Tuesday 30 October 2012

Citrus Tofu with Onions and Peppers

Another one from my phone ap. Theirs was adapted from Bon Appetit and mine was greatly adapted from theirs because I don't have an oven.

Ingredients:
  • 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped (I could not find cilantro so I used 'hot greens')
  • 2/3 cup lime juice
  • 1/4 cup garlic, chopped
  • 3 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin, divided
  • 3/4 teaspoon smoked paprika, divided
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 block of tofu, cut into slices
  • 4 TBSP olive oil
  • 1 TBSP honey
  • 1 onion, cut into rounds
  • 2 red bell peppers, cut into slices
  • rice
Directions:
1) Mix the cilantro, lime juice, garlic and 3 teaspoons cumin, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, salt and pepper.








2) Pour half the mixture over the tofu and stir. The tofu may fall apart.








3) Toss the onion and red bell pepper with 2 TBSP olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon cumin, 1/4 teaspoon paprika and salt and pepper.






4) Saute the onion and red bell pepper. You may need to add more olive oil to keep it from burning as opposed to charring.







5) Cook the tofu in a pan.









6) Add 2 tablespoons and honey with the remaining cilantro and lime mixture and mix.
7) Serve the onion and red bell pepper with the tofu and the rice.

Monday 29 October 2012

Hot Garlicy Broccoli

Another one taken from an app on my phone. Not too hot though, don't worry!

Ingredients:
  • 1 TBSP oil
  • 1 jalapeno, sliced thin
  • 15 cloves of garlic, chopped
  • 1 inch of ginger, chopped
  • 1 head of broccoli
  • 2 TBSP soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup water or vegetable broth
  • rice
Directions:
1) Heat the oil in a pan.
2) Add the jalapeno, garlic and ginger and heat for 2-3 minutes.








3) Add the broccoli for about 5 minutes, until bright green.








4) Add the soy sauce and water or broth.
5) Serve with rice.




Garlic Parsley Toast

Pretty simple, but sometimes I don't think of a recipe until I see it, so I think other people must do the same thing.

I added more parsley than the original recipe called for because I just found out it's SUPER healthy. Better than kale healthy.

Ingredients:
  • 1 1/2 TBSP olive oil
  • 2 garlic cloves, smashed
  • 1 TBSP parsley, chopped
  • pinch of red pepper flakes
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 slices of wheat bread
Directions:
1) Mix the oil, garlic, parsley, red pepper and salt.
2) Put the bread in a pan until it is toasted on one side.
3) Flip and spread the oil mixture.
4) Allow to toast on the other side.






Of course, if you have a toaster oven or oven you can toast the bread at 450 F to your liking.

Saturday 27 October 2012

Spicy and Peppery Tofu

This was called 'black pepper tofu' but I guess I didn't add enough pepper or because it was no fresh ground the flavor didn't come though as much. Again, it came from the app on my phone.

Ingredients:
  • 1 block of tofu, cut into cubes
  • flour to dust the tofu
  • vegetable oil
  • 6 + 8 green onions, sliced then
  • 2 red chillies, thinly sliced
  • 6 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 1/2 TBSP ginger, chopped
  • 2 TBSP black pepper
  • 5 TBSP soy sauce
  • 1 TBSP sugar
  • rice
Directions:
1) Toss the tofu in the flour.
2) Put enough oil in a pan to come up 1/2 a cm and heat it.
3) Shake off excess flour and fry the tofu.
4) Put the tofu on a paper towel when you remove it from the oil.
5) In another pan (or clean the first one) add 1/2 cup of oil and heat to low heat.
6) Add the 6 green onions, red chillies, garlic, and ginger.
7) Saute until the contents are soft.

8) Add the soy sauce, sugar and pepper.
9) Add the tofu and 8 green onions.
10) Serve with rice.




Wednesday 24 October 2012

Potato Pakora

I've been wanting Indian food, and found this recipe on my phone. Probably should have cut the potatoes from circles into sticks, but now I know for next time! Also, I'll add more spice!

It didn't seem to matter that I used regular flour instead of chickpea flour either.

Ingredients:
  • 1 cup of flour
  • 1/2 cup of water
  • salt
  • chili powder
  • 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
  • 3 inches of ginger, chopped
  • 2 cups vegetable oil
  • 3 big potatoes, sliced thin
  • Paper towels
Directions:
1) Mix the flour and water.
2) Add the salt, pepper, garlic and ginger and mix well.
3) Heat the oil in a large frying pan.










