Savoury Vegetarian Rice 斋饭

  Savoury Vegetarian Rice 斋饭

Recipe source :  Doris @ Sumptuous Flavours

I adapted my recipe for long bean rice to make a vegetarian version of it.  

I cooked this to share with my fellow practitioners in a meditation group who are mostly vegetarians. We meet at least once a week and after group practice we share the different varieties of  food others have brought along as well. We enjoy the pot-luck and the camaraderie among friends.

My friends enjoyed this vegetarian rice and said it is very fragrant. I thought I would post it here to share as well.

Ingredients

500g rice
4 stalks of snake beans or long beans, cut into small pieces
100g mushrooms, soaked until soft and cut into small cubes
1 carrot, cut into small cubes
2 tsp salt
4 tsp vegetarian oyster sauce 
4 tbsp cooking oil
900ml water

 Carrots and snake beans

Marinated mushrooms cubes

Method

1.  Marinate mushrooms with 2 tsp sugar, 2 tsp soy sauce and 1 tbsp cooking oil. Set aside for later use.
2.  Wash rice and drain dry.
3.  Heat wok with 4 tbsp cooking oil until very hot.
4.  Add in the marinated mushrooms and stir-fry over high heat for 1 to 2 minutes. 
5.  Add in snake beans and carrot. Stir-fry well.
6.  Add in rice and fry briskly for 1 minute to mix everything evenly.
7.  Scoop out all ingredients and transfer them into the inner pot of an electrical  rice cooker.
8.  Add in salt, oyster sauce and water. 
9.  Auto -cook until done. 
10.  Use a pair of wooden chopsticks to fluff out the rice grains.

Eggplant & Minced Meat With Oyster Sauce 茄子蛇豆炒蚝油

Eggplant & Minced Meat With Oyster Sauce 茄子蛇豆炒蚝油

Recipe source :  Maggi's advertising from Pearl Magazine

I was a bit surprised when my on-line search for autumn produce indicated eggplant as one of the vegetables harvested in autumn. For me, living in the tropics, we get eggplant throughout the year and hence take it for granted and do not give it another thought! 

This knowledge is indeed educational for me and is food for my thoughts!

With this in mind, I really must cook an eggplant dish to "commemorate" this learning curve of my educational journey.

Ingredients

250g eggplant, quartered and cut into 4 cm length
180g minced pork, marinated with 1/2 tsp tapioca flour and 1 tsp oyster sauce
400g snakebeans, cut into 4 cm length
4 red chilli padi, chopped
1 tbsp minced garlic
11/2 cup cooking oil for deep-frying eggplant and snakebeans

 Eggplants

 Snakebeans

 Chilli padi

 Minced pork

Seasonings

2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp light soya sauce
2 tbsp tomato ketchup
11/2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup water

Mix everything together.

 

Method

1.  Heat oil until hot. Deep-fry eggplant until brown. Drain and set aside.
2.  Deep-fry the snakebeans. Drain and set aside.
3.  Remove all cooking oil from wok, leaving only 2 tbsp oil. Saute minced garlic and chopped chilli till fragrant. Add minced pork and fry until aromatic and minced meat has broken into small pieces.
4.  Add in snakebeans and eggplant and cook for 3 minutes. Add in seasonings and mix well.
5.  Dish up and serve.

I am also linking this post to My Treasured Recipes # 3 - Taste of Autumn (Oct/Nov 2014)

Hosted by Miss B of Everybody Eats Well In Flanders and 

co-hosted by Charmaine of Mimi Bakery House

Mixed Vegetables Curry 素咖哩

Mixed Vegetables Curry 素咖哩

Recipe :  Doris Choo @ Sumptuous Flavours


My sister's Indian friend taught her to use radish to cook curry. Since then, my personal preference has always been radish in my curries instead of using potatoes. However, because of my family's preference for potatoes, I have always refrained from using radish. Today I made an exception. I re-introduced the use of radish for cooking a mixed vegetables curry. 

