Tomato Rice

This simple tomato rice is easy to whip up and taste wonderful too...not to mention it is healthy rice for people who wants to eat healthy.  I first saw this on fb when Grace Choo my friend shared on her fb.  I told her I am going to try it out and truly it is easy to whip up and it is delicious..surprisingly WB loves it too for a man who eat meat only !  Sunday is a day we eat simple and making this tomato rice was a good choice.  I used up the sushi rice grains which had been sitting in the fridge for months :p  It turned out a bit wet after mashing the tomato but after it cools down, the grains becomes harder and drier.  My first attempt, haha so was not sure how much water to add in and thus my tomato rice was a slightly wet.   

add a tomato, olive oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper to your pot

of rice and cook like how you normally cook rice

I cooked mine in a claypot,
used sushi rice instead of normal rice 

after mashing the tomato and mixing into the rice, 

the sushi rice was slightly wet but once it cools down

the grains turned harder and drier :)

Ingredients

rice to follow your normal amount
just add

1 tomato
1 tbsp of olive oil
1 tsp of freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp of sea salt

Method:

Once your rice is cooked, mashed the tomato and mix  evenly into the rice
and you are ready to serve .

Enjoy !

Pickled Papaya

After helping out in our community garden, I was automatically accepted as one of the members of this group of gardeners :p and whatever fruits they harvested from their own garden, I too get a share of the fruits LOL! So super happy and feeling blessed when I was given two organic green papaya with one showing slight yellowish on the surface. I decided to pickle one and leave the other one to ripen on its own before eating it . I googled on how to make pickled papaya and thus found one from Wendy's blog. Thanks Wendy for the recipe.  It turned out great...I manually slice them all as thin as I can go.  Crunchy and it tasted so good that WB walloped almost all of it :)

Pickled Papaya  - adapted from Table for 2

ingredients:

1 kg firm papaya ( clean weight w/o skin and seeds )
2 tbsp of salt
300 gm rice vinegar
300gm sugar
10 bird's eye chillies

Method:

1. Boil rice vinegar and sugar, stir so that sugar will not set to bottom. Let it cool down completely before use.

2. Peel papaya. Half the fruit, remove seeds and rinse the fruit.

3. Cut into small pieces and slice with a mandolin.

4. Put salt over sliced papaya and rub salt all over papaya slices.  Make sure the slices do not stick together and are properly rubbed with salt.

5. Leave salted papaya for 5 mins ( not too long ) the papaya is ready to be rinsed when it looks pliable.

6. Rinse slated papaya twice. Shake off excess water.  No need to squeeze.

7. Put papaya slices into a non reactive vessel ( glass, stainless steel, ceramic )

8. Snip bird's eye chillies and pour cooled vinegar syrup over.

9. With a clean dry chopstick, stir papaya slices to make sure the papaya is submerged and coated with the vinegar syrup.

10. Let the papaya sit for a few hours.  Adjust taste.

11. Let papaya pickle for at least 2 days in the fridge before serving.

Enjoy !

Scrambled Egg White with Fish Fillet and Tomatoes

This dish is so freaking healthy...egg whites, fish fillets and tomatoes and home grown spring onions make up one delicious dish for dinner. You can eat them wrapped in lettuce cup or as a stand alone dish.  I browse through tastehongkong.com and found that many of her recipes to my taste and I have KIV many of her recipes to try out.  2015 will be a more healthier and more delicious year for me and WB.  I am glad that I tried this out and I can conclude that healthy food can be delicious too.  Making scrambled egg whites can be a challenge but I overcome it after following the instructions to the T :)  I sprinkled some freshly ground black pepper on top to make the dish more outstanding :)  I will definitely make this again. 

Scrambled Egg White and Fish Fillet and Tomatoes - adapted here

• Ingredients
• 200g white fish fillet, I used frozen code fish
• 4 egg white, beaten (at room temperature)
• 2 tomatoes
• 1/2 tsp fish sauce, or to taste
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp water or stock
• ~4 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 tsp chopped garlic
• salt to taste
• 1 tbsp chopped green onion

• Marinade for fish fillet
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• pinch of ground white pepper
• 1/4 tsp corn starch

Method

Thoroughly thaw fish fillet. Wash, pat dry and marinade for no less than 15 minutes.

Poach fish fillet in boiling water until just cook through, about a minute. Remove with a strainer or slotted spoon. Drain, flake and set aside.

Skin, seed and dice tomatoes like this. Saute them with oil and garlic until fragrant and softened. Add salt to taste and stir well. Dish up.

Mix fish sauce, sugar and water into beaten egg white, add flaked fish fillet and stir well.

Heat a pan or skillet enough (test with water droplets if they form like dews on leaves and evaporate immediately); add oil, swirling the pan to coat. Remove from heat.

Gently pour in egg mixture, quickly flipping and turning it to help it set. Return to heat source and regulate (lower) the flame as required. The aim is to have the eggs just cooked but not brown.

Dish up, top with sautéd tomatoes and green onion. Serve hot and mix well.

