Rice Pilaf My Way

September 5, 2008 at 12:30 am (Main Dish, Recipes, Stories)
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If my memory serves me right, I discovered rice pilaf about 5 years when I was living with an American lady. She works as a figure skating coach and was always busy. We often share food, so one day on shortage of supplies, I “borrowed” a box of her rice and mixed in a couple handy ingredients. I somehow have only cooked it once or twice after that, but every time I did, it turned out to be a quite quick and tasty meal! So this one absolutely goes with the idea of SEMI-HOMEMADE meals :-p

Ingredients:

  • A store-bought box of rice pilaf (usually about 6-7 oz)
  • A handful shiitake mushroom or similar kind (dark color preferred), cut in small pieces
  • Some pine nuts
  • A can of vegetable broth
  • Chopped garlic
  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil ~ What Food Network Racheal Ray calls EVOO, and now me too :-)

How to make it:

  1. In a 2 quart saucepan, put in 4-5 tbsp. EVOO to coat the bottom of the pan
  2. When the pan is hot, drop in the chopped fresh garlic, stir well, and then add shiitake mushroom
  3. Cook the mushroom for a minute and mix in the rice pilaf and seasoning that comes with it, stir well
  4. Pour 1 cup of vegetable broth and 1-1½ cups of water (note: no additional seasoning needed)
  5. Bring the mixture to a boil and drop in the pine nuts, stir well
  6. Cover the saucepan, reduce the heat to low, let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes; then turn off the heat, and let it stand for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork before serving.
Ta-da! My rice pilaf - hmm yummy!

Tah-dah! My rice pilaf - hmm yummy!

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Water Chestnut Rescue

September 3, 2008 at 7:27 am (Main Dish, Recipes, Stories)
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A couple weeks ago, my roommate bought a big bag of fresh water chestnuts. They then sat in the fridge for days being ignored until one day we figured we have to cook them before they’ve gone bad.

So here are two resolutions of a similar kind: a stir-fry of colorful veggies.

#A: Asparagus, Water chestnuts, Carrots, and Sweet corns.

How to prepare it:

1. Trim the hard ends of fresh asparagus, and cut with an angle (easier to absorb the flavors of seasonings)

2. Peel off the skin of water chestnuts, and cut in halves

3. Some thin slices of carrots and a couple spoonful sweet corns for color.

How to make it:

1. In a hot pan put in some canola oil to cover half of the pan; when it’s hot, drop in the water chestnuts

2. Stir for a few seconds, wait for a minute before putting in the asparagus and carrots.

3. Add a bit of salt, freshly ground black pepper, and about two table spoons of the vegetarian oyster sauce. Stir thoroughly. Leave it with cover for a couple minutes.

4. Add sweet corns, stir well, and turn off the stove.

#B: Nagaimo, Tofu, Water Chestnuts, Carrots, Cucumbers, and Sweet Corns

Ingredients:

  • Water chestnuts in halves
  • Soft tofu
  • Nagaimo in cubes
  • Carrots and cucumbers in cubes
  • Sweet corns from cans

The key in making this dish is the order in which you put each ingredient in: from the hardest to the softest

So it could have worked out better than the one in this picture if I put water chestnuts in first, then carrot and cucumber cubes, then nagaimo cubes, before the soft tofu. Don’t stir too hard as it would break the tofu too much. Similarly, add the sweet corns at the last minute. Just the combination of tofu and nagaimo would be great, but you need to put in some colorful veggies – otherwise, it looks boring ;-)

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My Veggie Version of Beijing Silk Pork Shreds with Brown Sauce [京酱肉丝]

August 21, 2008 at 9:44 am (Main Dish, Recipes)
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My veggie version of the famous Beijing Slik Pork Shreds with Brown Sauce

My veggie version of the famous Beijing Silk Pork Shreds with Brown Sauce

Beijing Silk Port Shreds with Brown Sauce was one of my favorites when I was not a vegetarian yet. So once I became a veggie person, I invented my own version … It was not my best try this time (yesterday) but the idea is there…and I’d love to share…

Key ingredients:

  • King oyster mushroom [杏鲍菇]
  • Soy sheets [豆腐皮]
  • sweet bean sauce [甜面酱]

Other ingredients: Fresh green onions, Vegetarian pork shreds (optional)

How to prepare:

  • Slice the king oyster mushrooms into strips (about 1/4 inch wide, 1 inch long)
  • Thinly slice the green onions to about 2 inches long
  • Cut the soy sheet to about 3×3 inch squares, soak in boiled water for a couple of minutes, take out and dry, put them on a plate with plastic wrap (to prevent it from drying out)
  • Open the can of sweet bean sauce

How to make the dish:

  1. Lay the thinly sliced green onions on a big plate
  2. In a cooking pan, put in some canola oil to cover the bottom. Once the oil is hot, add the king oyster mushroom shreds and the veggie pork shreds, stir well.
  3. Add the sweet bean sauce and mix well
  4. Take it out once the shreds are soft and shining with the brown sauce. Plate on top of the layer of green onions.
  5. Open the soy sheets to serve.

How to enjoy:

  1. The key is to use appropriate amount of oil and sweet bean sauce so the shreds would look shinny.
  2. I’ve been using a combo of veggie pork shreds with the king oyster mushroom shreds, but I guess it would be just fantastic if it was only with the king oyster mushroom shreds.
  3. When you eat, put some green onions and the mushroom shreds in the center of the soy sheet, and wrap it up like a spring roll, and then … bite in :)

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