Spicy Tofu

This is called spicy tofu for a reason, but the flavors of mushroom, celery, and garlic all come together perfectly. I hesitantly tried and modified this recipe from 'Simply Delicious Vegetarian' by Carla Bardi. This cookbook is not my favorite, but I bought it from the discount shelves of Barnes & Noble for $5 and figured I'd eventually give a few of these recipes a shot. Happy to have tried this one, though I reduced the liquids called for quite a bit and added mushroom soy sauce (which is thicker than regular soy sauce) for extra flavor.

1 floret of dried black flower mushroom, soaked for 15 minutes in hot water, drained, water reserved, and diced finely

1 block tofu, cubed

2 tbs peanut oil

2 stalks celery, finely diced

3 cloves garlic

2 red chilli peppers, sliced on the diagonal

1 vegetable bullion cube

1 tbs soy sauce

1 tbs mushroom soy sauce

1 tbs toasted sesame oil

1 tsp sugar

1 tbs water

1 tsp cornstarch

ground pepper

1.) Dry fry the cubes of tofu in an un-oiled skillet, tossing gently every few minutes, for about 10 minutes, until the tofu is golden on all sides. This removes a lot of moisture and firms up the tofu for better texture.

2.) Meanwhile, soak the black mushrooms in hot water.

3.) Heat peanut and sesame oil in a skillet. Add the peppers, garlic and celery and cook for several minutes to soften.

4.) Add the soy sauce, mushroom soy sauce, half cup of the drained mushroom soaking water, vegetable bullion cube and sugar to the skillet and continue to stir.

5.) Add the tofu and mix well, adding water if needed.

6.) Mix the cold water and cornstarch together in a cup and mix slowly into the skillet, stirring constantly. This will thicken the mixture and give it a nice glazed look.

7.) Season with pepper and sprinkle with diced black mushrooms.

Serve with rice, bok choy, or other grains and vegetables for a complete and completely delicious meal.

Wilted Bok Choy with Cashews

This has got to be the fastest vegetable to cook besides, say, spinach or zucchini blossoms. Literally, I feel a little silly even writing up a 'recipe' for this delicious side dish because it's just that easy.

I use about a head of baby bok choy per serving. With a little bit of toasted sesame oil heating in a skillet, add the bok choy leaves, halved, to the oil. Dash about 1 tbs of soy sauce per head, a sprinkle or two of red pepper flakes and in moments, the bok choy is tender. Be careful not to over cook! Mushy bok choy is about as appetizing as soggy broccoli. Chop a handful of roasted cashews and sprinkle over bok choy just before serving. Enjoy!

Dry Red Curry of Tofu, Green Beens and Baby Corn

If you've got the pre-made curry sauce, this recipe is a no brainer. If not, see the recipe on Penang Duck for the list of ingredients.

2 tbs vegetable oil

4 cloves garlic, diced

1 tbs ginger, diced

1 block of tofu, drained and cubed

large bunch of green beans, washed and trimmed

1 punnet of baby corn, quartered

2 tbs sugar

2 tbs fish sauce

handful of fresh basil leaves, torn

1.) Heat the vegetable oil in a skillet or wok on medium low temperature. Add the garlic and slowly fry until golden.
2.) Add the curry paste and stir until well combined. Add a few tbs of water if needed, as moisture will evaporate as it is cooked.
3.) Turn up the heat and add the tofu, and allow to cook for several minutes.
4.) Add the green beans, baby corn, fish sauce, and sugar, and stir fry for a few minutes longer.
5.) Add the basil right before serving.

Corn and Polenta Pancakes with Salsa Crudi

Incredibly easy to make, just like other pancakes really. This is a modified version from one of my favorite cookbooks 'Homestyle Vegetarian' by Murdoch Books. I usually make it for breakfast, but then I have something left over and will eat it again for lunch or dinner the next day. These pancakes stave off hunger for hours, so it's a perfect breakfast before a long bike ride or a hike, or just a long afternoon of shopping the fleamarkets. This recipe serves 4.

Salsa

2 tomatoes, diced

1 cup frozen soy beans, blanched

2 tbs chopped fresh basil

4'' piece of cucumber, diced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tbs balsamic vinegar

1/2 tbs olive oil

Add all the ingredients of the salsa together and allow marinade itself in the juices, vinegar and oil.

Pancakes

1 cup flour

1 cup polenta

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1/2 cup corn kernels, frozen or canned

olive oil (for frying)

1.) Mix all the dry ingredients together.
2.) Slowly mix in the milk until the batter is a thick but pour-able consistency.
3.) Add the corn kernels and mix well.
4.) Heat a small amount of olive oil in a skillet and pour about 2 tbs of the batter into the skillet per pancake. Depending on the size of the skillet, you can fry about 2-3 pancakes at a time.
5.) Flip the pancakes after about 2 minutes, or when the underside becomes golden brown. Cook another 2 minutes. Add olive oil when necessary, using all of the batter.

