Posts Tagged ‘recipe’

 

Mapo tofu

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

We’re planning out weekly food menus again and it’s working wonderfully. We eat better, spend less money and I’m less cranky when it’s already decided what we’re eating.

I’ve had a week and a half of holiday and we’ve been going here and there in Skåne, taking walks and enjoying ourselves. I’ve spent an unholy amount of time in the kitchen making up new recipes and cooking up a storm. It’s been a blast but it’s also been insane in this heat.

Yesterday I cooked up some mapo tofu using a recipe from Vegetarian Times. I was reading through the recipe when I realised it told me to use 12 oz of soy crumbles. I converted it to metirc and thought ‘holy shmoly that can feed and entire nation of hungry people’. Only, it said soy crumbles, not TVP and I don’t have the former.

So, here’s the recipe with my alterations, using TVP instead of packaged soy crumbles. It was soo delicious. This is one of my new absolute favourite dishes! (ps. aren’t my Swedish glasses awesome, they have dala horses on them!)

Mapo tofu

Mapo Tofu:

Serves 4

  • 250 ml (1 cup) TVP mince
  • 600 ml (2½ cups) vegetable stock
  • 1 tbsp chinese soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp canola oil
  • 4 green onions (about 4 tbsp)
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 3 tbsp fermented black bean sauce
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 150 ml (2/3 cups) water
  • 1 package (about 400gr/14 oz) firm tofu
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 1½ tsp cornstarch
  • 1½ tsp hot chili oil

Put TVP mince in a bowl and reconstitute it using hot vegetable stock. Add the soysauce and stir. While the TVP is swelling prepare the other ingredients. Chop green onions and garlic finely. Drain the tofu and cut it into 1 cm/½ inch cubes. In a large skillet on medium heat, heat canola oil and add garlic and 3 tbsp green onions. Saute for about 2 minutes. Drain the TVP mince of any excess liquid and add it to the pan. Add black bean sauce, sugar and the 150 ml (2/3 cup) water. Bring the mixture to a simmer and then add the tofu cubes. Simmer the tofu for about three minutes, until heated through. Whisk together the cornstarch with 2 tbsp water and add the cornstarch slurry to the pan. Cook for about a minute, until the sauce thickens a bit. Take off the heat and add the chili oil, stir through. Serve with rice and garnish with green onions. A little bit of chinese soy sauce is good with it.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | 11 Comments »

 

Spelt salad with mango vinaigrette

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

What a day it’s been. I was sick yesterday and couldn’t go to work and today was so so. Alex spent all morning today updating and redoing my blog from scratch. Pretty much everything looks the same, but the code has been changed quite a bit (it should load faster now) and we’ve done some small tweaks. If anything isn’t working like it should please let me know so we can fix it. It should look OK in IE now too, which is great.

mango vinaigrette

Other things going on.. well, we had this wonderful spelt salad today with a fruity and tangy mango vinaigrette. That was nice. It was also not too hard on my stomach which is still quite upset from yesterdays sickness. And most of all, this was delicous and addictive. I could see myself eating this all summer. Making fruit vinaigrettes is such a fantastic thing to do.. another favourite of mine is a raspberry vinaigrette, or one with strawberries, lime and basil. Yum.

The spelt salad itself was simple and made with easy to find, delicous ingredients. The mix was great, creamy avocado, crunchy pumpkin seeds, nutty and chewy spelt which made for an interesting eating experience. If you don’t have white balsamico the normal kind works just as well, it just has a different colour.

Spelt salad

Spelt salad: Serves 2-3

  • 200 ml (3/4 cup + 1 tbsp) whole spelt berries
  • 1 small red onion
  • 1 tsp white balsamico
  • 1/4 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp oil
  • 1 carrot
  • 1 avocado
  • 4 sun dried tomatoes in oil (drained)
  • 500 ml (2 cups) loosely packed spinach
  • 4 tbsp chopped parsley
  • 4 tbsp pumpkin seeds

Cook spelt berries according to instructions (mine takes 1 part spelt, 2 parts water and a little salt and needs to simmer for 20-25 mins). Drain and let the spelt cool. Meanwhile, cut the red onion into thin half moons and mix in a small bowl with the balsamico, oil and sugar and let marinade while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. This makes the onion more mellow and much tastier. Thinly slice your carrot into half moons. Dice the avocado and finely chop the sundried tomatoes. Tear the spinach into smaller pieces. Mix all the vegetables together in a big bowl and add the spelt. Mix in the chopped parsley and lastly put the pumkin seeds on top. Serve with nice bread and the mango vinaigrette.

Mango vinaigrette: Serves 2-3

  • 60 ml (1/4 cup) cubed mango (I use frozen, thawed)
  • 3 tbsp white balsamico
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/8 tsp ground chili flakes
  • salt and black pepper

In a small mixer or blender, mix the mango, balsamico and oilve oil until it’s smooth. Add in the chili flakes and season to taste with salt and black pepper. Enjoy!

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | 17 Comments »

 

Vegan Jerusalem artichoke soup

Sunday, October 7th, 2007

We’re currently working on translating all the recipes here to Swedish and adding them to a separate blog with just recipes so that my fellow Swedes don’t have to do lots of crappy translating. When I started speaking English on a daily basis (that is, when Alex moved in with me) I quickly discovered I was nowhere near fluent in kitchen English ( a typical session of cooking would go ‘Alex can you hand me that.. thing. I need it for this.. thing. You know the thing? For the thing?). I’ve picked up a lot since then and now know most of the necessities of cooking English. No more lying awake at night thinking about what a colander is or trying to understanding what all those weird sounding spices were. I thought the word for whisk was whip since you used it for whipping cream. Anyway, so we’re translating things at the moment. We’re also trying to get an index together of all the recipes on here. So that’s taking quite a bit of our time at the moment.

I found a bag of organic Jerusalem artichoke tubers for almost no money at all (less than a dollar or 50 pence) and so decided to make us some delicious soup. I love this creamy sophisticated soup so much but we rarely get to eat it because Jerusalem artichokes are usually ridiculously expensive. Being on a tight budget usually doesn’t allow this kind of luxurious food. I sprinkled some store bought ‘bacon’ bits on top and served it with some nice white bread on the side.
Jerusalem artichoke soup

Jerusalem artichoke soup: Serves 2

  • 250 g (1/4 lb) Jerusalem artichoke tubers
  • 3 small potatoes
  • 1 smallish garlic clove
  • ½ tbsp oil
  • 1 dl (1/3 cup + 1 tbsp) white wine / cooking wine
  • 250 ml (1 cup) water
  • 1 stock cube
  • 150 ml light cooking ‘cream’ (half and half? Mine’s 5% fat but light cream or medium would work too)
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 tsp thyme

Peel the artichoke tubers and the potatoes. Chop into smallish pieces. Mince the garlic. In a medium pot sautée the potatoes, tubers and garlic in the oil. Add wine and boil for about a a minute. Add water and stock cube and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 15 minutes until everything is soft and a bit ‘mushy’. With a handheld mixer or a blender, mix the soup until smooth. Add back to the pot and add the ‘cream’. Heat. Add the thyme and salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot with a nice bread and maybe some ‘bacon’ bits (they’re so good!).

Tags: , , ,
Posted in blog, gluten free, soup, vegan | 3 Comments »