

* you can put any other ingredients you like in this, I used tau kwa, gluten and green veges here

Soy Pancakes ~ no eggs!

I started making soy pancakes because of a desire to reduce carbohydrate intake. They turn out really fluffy and tasty. I initially tried to make these using solely soy flour, but that didn't work at all ~ try it and you will see! I do not use eggs, and have also liked it with bananas and cinnamon.

Dry ingredients:
1 1/2 cup soy flour
1/2 cup wheat flour
1 tsp sugar (to taste)
dash of salt
dash of cinnamon (to taste, optional)
1/2 tsp baking powder
Wet ingredients:
2 cups milk
1/2 cup water
1 tsp oil
1 banana

Directions:
a) mix together the dry ingredients.
b) mix in the wet ingredients and stir/whisk.
c) heat pan on the stove.
d) use a ladle to spoon batter onto the pan, spreading it out to desired thickness.
e) cook for 1 minute (may vary depending on your flame)
f) flip over and cook for another minute (may vary depending on your flame)

Century Egg and Spinach

Last weekend, my mom gave me a couple of century eggs, so I used one of them in my spinach dish. Here's how...

Ingredients:
1 1/3 cup stock
1 century egg, diced
1 egg, beaten
some garlic, chopped
a bundle of spinach, washed
a handful of wolfberries (I forgot these in dish pictured)
some oil for frying

1. Heat oil, and fry the garlic.
2. Add stock and wolfberries. Bring to a boil.
3. Add century egg and spinach. Boil until spinach is soft.
4. Stir in beaten egg.

Easy and yummy! :-)

Home-made Fried Rice

My home-made fried rice:

Well, it isn't really all that fancy, and I suppose pretty much anything can be fried with the rice. Here's how I did this particular one:

Ingredients:
1/2 a red onion
1 chilli
1pc Tau Kwa (the firm kind of tofu)
1/2 a yellow bell pepper
a handful of bean sprouts
1 stalk of xiao bai cai (sometims called chinese mustard)
1 bowl cooked rice
1 egg
2 tsp oil (or enough for frying)
1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 tsp soy sauce (or to taste)

Preparation:
- Chop the onion and chilli. Cut the tau kwa and yellow bell pepper into strips.
- Wash the bean sprouts and xiao bai cai. Cut the xiao bai cai into small pieces.
- Heat oil and fry the tau kwa until it is golden-brown (yeah I love doing that).
- Push the tau kwa to the side of the wok, add onion, chilli and salt in the center. Fry and mix in the tau kwa.
- Throw in bell pepper, bean sprouts and stalk of xiao bai cai. Fry 'til "al dente". Then add the leaves of xiao bai cai.
- Make a space in the center of the wok and add the rice. Add a more oil if necessary to prevent the rice sticking to the wok. Add soy sauce and fry, mixing in all the other ingredients.
- Make a space in the center of the wok, break the an egg in the center, mix in all the rice and ingredients and fry.

TIP: For best results, use cold rice (e.g. refrigerated overnight).

My first attempt at Char Kuay Teow

This evening, I suddenly had the urge to try making char kuay teow. I had no recipe, just a packet of fresh kuay teow I bought from the Sheng Shiong supermarket, and some imagination. I sort of had to make do with whatever I had in my fridge, and here's how it turned out:


In case anyone is interested, here's how I did it:
Ingredients:
    a handful of Kuay Teow
    a handful of bean sprouts
    1/2 piece tau kwa
    1/4 an onion
    1/4 yellow bell pepper
    3 stalks spinach
    1 egg (optional)
    1/2 teaspoon chilli black bean paste
    2 teaspoon soy sauce
    oil (sufficient for frying)

- Fry the tau kwa until golden-brown. Set aside.
- Brown the onions, then add bell pepper and bean sprouts.
- Add the tau kwa, and chilli black bean paste and soy sauce.
- Add kuay teow and spinach.
- Make a space in the center of the wok, break the egg in and fry.

Well, it tasted pretty good, but wasn't spicy enough - gotta put more chilli bean paste next time!

Vegetarian Bak Kut Teh

I made Vegetarian Bak Kut Teh last night.

"How do you make bak kut teh without the bak?", my sister asked.

Well, I used mock meat, chinese mushrooms, tau kwa, and tau pok. Ok, I did not make the spices from scratch - I used the pre-packet spice, which made it easier.

Today, I found a recipe in The Star Online - Kuali. I wish I had also thought of putting in beancurd sticks and cabbage! And of frying the mock meat before...

Still my concoction came out quite tasty. Will experiment with other ingredients another day.

My Special Salad

Last night I made a special salad for my DH: