Enoki “noodles” with Poached Egg

  
A light dinner is always the best because one should always make room for desserts. I’ve seen many vegetable replacements for pasta and rice. Enoki mushrooms are naturally long and thin, which makes preparation a breeze. The purpose of ginger when cooking the mushrooms is to remove some of the earthy taste, but if you like it the ginger is optional. However, I do recommend adding minced ginger or garlic into the seasoning. This recipe is so versatile you can add any other toppings, like chilli flakes, dried sakura shrimp, or even bonito flakes. 

Enoki “noodles” with poached egg
Ingredients

• 200g enoki mushrooms 
• 1 egg, poached
• 2 small slices of ginger, plus 1tsp of minced ginger
• 2 stalks of spring onions, chopped
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon roasted sesame seeds
• Seaweed strips (as many as you like)

Method

1. Boil a pot of water, add 2 slices of ginger and enoki mushrooms, cook for about 4-5minutes. Drain mushrooms and remove ginger
2. While mushrooms are boiling, prepare seasoning. In a medium bowl, mix minced ginger, spring onion, fish sauce, and sesame oil together. 
3. Stir enoki mushrooms with seasoning. Top with sesame seeds, seasweed strips and poached egg.

Enjoy!

Kiwi Strawberry Smoothie

  
I looove how the red specks sparkle through the green. This is one very pretty and Christmasy smoothie. Makes for an excellent meal replacement and detox too.

Ingredients

• 2 Kiwis
• 1 cup of strawberries
• 1 cup spinach (or leafy veggie)
• 1/2 cup greek yogurt
• 1 cup water

Place everything in a blender. Serve immediately. Enjoy!

Easy Japanese Vegan Patties

  
So a myriad of things have happened since the last time I posted, which was nearly half a year ago. The band that I am a keyboardist for was shortlisted for a competition which took place in Japan, and so I was there for about a month in December last year. Since then, life has been pretty hectic preparing for beginning of semester and trying damn hard to produce more of my thesis. 

Cooking ans baking are still constant happenings, as I get inspired by my travels. But admittedly I’ve been less industrious about blogging. Perhaps I ought to take a different view about this. Short, concise posts about the food will always be good enough, and saves me from my own lengthy expositions. Makes the blog more focused as well. 

Ah I shall shut up now. Here is a savoury recipe inspired from the flavours of Japan. 

Easy Japanese Vegan Patties

Ingredients

• 300g silken tofu (or 1 package)
• 3-4 shitake mushrooms, diced
• 60g panko, or bread crumbs
• 1 tsp parsley flakes
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder 
• Salt and pepper to taste

Dip

• 2 Tbsp vinegar (I used Chinese dark vinegar, but balsamic will do fine)
• Sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds
• A few celery leaves

Method

1. In a mixing bowl, mash the tofu with a fork 
2. Mix in the mushrooms, panko and all the seasoning
3. Shape them into patties (size and shape of your choice; I made 8 small patties out of one batch)
4. Heat a frying pan with some oil, and fry the patties until it forms a golden crust on each side. 
5. Mix the ingredients for the dip in a small dish 
6. Serve patties with dip

Spiced Plum Leather

  
Believe it or not, this is the first time I ever tasted fruit leather. 

As a kid, I loved all sorts of dried and preserved fruits. And the Chinese are pretty good at preserving our peaches, plums, mango and so on. But fruit cooked, dried out and rolled up like this is new to me.

Ever since I started browsing all these blogs and recipe sites of the “Western” world, I’ve learnt so much about food that people in other parts of the world eat on a daily basis. It is quite a cultural exchange. 

So this, is my first attempt at fruit leather. I’m not sure if this is the way it is supposed to taste, but it sure tasted damn good! Chewy, sweet, tangy, with a hint of spice. 

Spiced Plum Leather

Ingredients

• 10 medium plums, halved and pitted
• 3 mini apples or 1 large apple, cored and wedged
• 2-3 Tbsp of jaggery sugar or brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground ginger

Method

1. Arrange the plums and apples on a baking tray and bake at 200C for about 15-20 minutes, until softened. No need to preheat.
2. Blend the baked plums and apples in a food processor until it forms a puree. Add sugar and ginger. Adjust to taste.
3. Spread the puree thinly and evenly on a silpat or a baking tray lined with parchment paper. 
4. Bake at 100C for 2 hours, let it sit in oven overnight. The next day, bake at 100C once again for 2 hours and let sit until it completely cools.*
5. Fruit leather is done when surface is dry to touch and you can lift off the entire piece from the silpat/tray.

