Similar to frying the broccoli, frying asparagus is also very simple. I read that roasting can bring up the aroma even better, and I might try next time.

Anyhow, here is my stir fry asparagus. Children don’t really like this dish because it is harder to chew compared to soft veggie like spinach.

Ingredients
1 bunch of asparagus
4-5 pcs of fuchuk/beancurd
1 tsp of finely chopped garlic

Method
1. Wash asparagus and bend them into approx 2″ sections.
2. If asparagus is big, you might need to peel off the hard outer skins near the root, or would be too rough to chew.
3. Cut fuchuk into halves.
4. Heat oil in wok. Add garlic and stir fry till fragrant.
5. Add in the remaining ingredients. Stir fry for a while.
6. Add in 1 cup of water and simmer with cover for a few minutes.
7. Remove the cover, add in seasoning and fry a few times before serving.

One seasoning that I like for vegetarian dish is the Vegetarian G Powder (素G粉). It is made of soy bean, and tastes better than ajinomoto. Using this makes dishes tastes better than salt!!

I love drinking soup. But because I don’t eat meat/chicken any more, MIL/Mother stopped making soup. Or, if they make soup using pork/chicken, I can’t drink.

Finally, after moving to my own house, I started cooking and I found this recipe in MPH, that gives many creative ideas to make Vegetarian Chinese Soups. You just won’t believe how yummy they are, even without meat!!

Here is Zhu Sheng, Lotus Roots and Dried Black Mushrooms Soup/ 竹笙莲藕冬菇汤. ZhuSheng is a type of mushroom, I heard it grows around bamboo area. It looks and tastes like fishmaw.

Ingredients
1oz Zhu Sheng (1/3 pack)
8 dried shitake mushrooms
600g lotus roots (roughly 1 large, or 3 small)
100g red kidney beans or peanuts
1/4 dried tangerine peel

Method
1. Soak and wash ZhuSheng until soft and does not smell acidic. Scald, rinse and drain it.
2. Soak dried mushrooms until soft. Rinse and drain.
3. Wash lotus roots, remove skin and cut into large pieces.
4. Wash beans/peanuts and soak for 1-2 hours.
5. Soak dried tangerine peel until soft and remove pith.
6. Boil 1.5L water together with tangerine peel.
7. Add all other ingredients and bring to boil again. Reduce to low heat and cook for 2 hours.
8. If you prefer, season with salt (I prefer without).

Will cover in next post, how to turn the lotus root in this soup into another dish. Yes, turned it into a very yummy appetizer!!

:p I think everyone know how to fry broccoli, so this post is like… err… stating the obvious! But then, I still remember when I first fried broccoli many years ago, I really didn’t know how to handle it! :p

This dish is actually ‘vegetarian’ broccoli. Usually people use prawns or beef/pork fillets to add sweetness, but because I don’t eat these, I added other stuff instead.

Ingredients
1 broccoli
1/2 carrot
1/2 can of button mushrooms
4-5 pcs of fried fuchuk (beancurd)
1 cup of water

Method
1. Wash and cut broccoli into bite sizes.
2. Remove carrot’s skin and slice it.
3. Wash and rinse mushrooms, slice it.
4. Tear fuchuk into halves.
5. Heat oil in wok. Add all ingredients when wok is hot enough.
6. Stir fry for a while. Add in 1 cup of water. Cover wok and simmer for a few minutes.
7. Uncover, stir fry a few times and serve hot.

Before I stop taking meat, making carrots soup is so common – just add those pork ribs and carrots and a lot of onions. Now, it is harder, because if only use carrots without pork ribs, the taste may be too plain.

To bring up more flavour, we need to add in other ingredients which are not common in non-vegetarian soups. In this recipe, the book uses some almonds, which is actually very good for lungs.

