Tofu Steak with Carrot Salad

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Tofu steak

Seasoned and grilled, tofu breaks out of its typical image of being bland and tasteless. Tofu is so versatile you can put any spice or sauce of your choice. Growing up in Korea, one of my favorite dishes was pan-fried tofu with soy sesame sauce. It is damn simple but so tasty.

For tofu steak, you need to pat dry a block of firm tofu, slice about 1cm thick, lightly coat with rice flour and spice, pan-fry with coconut oil for about 3-4 minutes each side until outside is brown and crispy. I like mine to be still firm texture, but for more crispy skin you can use egg and breadcrumbs. You can serve grilled tofu with salads like me or serve with rice and soy sauce for more Asian flavour. Some people marinate tofu for hours or even a day before cooking if you want tofu to soak up all the flavour. To make soy dressing, combine soy sauce or tamari, minced garlic and ginger, chopped spring onion, sake or cooking wine, sesame seeds and sesame oil. Drizzle over the steak and enjoy!

For the salads I mixed cooked French lentils, grated orange and purple carrots, red onion and green salads. It is raw, refreshing, crunch and colourful.

Tofu steak

Posted in: Dinner, Gluten Free, Lunch, My recipes, Vegetarian

Chicken Green Curry

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Chicken Green Curry

I’m not a curry person. I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve had a few bad dining experience in Indian restaurant or I don’t like too strong curry flavour. When I went to this Indian restaurant in Northbridge years ago, Goat curry was my very first curry I had ever tried – fail! way too strong. I could even chew raw garlic and ginger and goat meat was tough like jerky >.< Then I tried another curry house where I had tandoori chicken with naan bread – fail again! dry chicken and greasy naan. So that kind of put me off a little from Indian curry. I prefer more mild version of Korean or Japanese or Thai curry. Our Sunday lunch was Thai chicken green curry. I have to admit I took a short-cut using a packet of green curry paste from the shop, which was why I felt like something missing in the flavour. Maybe more lemongrass and green chilli would have been nice although chicken breast was cooked perfectly – juicy. I served with mixed red rice and daikon kimchi.

I always mix different types of rice when I cook one because plain white rice is quite bland and has poor nutrition in it (high GI and carbohydrates). Red rice has more of a nutty flavour, crunchy texture, dietary fibre, vitamins and iron – yes, sounds better than white rice! Whole grains stabilise blood sugar level and make you full longer. So when you go down to the markets next time, try to grab some wild rice, red rice or brown rice. All the pretty colourful ones! If it is too tough in your palate or hard to digest, mix it through white rice how much you want. You just need to soak in water before cooking or take a bit longer to cook them. To make green curry more green, I used green spring onions, zucchini and coriander. Very satisfying yummy lunch in no time 🙂

I made my very first vanilla sago pudding for dessert using the left over coconut milk. So much coconut in my tummy today. It is fact that coconut milk contains high saturated fat, but also contains high levels of minerals like iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium and zinc. Saturated fat in coconut products has different structure (short and medium chain fatty acids), which means they provide good energy and nutrition to your body, but not stored as body fat. However, consuming too much of it obviously will lead to weight gain. Or if you already have high cholesterol level or a risk of cardiovascular disease, you need to limit your intake.

I like using coconut oil in stir-fries, baking and moisturiser for my skin, drinking coconut water for rehydration after exercise and coconut milk for delicious curry and dessert. So enjoy coconut in moderation for your health x

Chicken Green Curry

Posted in: Dinner, Gluten Free, Lunch, My recipes

Pomegranate Pumpkin Quinoa Salad

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pomegranate

Another antioxidant rich food – Pomegranate! It’s loaded with vitamins and potassium. Researches show this power fruit buffers the effects of free radical damage, increase oxygen levels to your heart and reduce the redness of arthritis. It also reduces risk of cancers, especially prostate and breast cancer.

These juicy little guys are a great snack as it is – so yummy popping in your mouth. You can also make juice. Pomegranates are one of the few fruits where juice is as beneficial as the fruit or seeds. I recommend using on salads like me, which not only gives a lovely presentation but also provides a beautiful sweet and acidic flavour. I warn you, though, when you cut open pomegranates and take all these seeds out it will stain your fingers, clothes and kitchen bench. I was so excited about cutting and squeezing the fruit, and next thing I realised was it’s a little late to wear my apron. Oh well.. it’s fun cleaning all up after cooking too, isn’t it? >.<  To prevent all this mess, you can soak pomegranates in the bowl of water and work in the bowl, removing seeds from the flesh. All seeds will sink to the bottom of the bowl, so you need to drain well afterwards.

pomegranate salad

I used butternut pumpkin, quinoa, shredded green and purple cabbage, red onions and green salad today. It looks so vibrant and colourful!

Examples of other salads that go well with pomegranates? Think about 3 things – colours, flavour and texture.

