Cold Tofu with Sauce and Herbs

This is an extremely simple dish, it is my favourite tofu dish, but I’m a big tofu fan, I can eat a whole tub of this in one go. It is low fat and vegetarian, and so refreshing on a hot day. The sauce came from my Dad’s repertoire.

Ingredients

1 box of silken tofu (alternatively use those round Japanese tofu)

2 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp ginger oil

1 tsp sesame oil

Drizzle of chilli oil

Handful of fried shallots

1 chilli, chopped (optional)

3 sprigs of fresh coriander, roughly chopped

2 stalks of spring onion, roughly chopped

Method

1.          Tip the tofu onto a serving plate, drain off the water.

2.          Make 2 cuts along the long side of the rectangle, and 4 cuts along the short side, but keep tofu in its rectangular shape for presentation.

3.          Mix all the sauces together and pour it over the tofu.

4.          If you prefer to eat this warm, you can steam it for 5 mins or microwave it for 1.5 minutes on high.

5.          Top with the chopped herbs and fried shallots.

Mui Choy Braised Pork Belly 梅菜扣肉

I’ve been craving this dish from home for a while. After sampling the ones in the eateries around here I was still not satisfied as they all tasted different from mum’s. Hence I went on a mission to cook my own. I have to say this dish needs an acquired taste if you're not familiar with Chinese preserved vegetables. Mui Choy is preserved mustard leaves, they can be found in Chinese grocery shops, there are two versions, a sweet type and a salty type. I used both in mine as I’ve previously used only the salty version only and found it too salty. I cooked this in the pressure cooker, you can cook it on the stove or in a slow cooker.

Ingredients

100g sweet Mui Choy, finely chopped

150g salty Mui Choy, finely chopped

3 cm piece of ginger, smashed

5 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed

500g of pork belly, cut into 3 cm wide strips

2 tbs cooking oil

1 cup water

50g rock sugar

Method

1.          Wash and rinse the Mui Choy carefully to make sure you get rid of the excess salt and grits.

2.          Heat the oil in the pan and sear the pork belly strips well.

3.          Then sauté the ginger and garlic.

4.          Get rid of any excess oil.

5.          Put the Mui Choy in and place the pork on top.

6.          Cover with water and break the rock sugar up and sprinkle on top.

7.          There is no need to add salt as the Mui Choy is salty.

8.          Cook for 30 minutes in the pressure cooker on high pressure. You will need at least 1 hour of slow braising on the stove (make sure it doesn’t dry up and burn the bottom). Slice the pork into bite sizes for serving.

Banana Walnut Cake

This is a quick mix cake. Good for using up leftover bananas that had been sitting there for a few days. You can make it in a loaf pan and call it a banana bread, although it is rather cakey.

Ingredients

1 ½ cups self raising flour

½ cup wholemeal flour

2 eggs

¾ cup brown sugar

¼ cup vegetable oil

½ cup buttermilk

½ cup chopped walnuts

3 bananas, mashed

Method

1.          Preheat oven to 170°C.

2.          Mix all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

3.          Add eggs, bananas, oil and buttermilk.

4.          Stir till evenly mixed.

5.          Pour into a loaf pan or Bundt tin.

6.          Bake in 170°C oven for 30 minutes.