Ingredients
1 medium size white radish
2 regular size carrots
4 pieces of vegetarian chicken (or a handful of dried mussles for non-vegetarian)
4 tbsp of sweet (south) almonds (南杏)
1 tbsp of bitter (north) almonds (北杏)
2 candied dates (蜜枣)
1/4 dried tangerine peel (陈皮)

Method
1. Peel radish and carrots. Cut into large pieces.
2. Wash and drain vegetarian chicken (if using mussles, soak for a while).
3. Bring 1.5L water to the boil together with dried tangerine peel.
4. Add in other ingredients and bring to boil again.
5. Reduce to low heat, continue cooking for 2 hours.
6. Season with salt if prefer (don’t think necessary).

About a month ago, when I went to Jusco supermarket with MIL, we saw this frozen vegetarian curry chicken (forgot to take a photo, the packaging is green in colour). I bought a pack to try, for those days that I need to add a dish when I have extra guest.

I cooked it finally, when PILs came for dinner at the last minute. After heated it as per instructed, it smells good:

But then, the taste is not good. The potato is way too lumpy, and the gravy is just too spicy (like the chilly oil spiciness, not the fragrant curry spicy). Chicken quite tasteless too.

I will never buy this again.

Last year my best friends introduced me to couscous, but since I didn’t cook much last year, I didn’t really pay attention to it. However, the impression of couscous still stays as –> a very simple and easily made dish.

I couldn’t find couscous in many stores here, but one day surprisingly I found it in Carrefour Kepong (couldn’t even find in Tesco Mutiara).

So, I bought 1 pack for a trial. Surprisingly, I love the taste and it is really simple to make. What I need is just some pasta sauce and some vegetables.

I made this a few times already, and every time the ingredients varies, really depend on what I have in my fridge.

For this one above, I happened to have only some carrots and zucchini left, and I was cooking for myself only. If you have other stuff in your fridge, you can make many variations from it. One that I really like is the combination of eggplants (brinjal), zucchini and carrots. You can use other ingredients like mushrooms, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. And if you like meat, you can include some sausages too.

INGREDIENTS
1/2 zucchini sliced
1/2 carrot sliced
4 to 6 spoonful of tomato pasta sauce (depending on how much saucy you like)
1/2 cup couscous
1 cup boiling water
1 tsp olive oil
Some salt to taste
A pinch of ground nutmeg

METHOD
1. Fry vegetables till golden and frangrant.
2. Add tomato paste and stir fry until well mixed.
3. Cover couscous with boiled water and olive oil and seasonings. Wait for 5 min (or depending on what written on package).
4. Serve couscous on plate together with vegetables.

Yummy, delicious, simple and filling lunch for me!

This was my first baking in 2009… a bit too sweet to my liking, but still edible. I think the amount of sugar should be reduced by half.

It is very simple with recipe below, but I would suggest to reduce sugar by half or it would be too sweet…

4 ripe bananas
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup sugar (reduce if you don’t like it too sweet)
2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup choc chips (or chopped walnuts, or both!)

1. Mash bananas. Add oil and sugar. Mix well.
2. Add flour, salt, and baking powder together and add to the banana mixture. Mix until the flour is blended (do not beat).
3. Pour into muffin pans and bake at 180C for 20-25 min or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Makes 1 Dozen Muffins
[Source: Veg Cooking]

I found this very healthy vegan moist chocolate cake from chowtimes. It is an extremely easy to bake cake, with very little ingredients. I baked one on Sunday, brought a piece to the office for my colleague, she loved it! She is very picky in desserts, and she liked it, so I think I passed the test.

Here is the very easy recipe.

(A)
3 cups of flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoon cocoa powder

(B)
2 cups water
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla (I used only 1/2 spoon, coz I don’t like vanilla)
2 tablespoon vinegar (I substituted with lemon juice – required for its acidity to react with baking soda)
8 tablespoon oil (I used olive oil)

Method
Mixed (B) until sugar melted.
Pour mixture (B) into (A), mix well.
Optional: you may add chopped nuts into the mixture, and then topped with choc chips. I love this combination.
Pout into baking pan, baked 35-40 min at 180c