I think it goes well with…
– roasted sweet potato, pine nuts and green salad
– prosciutto, caramelised pear, blue cheese, roasted pecan
– Mediterranean cous cous salad
– shaved fennel and orange salad
– wild rice, feta cheese and green salad
– apple, walnut and kale salad

Need protein? Try with…
– duck
– chicken
– prawns
– cheese, especially pan-fried halloumi cheese

There you are.. there is plenty to try if you didn’t know how to use pomegranates in your food. Personally I don’t think you need salad dressing here. Just season and drizzle a good quality of e.v.o.o. I’m going to add Moroccan spiced chicken breast to that salad for dinner tonight. What is your choice? x

 

Posted in: Dinner, Gluten Free, Lunch, My recipes, salads, Vegetarian

A Bowl of Goodness

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It’s January. Everyone is talking about New Year’s resolutions, which of course include words like “diet”, “cleansing”, “getting into size6”. As a salad person, it is a shame to see people associate it with “skinny” food. Well I think it deserves more culinary attention than that. Vegetables are satisfying super healthy food that offers us a variety of nutrition, texture and flavour. Of course, just eating veggies without sufficient protein and fat will cause an imbalance in nutrition and make you feel hungry later. You don’t have to starve yourself and chew on celery to lose weight. It’s all about making little changes without killing the enjoyment. The key to health is home cooking, moderation and regular physical activities/ exercise. Enjoy your life and don’t be too harsh on yourselves:)

You need to make your food interesting for our every day enjoyment of eating. Nourish your senses! Think about flavour when savouring a mouthful (sweet, sour, salty), texture (crunchy, creamy, crisp, juicy), and nutrition (a balance of carbs, protein and fat). Add nuts and seeds to your salad for crunchiness. Need protein? Add any kind of meat, fish or tofu to your bowl. Sweet tooth? No problem. Add candied nuts, chopped dried fruits or roasted root vegetables, which has natural sweetness in them. See they can satisfy you as well as give you the requisite health benefits. Still not sure? Do your research or even ask me:) I get so excited just talking about it.

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My lunch is usually in a bowl. It is easy to prepare for a single person and means no dishes 🙂

To make this quinoa and veggie salad, I just take out whatever leftover I have in the fridge – butternut pumpkin, eggplant, sage, basil and quinoa. Simply cook them up and put in a bowl. A trick is to cook quinoa in a pot and add veggies towards the end. Then they get beautifully steamed and again no additional dishes. I add a miso dressing for extra flavour and healthy fat.

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Another example of salad bowl is Salad Niçoise with tuna. I think it is a great emergency meal when you don’t have time to go down to the shops or have no time to cook. There is not much cooking process involved in this dish except boiling egg and potato. Put together semi boiled egg, fresh or canned tuna, boiled potato, olives, anchovies and green beans on a bed of green salad. Dress with mustard vinaigrette.

Posted in: Dinner, Gluten Free, My recipes, salads, Vegetarian

Perfect Summer Dinner

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I would like to think I should appreciate the glorious summer days in Perth. But it’s hard when it has been almost 40 degrees a few days in a row. All I want to do is having air-conditioning on, sipping on cold drinks and watching some movies at home since I’m not a beach person. When it comes to cooking, I do not want to stand in front of hot oven or stove on hot days like this >.< I had my in=laws over for dinner last night and had to come up with something easy to put together, supper healthy, impressive and packed with flavour. I’ve cooked for them a number of times, which means a menu planning is getting harder since I need to introduce new ingredients and new flavours  to them. To me, it is the exciting part of dinner parties coming up with good dishes that guests would enjoy and have good memories on.

Anyways it took me about 1 1/2 hours to prepare trio bruschettas, pumpkin and quinoa salad, balsamic braised red cabbage and orange salad, Spanish chicken and Rice pudding for dessert.

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Balsamic onion jam, roast beef and blue cheese on home-made rosemary bread.
I sealed 300g of lean beef cut in hot pan for about 5 minutes, then transferred to 180 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Take it out of the oven and rest the meat for 20-30 minutes. Meat should be pink in the middle and so tender melting away in your mouth. I used onion jam that I made last week underneath and topped with slices of blue cheese. You can add horseradish cream instead which is also a great combination with roast beef, of course.

Roasted red grapes, brie cheese, walnuts and honey on bread
Sweet grapes and creamy brie cheese goes well here. Drizzle of honey really tops it off. Simply assemble roasted grapes and thyme, slices of brie cheese, toasted walnuts and honey. Easy peasy:)

Grilled mushrooms and brie cheese on bread
Earthy flavour of mushrooms and brie also creates a great combination. I drizzled truffle oil on top as well, which is quite subtle but enhances flavour even more.

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Moving on to salads..

Balsamic braised red cabbage and orange salad
Braise shredded red cabbage in a splash of balsamic until it gets tender (cook less if you want more crunchy salad). Garnish with orange, basil, sunflower seeds and poppy seeds. More balsamic reduction on top if you wish!

Roasted pumpkin and quinoa salad
Mix roasted pumpkin, cooked quinoa, green salads and goji berries. Season and dress with e.v.o.o.

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Hero of the table is Spanish chicken.
Cook one chopped onion and 800g chicken breast in the casserole dish until they are brown. Season with salt and pepper. Add garlic, potato, green olives, sun-dried tomatoes, preserved lemon, tomato passata and smoked paprika. Braise for about 30 minutes in low to medium heat. Garnish with chopped green spring onions.

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Dessert was vanilla rice pudding with mango and toasted coconut.
Cook arborio rice in milk, sugar, vanilla extract for 20-30 minutes until rice is well done. Top with slices of mango and toasted coconut to serve.

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I hope they all enjoyed it x

Posted in: Dinner, My recipes