Thai food anyone?

Curry Kabocha with Yu Choy and Tofu



It's a rip off of the Epicurious shrimp curry with yu choy and kabocha

Instead of the shrimp I used some extra firm silken tofu.

As for the fish paste, I used FatFree Vegan's No Fish Fish Sauce.

Note: If you can't find kaffir leaves, even in the Asian market but you can use lime leaves, lemon leaves or 1 tablespoons for every 6 kaffir leaves.

Normally you can find lemongrass in your local Asian market but you can use a substitute of 1 zest of a whole lemon is 2 stalk of lemongrass.

I found the thai basil a bit overwhelming since Thai basil is very pungent in comparison to the regular basil you may find in the regular supermarket.

The choy sum has so many names for the Cantonese, it's called yu choy, yow choy or flowering rape.


Tofu Mushroom Side Dish


Recipe

1 Clove of Garlic, Minced
1/2 Yellow Onion, Chopped
8 oz Mushroom (Cremini or White)
6 oz Firm Silk Tofu, 1/2 Inch Cubed
1 Scallion, Finely Chopped
Oil

• Heat the oil on medium-high heat and cook the garlic to release the aroma for about 10 seconds, make sure not to burn them.
• Then add in the onions and cook it for a few minutes then add the mushrooms. Add enough salt to the vegetable to salt to your preference. This will allow the vegetable to release any water.
  
• When the onions are almost thoroughly cooked add the tofu and the scallions and cook it until the onions are soft and the mushrooms are cooked.

Chocolate Banana Muffin


It's not very banana-y tasting so I dont know whether to post this recipe or not.

Slow week

Yes it has been a slow week. It's the second week of summer school. Calculus/intergals is hard work. After classes I go straight to work and on the days I have off, I spend all my time with my b/f. Not a lot of time for cooking. I've been just microwaving morningstar veggie bites for dinner and what not. I still have a lot of lacto octo vegetarian food...

I got this recipe off of recipezaar I still need to get rid of my vegetarian items.



Avocado Pie (Lacto Vegetarian)

8 in" pie/Serves 8 Slices - 282 cal/serving

Filling
1 /173g Avocado
1 14 oz/397g Condensed Milk, Canned
1/3 Cup/79 mL Lime Juice, Freshly juiced

Crust
12 1" by 2"/93g Graham Crackers, Crumbled
2 1/2 Tbsp/37 mL Baby food or Applesauce, Sweetened

• Preheat the oven to 350F.
  
• Make the crust by crushing the graham crackers into medium coarse grains.
  
• Cut the baby food/applesauce into the graham cracker until the mixture is cut into texture like coarse bread crumb.
  
• Press the crumb onto the bottom of a 8" circular pan.
• Place the crust into the oven and bake it for 10 minutes.
• Let the crust fully cool before filling the crust.
• To make the filling pit and skin the avocado.
  
• Put the avocado, lime juice and condense milk into a blender and blend it into a thick puree.
  
• Pour the filling mixture into the pie crust and let it chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
  

Verdict: Need to use up some left over vegetables.

It taste much better as leftover since the casserole firmed up and the tofu absorbed more of the flavor.


Vegetable Casserole (Vegan)

9" bu 5" loaf/4 servings

1 15 oz Block Firm Tofu, Thawed or in Packaged
1/4 /152g Eggplant, Sliced into 1/4"
1/2 /164g Large Zucchini, Sliced into 1/4"
3/4 /114g Large Onion, Sliced into 1/4"
2 Cup/592 mL Tomato Sauce
Vegetable Oil

• It's best if you use thawed tofu because it absorbs more flavor. Drain the tofu and press as much liquid out of the tofu as possible with a heavy weight.
• Slice the tofu block into 1/3".
  
• Cook the Onions in a pan with some oil until half way tender then add in the zucchini and eggplant. Season with some salt and pepper and cook until tender.
  
• Drain as much liquid as you can because when you bake it, all the water sweats out of the vegetables.
  
• Preheat the oven to 350F.
  