Veggie Burritos

I make burritos like this whenever I have a few tortilla shells and a few fresh bell peppers. The other ingredients are things I always have in the pantry: kidney beans, textured soy, beef bullion and spices. The recipe can be modified to what you have on hand, but I use 'Soya Rouhe' (or soy grains) to make a 'beefy' consistency.

1 cup textured soy

1 cup boiling water

1 cube beef bullion (lihaliemi)

1 tbs vegetable oil

1 red bell pepper

1 green bell pepper

1 tsb chilli powder (or more if you like it spicy)

1 tbs paprika (optional)

1/2 cup pre-cooked, drained beans (kidney or black beans work well)

4 flour tortilla shells

2-3 tbs tomato paste

white cheese, like Manchego or Jack (optional)

1.) Preheat the oven to 175C.

2.) Bring to a boil the water, add the buillion cube and dissolve. Add the soy and combine well. Allow the soy to soak and absorb all the water. Adding water or soy as needed until the consistency is like that of cooked ground beef.

3.) Heat the oil in a skillet on medium heat. Add the peppers and some chopped garlic and onion if you like. Heat through until soft, but not brown. Add the spices.

4.) Add the vegetables, 1 tbs tomato paste and beans to the soy mixture. Mix well, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

5.) Roll 1/4 of the mixture into each tortilla shell and place in a greased casserole dish.

6.) Mix the remaining 2 tbs tomato paste with 2 tbs water and drizzle or brush the tops of the burritos with this sauce. Sprinkle the grated cheese if using.

7.) Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes.

Serve with salsa and avocados, sweet potato hash, or anything else that you like. Remember, this can be modified and customized to your preferences. Sometimes I like to throw in some frozen corn, extra garlic, cilantro, or whatever extra stuff I have around.

Sweet Potato and Tofu Curry

I was excited about my new cookbook 'Travels with Thai Food' (Brierty & Fear, 2007) that it didn't matter that it was 11pm. I was hungry, I had ingredients in my fridge and inspiration. I was bored? No no, inspired, yes.  Anyway, cooking at night's always a problem for my photo taking, but too bad, because there wasn't going to be any leftovers to foto the next day. This was going straight in mah belleh! Mmmmmmm..... Spic-ay!

The recipes in 'Travels with Thai Food' include customized curries for each curry recipe, though I've found very little variation in many of the pastes that are used for the base of the curries. The basic ingredients for many of these pastes are (in varying proportions): chillies, galangal (have yet to find out what this really is), ginger, lemongrass, lime zest, coriander, onion, garlic, white pepper, cumin, and depending on the other ingredients, something like nutmet, basil, tamarind, keffir lime and so on.

So since using a pestle and mortar to grind up a paste, of which you end up using only a few table spoons for each curry, I bought a pre-made red Panang Thai curry from the Asian market and tweek it with a few of my own spices later if necessary. This saves me a lot of time. I know with the right technique, using a pestle and mortar isn't so laborious, but to me, it often feels like it.

Here I'll list the Red Curry Paste ingredients for anyone interested, but I do admit I took a rather big, and recommendable shortcut:
10 dried chillies, deseeded and soaked in water until soft
salt
1 tbs chopped galangal
2 tbs chopped lemongrass
1 tsp lime zest
2 coriander roots scraped
2 tbs chopped onion
4 tbs chopped garlic
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Curry
1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
2 tbs vegetable oil
salt and pepper
1 cup coconut milk
1 tbs sugar (palm sugar if you have it)
1 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs finely diced ginger
half block of tofu, cubed (I dry mine out in a dry non stick skillet on low heat for 10 minutes before using)
basil
4 keffir lime leaves (I buy mine semi-dried and keep them in the fridge for weeks)
half red chilli, in slivers for garnish
1/4 cup cashews crushed for garnish

1.) Preheat the oven to 200C. Prepare the paste if you are making yourself.
2.) Toss the sweet potato in the salt pepper and olive oil and spread evenly on a lined baking sheet. Bake the sweet potato for abotu 45 minutes or until goldenbrown and soft.
3.) Combine the coconut milk and 3 tbs red paste in a hot skillet or wok and mix well. Add the sugar, soy sauce, ginger and tofu and begin to cook about 5 minutes.
4.) Bring the mixture to a boil and add the basil and lime leaves. Then add the sweet potato, toss and remove from heat.

5.) Serve garnished with the fresh chilli and cashews.

Buttermilk (Disco) Biscuits

These have got to be the most simple biscuits one can ever make. Also, some of the most delicious because of how buttery and soft they are. They're not yeasted, so there's no rising time involved. The only slightly 'work' part to it is rolling out the (slightly sticky) dough and cutting out the circles (with a cup, for example). But you don't even have to do that, you could just roll up balls and flatten them on the surface of your baking sheet.