I am not sure whether it was because I have not been cooking mixed vegetables curry for a long time or because the family has a change of preference, but the bottom line was that the two large bowls of curry were demolished. Nobody grumbled about not finding potatoes. Everybody ate happily and polished off the rice and the vegetables. The quantity I cooked could easily feed five to six people yet the three of us wolfed down everything. 

Ingredients

500g radish, cut into pieces
250g snake beans, cut into sections of  4 cm
15 pieces of tofu puff
400g cabbage, cut into sections of 4 cm
100g minced chilli
3 tbsp curry powder
300ml coconut milk (santan)
8 shallots, minced
6 pips garlic, minced
3 sprigs curry leaves
3 stalks lemon grass, bruised
6 tbsp oil
1250ml water

Seasoning

2 tsp salt
4 tsp sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce

Method

1.  Heat wok until hot. Add in oil. Saute minced garlic and shallots for 1 minute over medium flame. Keep stirring to prevent burning. Add in the bruised lemon grass and curry leaves. Continue to fry until fragrant. 
2.  Add in minced chilli paste and stir to mix well. Add in half a cup of coconut milk and stir-fry until oil oozes out. 
3.  Add in radish and snake beans and fry for 2 minutes. Add in water and the remaining coconut milk.
4.  Bring to a boil. Then add in tofu puff and cabbage. Let it boil for 15 minutes or until the radish is tender.
5.  Add in seasoning ingredients.
6.  Switch off flame and dish up.

I am linking this post to My Treasured Recipes # 3 - Taste of Autumn (Oct/Nov 2014)

Hosted by Miss B of Everybody Eats Well In Flanders and 

co-hosted by Charmaine of Mimi Bakery House

Singapore Noodle

Singapore Noodle

Recipe source :  here

Malaysian and Singaporean food are virtually the same. So much so that I find it difficult to draw the line between Malaysian and Singaporean recipes. So to be safe I chose a recipe which clearly stated the country of origin, "Singapore noodles". 

This is unlike the usual fare that I come across. This noodle dish has a spicy twist to it as curry powder was used. And this is the first time I used capsicum and snake beans to fry noodles! 

Tastes good!

Ingredients

125ml vegetable oil
100g snakebeans, cut into 3 cm lengths
250g shrimps, remove shells and keep the tails intact
1 red capsicum, thinly sliced
1 onion, sliced
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 tbsp curry powder, mixed with 2 tbsp water to form a paste
300g vermicelli or beehoon, soaked until soft and drained 
160g bean sprouts
60ml soy sauce

  

 Red capsicum

 Snakebeans

 Shrimps

Instructions

1.  Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok until hot. Fry snakebeans over high heat for about 5 minutes or until slightly charred. Remove and set aside .
2.  Add shrimps to pan-fry until they curled up and turned pink. Transfer them to the plate of snakebeans.
3.  Add 2 tbsp oil and stir-fry capsicum and onions together for 3 minutes or until tender. Transfer to the plate of snakebeans. 
4.  Reduce heat to medium and pour beaten eggs into wok to create a thin omelette. Remove and cut them into thin slices. Set aside.
5.   Add remaining oil to wok. Then add curry paste and bean sprouts, followed by beehoon. Use a pair of bamboo chopsticks to toss the beehoon. Add soy sauce and mix well. Then add the snakebeans, shrimps and capsicum. Stir-well and mix everything together.
6.  Add sliced omelette on top to garnish.

I am submitting this post to Asian Food Fest  : Singapore

Hosted by Grace Phua of Life Can Be Simple

Pork & Pineapple Red Curry (Gang Mu Tay Po) 泰国猪肉黄梨咖哩

Pork & Pineapple Red Curry (Gang Mu Tay Po) 泰国猪肉黄梨咖哩

Recipe source :  Adapted from Appon's Thai Food

November is going to be a spicy month for my family! I have bookmarked many more Thai dishes to try out. I believe my family is looking forward to them as well, as we love hot and spicy food. 

I have always love pineapples, either eaten fresh as a fruit, or made into sweet desserts or cooked into savoury dishes. One of my friends once commented that having pineapples in a savoury dish, makes the dish "exotic". I tend to agree as I think this pork and pineapple red curry look rather exotic. 