• Line the bottom of the pan with about 1/2 cup of tomato sauce or enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Then line the next layer with tofu and cover it with another 1/2 cup of tomato sauce or how ever much it takes to coat it.
  
• Line the next two layer with the zucchini and the onion and cover it with 1/2 cup of tomato sauce.
  
• Then line the last layer with the eggplant and coat it with 1/2 cup of tomato sauce.
• Bake it in the oven for 45 minutes.
  

Verdict: Had a lot of plums and I love spreads ;3 Stored in gerber jars. That's why I've been using a lot of baby food in my baking recently. I bought 24 jars of baby food for 10 dollars at my local market with my b/f. I felt like I had a baby and I didn't even know it. I got this recipe off of epicurious. Note: Preserve is not as sweet as jam. It's a tad bit sour for those who dislike sour stay clear of this recipe!

Plum Preserves (Vegan)

Serves 4 4oz jars

2 lb/907 g Plums, Any
1/2 Cup/100g Sugar,Granulated
1/2 Cup/118 mL Water
1 3" Cinnamon Stick

• Pit the plums and roughly chop them into large pieces if you like large pieces in your spread and smaller pieces if you like jamish like spread.
• Mix the water, plums, sugar and cinnamon stick into a small pot and simmer it for about 45 minutes or until it reaches the consistency you like.

Verdict: Homemade is the best even if it is organic.

Cashew Butter (Vegan)


Yields 1/2 Cup/ 16 Servings of 1 Tbsp = 48Cal/Serving

1 Cup/129g Cashew, Salted Roasted
or
1 Cup/120g Cashew, Raw
Salt

• If you are roasting your own nut, preheat the oven to 325F
  
• Place the raw nuts on a shallow rectangular pan. Do not pack your nuts!
• Sprinkle enough salt for your tasting.
• Roasted for about 10-20 minute or until golden brown. Stir often because they burn easily
• Put the Cashews into the blender and blend it until it turns into butter.

**Note: If you like crunchy cashew butter, blend the whole cashew until it's chopped into coarse pieces and reserve 2-3 Tbsp. After you blend all the cashew into a cream, fold in the reserved cashew pieces.




VWAV's Chickpea and spinach curry. I made it with some coconut milk. hmm... :3

Sushi!!

I haven't really been cooking or baking this week because I'm still feasting on the food I've made last week and the weeks/months before that...I'm having such a problem trying to get rid of these dairy and egg products. I'm such a hoarder of food. I buy and buy and I never use it in fear of not having it for the next recipe. I guess I'll go to the fourth level of hell xD OH wells. In addition to the abundance amount of food I have, my b/f and I have been eating out a lot and I've been going over to his house to eat. Rawr!! Poo!!

VWAV and VCTOTW finally came in the mail yesterday despite the fact that I ordered it two weeks ago. So damn excited!! Anyways Enough ranting and bullpooping.

Mock Tuna (Vegan)

I've made mock tuna for I was craving for some creamy spread and I also had a can of garbanzo bean that was calling me. I got the recipe off of vegweb. I didn't do much to change it.

Recipe Yields 4 Serving 155.75 Cal/Serving

1 15 oz Can of Garbanzo beans
2 Tbsp Vegan Mayonnaise (Nayonaise, Veganaise, Homemade...whichever)
1 Tbsp Sweet Pickle Relish
2 Tsp Dijon Mustard
2/3 Tsp Fresh Lemon Juice ( A little more if you like )
Salt and Pepper to taste

• Drain and rinse your garbanzo beans, you can use your own cooked garbanzo beans (less sodium and much more healthier).
• Mash up your garbanzo beans with the potato masher or use a fork if you don't have a potato masher.
  
• Mix in the sweet pickle relish, Dijon mustard, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Banana Cottage Cheese Sandwich (Lacto-Vegetarian)

It is my attempt to get rid of all my dairy products. This was open from like 1 weeks ago =X Surprised it didn't mold. It tasted perfectly fine so I made a sandwich with my over ripe banana. Sorry I spelled banana wrong in the photo. Eh... I still have my never opened 32 oz plain yogurt and sour cream that is a few weeks pasted it's sell by date. Thank goodness it's sealed in a vacuum container.