Braised Sponge Beancurd With Luffa

This is another wonderful dish using the spongebeancurd. This time, I braised the sponge beancurd  with luffa in chicken broth with gingko, red dates, dried scallop, dried shiitake mushrooms and goji.  The delicious and tasty broth is absorbed into the soften luffa and sponge beancurd.  I leave you to imagine how wonderful and tasty this dish is.  Healthy too !  :) Simply love the sponge beancurd.  I have to make one load of it and they are so versatile that I can make a few dishes using them. Try making them and I am sure you will not regret taking the time to make the sponge beancurd .  

Regarding making sponge beancurd , some of my friends shared that these firm tofu/beancurd can also be freezed and you will get the same result as the boiled ones.  I am not sure whether the texture will be the same but for the method I used, boiling firm tofu, the tofu remains soft and spongy.   I will try the freezing method in my next round of making sponge beancurd and see the difference in texture.  

delish !

Braised Sponge Beancurd With Luffa - WB's Kitchen

Ingredients:

2 pieces of sponge beancurd - click here
1 medium sized Luffa - peeled and cut into 1.5 inch length and halved it
1000 ml chicken broth
6 pieces of dried scallops
4 pieces of red dates- remove seeds
2 pieces of dried shiitake mushrooms - soaked and cut into strips
6-8 pieces of gingko - remove shells and skin
some goji- soak and wash
a pinch of salt for taste

Method:

Boil the chicken broth in a medium sized soup pot together with , dried scallops, mushrooms, gingko, goji and red dates and sponge beancurd over medium low heat for 40 mins. Add sea salt to taste.  Add in the luffa and once the luffa is soft, the dish is ready for serving. Gently scoop up the sponge beancurds into a servimg deep dish, arrange the soften luffa around the sponge tofu.  Garnish top of the sponge tofu with gingko, goji and red dates and dried scallop. Gently scoop up the tasty broth over the luffa and benacurd. Serve with piping hot rice.

Enjoy ! 

Fish Head Yam Soup With Sponge Beancurd

After having learned  how to make spongy hole riddled texture beancurd, I used them in my fish head yam soup. The reason being the tofu with spongy hole riddled texture will be able to absorb more of the tasting soup and thus making this bland tofu more flavored :)  This is so delicious that surprisingly WB who is not fond of fish, slurp down two bowls of this flavorful fish head soup :) God was on my side..the yam so fluffy and creamy and the fish head was sweet and fresh and the homegrown organic spring onions round up the flavor and making this a winner soup of the year in my family menu .  

love this beautiful soup...love the fish head, love the fluffy creamy yam and

not to forget the spongy beancurd

added tomatoes to mask the fish smell in the soup

and give color to the soup

look how fluffy and creamy the yam is

the longer you boil the bencurd the more spongy it becomes :)

remember to use firm beancurd to make this spongy beancurd

Fish Head Yam Soup With Sponge Beancurd - WB's Kitchen

1 medium size Groupa Fish head

1 medium size yam - peel of skin, cut into 1/2 " thick slices

2 pieces of spongy beancurd - cut into half  ( click here on to make spongy beancurd )

2 tomatoes- remove skin and cut into halves

3 stalks of spring onions - cut into 1" length

1 thumb size old ginger - slightly crush

1/2 tbsp of salt - to taste

1 tsp of white ground pepper

1.2 litre of chicken broth

1 tbsp of vegetable oil

Method:

1.  Heat up oil in a claypot, when oil is hot, put in ginger and stir fry till fragrant.  

2.  Add in yam slices and fry till yam is half cooked and the surface is slightly golden. Dish up the yam.  

3.  Add in the fish head and fry till it is light golden color. Add in the chicken broth and let is simmer under low medium heat for 20 mins.  

4.  Add in tomatoes, yam, and spongy beancurd. Continue to simmer soup for another 3/4 hour under low heat.  When the soup is aromatic...add in salt to taste, ground white pepper and continue simmer a further 5 minutes.  Before dishing up, add in spring onions.  Off heat and serve hot.

Enjoy  !

Sponge Beancurd

Okay, you may already know how to make these sponge beancurd but for me this is the first time making them.  I remembered when I was young , my grandma used to cook this with salted fish tofu soup. I remembered that I love the spongy texture of the tofu but then I was just a teenager then.  When I saw this sponge beancurd recipe in one of my old Flavors magazine...I knew I had to make some for myself.  The process takes 4 hours .  You have to use firm beancurd.  Patience paid off when I finally manged to get good result after boiling the beancurd for 4 hours on high heat.  Exactly four hours and I got a very nice spongy hole riddled texture.  I will be sharing two recipes using sponge beancurd  in my coming posts. Stay tuned :)

after 4 hours of boiling the beancurd, 

take out and soak the beancurd in a bowl of water

to cool

I used a sharp thin knife to cut off the skin

and tada...a nice spongy hole riddled texture appeared before

my eyes...heehee super duper happy with the results

love the spongy hole riddled texture !

Sponge Beancurd  - Flavor Magazine - March to April 2008 Issue

Ingredient:

4 pieces of firm beancurd

To prepare beancurd :

Kep the beancurd refrigerated for at least 1 day , allowing the coagulant to sink to the bottom.  Remove and drain before using.  Bring water to boil in a large uncovered pot and add the beancurd; boil over high heat for 4 hours. Remove and soak the beancurd in a bowl filled with water to cool.  Once cool, trim away the beancurd skin to reveal the spongy , hole riddled texture.

Before using, soak in water and keep in the refrigerator.

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