Notes:

* The lowest setting on my oven is 100C, but many recipes out there call for 50-70C, and baking it for about 4-8 hours straight. The purpose of baking isn’t to cook it, but to dry out the leather. So you may want to adjust according to the settings of your oven.

Curry Chickpea Salad

  
Mmm. Some time back there was this study about why Indian food tastes so good. While I love geeky stuff like this, one doesn’t need science to be convinced that Indian cusine is one of the most flavourful and exciting foods in the world. 

Although in Southeast Asia, curry is often associated with other rich proteins like lamb or chicken, it can be made quite light too. My dinner last night is a testament to that. The curry powder and raw onion gave heat, but overall it is a light vegetarian dish that can be made in minutes. 

No cooking means less washing and more time to dream up other vegan desserts! 

Curry Chickpea Salad

Makes a large serving, or 2 medium servings

• A can of chickpeas, drained
• Some greens of choice, chopped (i used a head of baby romaine lettuce)
• Half an onion, diced
• A handful of raisins
• A handful of toasted cashew nuts
• Salt and pepper to taste

Dressing

• 3 Tbsp greek yogurt
• 3 tsp fish curry powder premix

To make the dressing, mix the curry powder with greek yogurt until combined. Toss salad ingredients together and top with dressing. 

Namaste. 

A delicious mess

  
Can’t go wrong with frozen greek yogurt bars with bananas and raspberries.

Easiest Vegan Chocolate Lava Mug Cake

So it was my brother’s birthday. And because he doesn’t live with us we didn’t know if he would come back to celebrate. At 11pm, the main door opened and there he was. With no time to make a cake from scratch, microwave is once again the answer.

This chocolate lava cake has been made so many times I am confident that this is the last chocolate mug cake recipe you’ll ever need.

It is so moist, so decadent, and so easy. My fiance actually timed me making this cake and it came to be a record 5 minutes 20 seconds, from start to finish. Best of all, it is made in a relatively small portion (smaller than most recipes out there), so you can indulge without overloading on sugar.

I decided to add raspberries into one of the cakes just to give it a fruity twist. The result is a even more moist cake with a nice acidity to balance the sweetness.

Happy birthday, bro!

 

Easiest Vegan Chocolate Lava Mug Cake

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/8 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp coconut oil
• 2.5 Tbsp unsweetened non-dairy milk (i used soy)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3-4 squares of dark chocolate
• 4-5 raspberries (optional)

Method

1. In a mug, mix all your dry ingredients together, add in the wet ingredients and stir till combined.
2. Press a few squares of dark chocolate and raspberries in the middle of the batter.
3. Microwave on high for about 1 minute.
4. Enjoy!

Tips

• Your cake might take longer or shorter time to cook depending on the wattage of your microwave. Mine is an old model so I have no idea what the wattage might be. But 1 minute is just right for me because the cake is still fudgy and moist. Experiment with yours!
• I usually make this with just a measuring tablespoon. If you realise most of the ingredients are measured out by the tablespoon, and I scoop the ingredients in that order (just use your fingers to pinch out the baking powder and salt, and the cap of the vanilla extract bottle to measure it out). I then use the same spoon to mix the batter and eat the cake. Yay to laziness!

Vegan Upside Down Orange Cake

Looking at my last few posts, it seems like by some strange coincidence they are all swashed in orange! Ah, the colour of fall in the northern hemisphere. Sadly for us here in the land of eternal summer we won’t get the excitement of autumn. But nothing is stopping us from indulging in oranges anyway. And this cake is full of it. 3 whole oranges to be exact. (Sorry for the bad pun! :P)

My mom specially requested a vegan cake as a gift to her teacher who is coming from overseas this weekend. Since it is for someone important to my mom, I decided to try out the recipe first. But this recipe proved to be rather fail-proof. I also added goji berries to the topping, but this is completely optional.