Recipe Yields 1 Sandwich 440 Cal/Sandwich
1 Medium (118g)Ripe Banana
2/3 - 1 Cup (150g-225g) of Low Fat Cottage Cheese (axelrod or friendships)
2 Tsp (8g) of Sugar
1/4 Tsp Vanilla
1/4 Tsp Grounded Cinnamon
2 Slice of Whole Wheat Bread

• Slice your banana thinly (about 1/2 cm) width wise.
• Mix the sugar, vanilla, ground cinnamon into your cottage cheese.
  
• Spread the cottage cheese onto your first slice of bread, line the banana slices on top of the cottage cheese, spread the cottage cheese on top of the banana and then line it with the bananas again and continue until you've ran out of the banana or the cottage cheese.
• Top your sandwich with the other slice of bread and enjoy.
  

Tomato TVP Fried Rice (Vegan)

It's fried rice I've made and brought to work for lunch. I bring lunch to work everyday now since most of my co workers order take out for lunch. There aren't many choices for vegetarian/vegan food and besides who knows if they cook the food on the same cooking wares. Made it with some tomatoes, garlic, some TVP I've made months ago.


Sushi (Vegan)


Verdict: I have 5 pack of nori, cucumbers and sushi rice so I need to get rid of some.
I got the sushi rice from about.com and the filling, I just used what I had.

Recipe Yields 8 Serving (8 pieces)
Bamboo Mat
Sushi Rice (Recipe follows)
Filling (Recipe/Instruction follows)
8 Sheets of Nori (Roasted Seaweed Sheets)
Bowl of Water

Sushi Rice
3 Cups (600g) Sushi Rice [clear short grain rice, the white short grain rice are the glutinous sweet rice]
3 1/4 Cups (769 mL) Water
1/3 Cup (79 mL) Rice Vinegar
3 Tbsp (37.5g) Sugar
1 Tsp Salt

• Wash and rinse the rice several times.
  
• Pour the rice and the water into the rice cooker and turn it on. (If you don't have a rice cooker use a small nonstick pot, pour the rice and water into the pot and let it simmer and continuously stir until the rice has become white and absorbed all the water.)
• After the rice is cooked, pour in the rice vinegar, sugar and salt. Mix it well and do not mash your rice.
  

Filling
1 English Cucumber
1 Medium Carrot
1/2 Cup of Mock Tuna Salad
1 Package of Takuan (can be found in the asian frozen section)
Tofu marinated in Miso Sauce (Recipe follows)

• Peel and deseed your cucumbers. If you are not using English cucumbers and your using a cucumber with a nice crisp skin, you don't really need to peel them. Some cucumber have really crisp skin not those waxy tough skin. The crisp skin actually adds texture to your cucumbers.
  
• Julienne your cucumbers, carrots and takuan into 1/4 cm by 1/4 cm strips.

Miso Marinated Tofu

• 1/5 Block of Extra Firm Tofu
• 1 Tbsp Miso Paste, Shiromiso
• 2 Tbsp Water (1 Tbsp if you want your tofu to be more flavorful)
  

• Line your tofu with a clean towel and place some weights on it to squeeze out all the excess water for about 30 minutes.
  
• Meanwhile mix your miso paste with the water to create a diluted miso sauce.
• Julienne your tofu into 1/2 cm by 1/2 cm strips and let it soak in the miso sauce for at least 15 minutes.
  

Constructing Your Sushi

• Place your nori on your bamboo mat.
• Even spread some rice on your nori. Make sure you get the sides. Just leave a 1 cm gap at the top edge of your nori.
• Place the filling about 2 cm away from the bottom edge of nori.
• Grab the bamboo mat and the nori and tuck the bottom edge of the nori under the filling and tightly roll your nori into a roll. Make sure you dont roll your bamboo mat into the sushi.