4) Dip the potato in the flour mixture and add to the frying pan.
5) Fry until brown.






6) Remove from oil and place on paper towels to soak up excess oil.





Tuesday 23 October 2012

Spicy, Garlicy, Lemony Mushrooms

This recipe is supposed to have sherry and be Spanish, but I left that our since I couldn't find it, and added more lemon and hot pepper.

Ingredients:
  • 1/4 cup oil
  • 8 button mushrooms, quartered
  • 6 garlic cloves, diced
  • 1 red pepper, chopped
  • juice of 1 1/2 lemons
  • 1/4 cup water
  • salt, pepper and hot pepper powder
Directions:
1) Heat the oil to high heat.
2) Add the mushrooms and cook for 4-5 minutes, until tender.







3) Add the garlic, red pepper, lemon juice, water, salt, pepper and hot pepper powder and cook for 2-3 minutes.
4) Serve either alone or with rice or with bread.

Monday 22 October 2012

3-types-of-cooking stir fry

I had left over vegetables so what else to do other than make a stir fry. For this I braised the tofu just like here, fried eggplant and cooked the rest of the veggies in a pan.

Ingredients:
  • braised tofu
  • vegetable oil
  • 1 eggplant, sliced thin
  • salt and pepper
  • paper towels
  • 1 carrot, sliced thin
  • 1 cucumber, sliced thin
  • 1 jalapeno, chopped
  • 1 red onion, chopped
  • 3 tomatoes, chopped
  • rice
1) Cook the tofu as directed.









2) Heat vegetable oil in a pan, with enough oil to cover the bottom and go up about 1 cm.
3) Once the oil is hot but not smoking, add the eggplant. Depending on the size of your pan you may need to do this 2 or 3 times as you do not want to crowed the pan.





4) Flip the eggplant when it is brown on one side.
5) Remove the eggplant when it is brown on both sides and place on a paper towel.
6) Remove from the paper towel and add salt and pepper





7) Heat 3 TBSP oil in a pan.
8) Add the carrot for about 3-5 minutes.
9) Add the cucumber for 2-3 minutes.
10) Add the jalapeno and red onion for 2-3 minutes.
11) Add the tomatoes for 1-5 minutes, depending on how you like them cooked.
12) Serve the tofu and vegetables on top of rice with the eggplant on top to add crunch.

Tuesday 16 October 2012

Cold Sesame Noodles

These are the simplest and best noodles I've made so far! Why did I not make them before?? You need to have the stocked Asian kitchen though...Recipe taken from here.

Ingredients:
  • 10 oz noodles
  • 2 TBSP rice vinegar
  • 2 TBSP sesame oil
  • 1 TBSP soy sauce
  • 2 tsp sesame seeds
  • 1 tsp grated ginger
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • handful of green onions
  • 1 tsp crushed red pepper
Directions:
1) Cook the noodles.
2) Let cool.
3) Mix the rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, sesame seeds, ginger, salt, green onions and red pepper together.







4) Combine the noodles and sauce.
5) Serve with sesame seeds, spring onions and crushed red pepper on top.



Monday 15 October 2012

Homemade Mayo and Two Sandwiches to go with it

I've been told that mayo in Korea is really terrible, even by websites in Korea, so I decided to make my own--with a recipe from an English language Korean website!

Ingredients for the mayo:
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1/2 tsp mustard
  • 1 clove of garlic, diced
  • 1/2 cup + 1 TBSP olive oil
  • juice of 1/2 a lemon
  • salt and pepper
Directions:
1) Mix the egg yolk, mustard and garlic together.









2) Add the 1/2 cup of olive oil, a few drops at a time at first, and then once it seems more incorporated you can add it in a steady stream.
3) Add the lemon juice, salt and pepper.
4) Add the extra TBSP of olive oil if necessary





5) Store in an air-tight container.











2 good sandwich ideas:

Ingredients:
  • 2 slices of bread
  • cucumber, sliced
  • tomato, sliced
  • red onion, diced
  • mayo
  • lemon juice
OR
  • 1 slice of bread
  • 1 sunny side up egg

I liked the second one far better.