It sure looks exotic and tastes scrumptious! What a wonderful dish!

Ingredients

500g pork shoulder, cut into thick pieces
300g pineapples, cut into thick slices
450g snake beans, cut into sections of 4 cm
2 limes, extract the juice
250ml coconut milk
4 pieces kaffir lime leaves
700ml water
2 tbsp sugar
100g Thai red curry paste
1 tsp soya sauce

 

 Kaffir lime leaves and limes

Snake beans

 Pineapple cut into slices

Thai red curry paste

Instructions

1.  Heat wok and fry the Thai red curry paste for 1 minute.
2.  Add coconut milk, water and kaffir lime leaves. Bring to a boil.
3.  Add pork pieces, pineapple slices and snake beans.
4.  Add in the lime juice, sugar and soy sauce.
5.  Continue to boil until the meat is tender, about 20 minutes.

I am submitting this post to Asian Food Fest  (Thailand) - November Month
hosted by Lena of Frozen Wings

Thai Green Curry With Chicken 泰国青咖哩鸡

Thai Green Curry With Chicken 泰国青咖哩鸡

 
Recipe source :  Adapted from Bill Granger

I used to eat Thai green curry at restaurants and it has never crossed my mind that I would cook this one day. But I have always wondered what ingredients were used to make the green curry paste resulting in the greenish tinge of the cooked curry. Bill Granger's recipe provided the many ingredients used to make the green curry paste as well as provided the instructions to make it. But it seemed like a big portion to me.  Anyway, I did not feel like making green curry paste from scratch. 

So, I browsed through the shelves of supermarkets looking for Thai green curry paste. There were plenty of varieties to choose from. Most of them were in bottles and instructions given was to use only two or three tablespoons of the paste. I was not keen to buy them because I do not wish to store too many jars of leftover foodstuffs in my refrigerator which is already too crammed for space. I continued my search until I came across a package which mentioned the portion was just for one meal and it suited me just fine. Further reading of the labels and composition of the ingredients convinced me to buy it as it was more or less similar to Bill's recipe.

Ingredients

2 tbsp cooking oil 
100g green curry paste
700ml water
130g coconut milk
3 kaffir lime leaves
1 kg chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces
240g snake beans, cut into sections of 4 cm
180g aubergines, cut into chunky pieces
juice from 1 small lime

Left :  aubergines. Right : snake beans

Bottom : kaffir lime leaves and lime

Chicken

Green curry paste

Instructions

1.  Heat oil in a wok. Fry the green curry paste for 1 minute until fragrant.
2.  Add coconut milk, water and kaffir lime leaves. Cook for 5 minutes.
3.  Add in chicken pieces and cook for another 5 minutes.
4.  Add snake beans, aubergines and lime juice.
5.  Simmer over medium-high heat for 15 to 20 minutes until chicken is cooked.

 

I am submitting this post to Asian Food Fest  (Thailand) - November Month
hosted by Lena of Frozen Wings

I am linking this post to "Cook Like A Star"

 

Hosted by  Zoe from bake for Happy Kids and Yen from Eat Your Heart Out and Mich from Piece of Cake

Stir-Fried Snake Beans With Fermented Beans 蛇豆炒豆酱

Stir-Fried Snake Beans With Fermented Beans 蛇豆炒豆酱

A simple way to prepare a home-cooked dish.  I like to eat this with watery porridge especially on a hot sunny afternoon. 

 

Ingredients

400g snake beans
60g fermented soy beans
1 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp cooking oil
1 3/4 Chinese rice bowl water

Instructions

1.  Wash the snake beans. Cut into sections of 4 cm
2.  Heat 1 litre of water in a pot and bring to the boil add 1/2 tsp lye water (or kan sooi in Cantonese) Boil the snake beans for 3 to 4 minutes. Drain and wash the snake beans with tap water and set aside.
3.  Heat a wok and add cooking oil. Saute the minced garlic until fragrant.
4.  Add water and fermented beans and bring to the boil.
5.  Add the snake beans and let it simmer for another minute.
6.  Dish up and serve. 

Fermented beans