If you like your orange rinds to be chewy and sticky side (think gummy bears!), you can reduce the amount of water when making the topping so that it boils down faster. Try to boil it at least 15 minutes. But because my recipe is catered for elderly folks, I have decided to boil it longer at 30 minutes.

This cake is best served warm. Or rather, that was how my family demolished the cake – within 10 minutes of it coming out of the oven. Cooling it on a wire rack? Pffttttt.. The house was filled entirely with the aroma of orange and everyone was just waiting to sink their teeth into it. My mom even commented that of all the vegan cakes I have made so far, this is the best!

Upside Down Orange Cake (Vegan)

Orange Topping

• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 oranges, sliced thinly (including the rind)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or 1 vanilla pod
• 2 Tbsp goji berries (optional)

1. In a medium saucepan, heat water and sugar until sugar is completely dissolved.
2. Add in sliced oranges, goji berries, and vanilla extract, and simmer on low heat for about 20-30 minutes, until rinds are softened and the liquids are boiled down to a sticky syrup.
3. While rinds are simmering, prepare the cake batter.

Orange Cake

• 1 large orange
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cake flour (you could also substitute with all purpose flour)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup coconut oil (or any other vegetable oil)
• 1 tsp white vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)

1. Preheat oven to 190°C, and lightly oil a 8-inch cake pan.
2. Grate the rind of the orange to get the zest, and place zest in a large mixing bowl.
3. Remove the peel and blend the orange in a blender until liquified. Measure 1 cup of orange juice. If there isn’t enough, just add water till you have 1 cup of liquid.
4. Lightly whisk orange zest, flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda together. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients (orange juice, coconut oil and vinegar).
5. Whisk batter until combined. It should be slightly sticky and doughy.

Assembly and Bake

1. Arrange the softened orange rinds at the bottom of a 8-inch cake pan, pouring the sticky syrup over.
2. Pour cake batter over the rinds.
3. Bake for about 35-40 minutes until cake pulls away from the side, or when skewer comes out clean.
4. Carefully place a plate over the cake pan, and turn the pan around. Give a light tap on the bottom of the pan to release the cake. The orange rinds will now be on top.
5. Serve warm!

Breakfast in a mug

Perhaps due to time constraints, I’ve been really into microwave mug cakes recently. They are so convenient and easy. Best thing is that they can be made for a single serving and I need not worry about wasting food.

This morning I just had a craving for oatmeal but I only had 15 minutes before I gotta run out of the house.

Quickly, I took out my mug, poured in about 1/3 cup rolled oats, add about 1/2 cup water, 1 tablespoon peanut butter, mixed them up and popped it in the microwave for about 3 minutes, stirring every minute. When it was done, I added about 2 teaspoons of strawberry jam and more peanbut butter. Yummmm… This is such creamy wholesome goodness prepared in less than 5 minutes.

Overnight oats are good, but I’ve always been nagged at by my parents that one should refrain from having too much cold foods. So this, is perfect for a warm start to the day.

Creamy Peanut Butter and Jelly Oatmeal

• 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tablespoon peanut butter
• 2 teaspoons strawberry jam

Mix everything except the strawberry jam. Microwave for about 3 minutes, taking it out to stir every minute. Top with jam and complete your morning.

My breakfast today

  
Counting calories has pretty much been part of my life since 6 months ago, but sometimes calories do not translate into nutrition. There will be days when I will stuff myself at 11pm just because I haven’t had enough calories for the day, or I will load up on sugar and simple carbs as meal replacements. Even if it was still within my daily limit, my body doesn’t feel good, emotionally I don’t feel good too. 

And I don’t want to embark on the path of counting the micro-nutrients because it can get so obsessive compulsive. The thing I should strive for is then more wholesome foods, and develop habits that can keep me healthy and happy. Eventually, I hope to stop thinking about calories and just tune in better to my body’s nutrition needs. 
So, I shall attempt to record my breakfast more often. Hopefully I can just keep an eye on the types of food I’ve been craving and consuming, and also keep these ideas for future reference. 

Today’s breakfast: Poached egg on a bed of mashed avocado and toast. Seasoned with salt, pepper and paprika.