Best part was that I made a ton and froze some unbaked. This I did by laying them flat on a baking sheet and putting the whole sheet in the freezer. When the unbaked biscuits were frozen, I took them off the sheet and bagged them and put them back in the freezer. (Bagging them before they're frozen will result in them all sticking together into one big biscuit)

Then, when you have a craving for the biscuits, just turn up the oven to 200C and pop them in there, still frozen. No need to preheat the oven. Just wait about 15 minutes and you'll have freshly baked biscuits without without any mess or prep. This is especially convenient for making a special breakfast. I used these when my family was in town the other week and whipped up some vegetarian gravy to pour over them. I also love to make eggs benedict when there's the occassion. I would never make the hollandaise sauce for myself, but with company it's soo nice. So I think the buttermilk biscuits are the best thing to serve eggs benedict on.

To the recipe finally?

2 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter, chilled and cubed
1 cup buttermilk, chilled (in Finland this is known as Piima and is a common drink option in lunch cafeterias, as well as homemade beer and other milk)

1.) First mix the dry ingredients.
2.) Mix in the butter, with your hands if you like, it goes faster that way. Work fast so that the butter doesn't melt. Mix until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
3.) Into a small well in the center of the mixture, pour in the buttermilk and mix in just enough that the dough all holds together.
4.) Roll out onto a lightly floured surface into about 1'' thick.
5.) Using a wide cup or cutter, cut out rounds of about 3'' in diameter (or however big you want your biscuits, but remember they will rise quite a lot!) Re-roll and re-use the scrap dough and make as many biscuits as you can.
6.) Bake in a preheated oven 200C for 15-20 minutes (or freeze some if you like). They should be tall and golden by then.

Eggs Benedict

This is the favorite breakfast of someone very special to me. And once you've gotten the hang of it, it's not too difficult to whip it up. There is a certain technique to keeping the egg together, but I'll try to describe it as best as I can, and maybe one of these days I'll get around to a video post.

I think two eggs makes a reasonable serving for eggs benedict, and use three yolks to make the hollandaise sauce. The sauce is good for about two, so the poached eggs will be altogether 4 for two servings. If you're going to make the effort you might as well go all out. Heck, if you're having more guests you can easily make more servings, once you've got the set-up just right.

I especially love the Chesapeake version of this with fresh crabmeat and Old Bay on them, but alas it's not so available in Finland, so I'll do without. Next time I poach eggs I'd like to try to Eggs Florentine, but ok, enough eggs for now.

4 eggs

3 egg yolks (whites removed and reserved)

2 tbs white vinegar

a pinch of salt

3 tbs lemon juice

3 tbs butter

white pepper (optional)

Old Bay (optoinal)

parsley flakes (optional)

1.) Start a pot of water to boil, not filling it to the top. Add about 2 tablespoons (tbs) of white vinegar or lemon juice and salt to the water. Turn the boil down to a simmer. You'll want the water boiling ever so slightly, lest the bubbles disturb the lovely shape of the poached eggs.

2.) Start a second pot of water ready for a double boiler. Add the butter to the top bowl and melt over the double boiler.

2.) Separate the yolks of 3 eggs. You can reserve the whites for something else, freeze them. Sometimes I even poach just the whites and use the yolks for the hollandaise, to be ever so slightly more health conscious. But let's face it, one of the best things of a poached egg is the over easy yolk in the center.

3.) Then, crack one egg to start into a small dish, like a rammekin or a souffle cup.

4.) Make a small whirlpool with a slotted spoon in the simmering water. Bring the rammekin as close to the water as possible, and slide the egg into the water gently. The whirlpool effect of the water should keep the egg in a round shape. Allow the egg to simmer approximately 2 minutes. If there is room in the pot, it is possible to poach 2 eggs at one time, but be careful not to break the eggs while they are poaching.

5.) Meanwhile, add the egg yolks to the melted butter on the double boiler. Stir continuously until mixed. Add the lemon juice and seasonings, and continue stirring until the mixture thickens and the mixture becomes more opaque. If you stop stirring at some point, take the bowl off the double boiler to avoid the yolk hardening and making a lumpy hollandaise.

6.) After 2 minutes of poaching the egg, lift out of the water with a slotted spoon and allow as much water as possible to drain off of the egg.

7.) Serve poached eggs on toast or a butter milk biscuit and top with hollandaise sauce. This may also be good with slender asparagus stalks, fresh spinach, or a number of other ingredients.

Dinner in Tallinn

Steamed perch fish with asparagus risotto, herb sauce in a frothy sauce with strawberries. I never thought this would make a good combination.

We had this dinner in old town square in Tallinn, Estonia. The idea was Estonian-modern food and it was affordable and gourmet. And above all delicious.

While we were sitting eating and achapello group of singers joined the square and we watched the sunset :)

Lunch in Stockholm

Delicious baked salmon in a delicate mushroom cream sauce. Now if only I could remember the name of the restaurant. It had a lovely little outdoor terrace in the old town, across from a deli restaurant and caddy-corner to an Irish restaurant. Not too far from Morvic's where we had Jan's birthday dinner last May.