Stir-Fried Garlic Chive Flowers with Frozen Tofu (韮菜炒凍豆腐)

I saw a frozen tofu post at Food 4 Tots and was so intriguing that I just had to try it out.  Frozen tofu was new to me and after I tried it, I really liked it.  Frozen tofu is also known as Thousand Layer Tofu (千葉豆腐) and is pretty common in Taiwan.  Simply drain the tofu, wrap in cling wrap and into a ziplock bag and freeze. Just thaw overnight in the refrigerator and squeeze out the excess water before using.  The resulted texture was spongy and porous as ice crystals develop within the tofu when freeze.  Thus resulting in the formation of large cavities that seem to be layered.  The spongy thaw frozen tofu can absorb the sauce or marinade really well, therefore the end result was more flavorful than the normal tofu.  I was sold at first try and hope you will try it too.  The nutritional value of tofu is not lost if you freeze it.  What a great way to store the tofu that near or just pass the expiry date. ;-)

This is a picture of my thawed and water squeezed out tofu, preparing for cutting.  Really looked like a sponge huh?

I served up my frozen tofu with garlic chive flowers or kucai hua as we Malaysian called it.   You can easily spot garlic chive flowers at the Asian supermarket.  It has a distinct flavor and most kids don't like it.  So, one woman was surprised when she saw that my girls ate this.  Well, they were trained to eat Asian food when born, so to me it's good for them.

Ingredients:

1 bunch of garlic chive flowers, pluck and discard the callous bottom part, washed

1/2 block of frozen tofu, sliced

1 medium carrot, sliced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

Soy sauce to taste

1/2 tsp. chicken powder (optional)

Method:

1.  Heat up a wok, add in some cooking oil of your choice.  When hot, add in the garlic, stir-fry until fragrant. 

2.  Add in garlic chives and carrot and stir-fry until soften.  Add in sliced frozen tofu.  Mix well.

3.  Add soy sauce to taste and chicken powder.  Stir to mix well.  Serve hot!

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Singapore Chili Crabs

Just sharing a picture of my Singapore Chili Crabs.  I added the "tang hoon" or glass vermicelli to soak up the sauce (too lazy to prepare mantou).  However I added it too early and thus it was all broken out.  I won't be sharing this recipe as it was not perfected.  I had better Singapore Chili Crabs at my Singapore friend's house.  One of the reasons of the broken glass vermicelli was I did a taste test and found it lacking and thus I had to add a few other things and therefore more stirring.

However, my two girls enjoyed this crabs a lot.  I guess they didn't know the real taste or what it supposed to taste like so they couldn't compare and thought this was good.  It was a good lesson for them to learn how to eat crab on their own.  Edda was good at using a toothpick to pick up the crab meat from the claws and this mommy happily enjoying her crabs too.

Looking forward to teaching them how to peel the shrimp shells too, that should be easier than crab.

Farmers' Market Picked

We went to a Farmers' Market at Old Colorado City recently and I enjoyed the experience.  I picked up these round summer squash which was called "Geode", it was light green and tasted like zucchini.  The round shape makes it suitable to sandwich with your burger.  I also picked up some sweet yellow onions and yellow carrots.  The easiest and tasty way to enjoy these vegetable is by grilling them or roasting it in the oven.  I took out some chicken tenders and seasoned it with some extra virgin olive oil, salt, rosemary, peppers, and sage.  I also added some yellow and red bell peppers.  Thus far, I have only seen "Geode" selling in the farmers' market here.  From my experience, don't pick the big one as it will have bigger seeds.

Cut all the produce and season it with extra virgin olive oil, salt, peppers and spices of your choice.  (you can use Italian seasonings, dried thyme, paprika, garlic powder, etc)  Then, roast in preheated 450'F oven for 15-20 minutes or until soft and slightly brown.

I lined my baking pan with aluminum foil for easy clean up.  This certainly was an quick and easy dinner with little washing.

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Custard Raisin Buns

The inspiration from creating this custard buns came from chatting with a Chinese chef whose friend owns a baking store up in Denver.  He told me his friend used custard powder in making his bread and said I should try it.  I have used custard powder in cookies and Malaysian kuih (dessert) before but never in bread/buns so I was up to the challenge.  I added raisins for the extra sweetness so that this bun could be enjoyed as it without extra jam or preserves.

The custard powder gave it a light yellow hue and smelled fragrant.  This bun turned out soft and fluffy with extra sweetness from the raisins.  Oh, if you are wondering why my middle bun look like that, I actually wanted to try something new but failed.  I cut the four sides of the bun with a scissor when proofed just for experiment and realized that I should cut it before it was proofed.  Since cutting the bun sort of deflated the bun slightly.  Well learned a lesson here.

Ingredients:

400ml fresh milk

2 Tbsp. soften butter

4 tsp. granulated sugar

1/4 cup custard powder

3 1/4 cup bread flour

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. instant yeast

1/3 cup raisins

Fist proofing done by the bread maker.

2nd proofing done when shaped into balls, ready for oven.

Method:

1.  Add the above listed accordingly into your bread maker except yeast and raisins.  Lastly, make an indentation on one side of the flour and add in the yeast.  Turn the bread-maker to "DOUGH" function.  When half mix, add in the raisins.

2.  When done, take out the dough and give it a few kneads.  Divided into half.  Roll one half into a log shape and cut it into 9 pieces.  Roll each piece into ball shape and place into a greased 8-inch square pan.  Roll the other half into a log shape and cut into 11 pieces.  Roll each piece into ball shape and arrange into a 9-inch round pan.

3.  Place into an oven with lights on and two bowls of hot water underneath and proof for an hour or until double in size.

4.  When proof, take it out and preheat your oven to 375'F.  Place the buns in the middle rack and bake for 12 minutes or until slightly golden brown on top.

5.  Cool on wire rack.  Make sure it's completely cooled before storing it in an air-tight container or in a freezer bag to freeze for later consumption.  This homemade buns are best consumed within 3 days at room temperature.

Sambal Fried Tofu/ Sambal Fried Beancurd

This dish paired well with rice or coconut rice (nasi lemak), the spiciness from this dish would get you going and asked for extra rice.  Cut the extra firm tofu into pieces, pat dry and pan-fried in oil until golden brown.  Then, prepare your favorite sambal sauce and add in the fried tofu.  Sorry, I won't be sharing with you my  sambal sauce recipe.  But I am sure you already have your favorite sambal recipe that you cooked for your family that could be used in this dish.  I also tried it with pan-fried hard boiled eggs which was equally delicious.

I used a spoon to scoop off the chili and onion from the tofu before passing it to my girls.  I gave them 3 pieces each which they finished it all with glasses of water.  Not bad I would say because this sambal was really spicy, even I was sweating from eating this.  I think they have discovered that spicy food are delicious thus they have developed the tolerance for it.