Simple Cooking Ideas

Archive for the ‘Vegetable dishes’ Category

You can get cauliflower easily and stock up in the fridge. For a quick dish you can bake it and top with cheese. you can choose any type of cheese. Here I use Mozzarella cheese.

Ingredients:

400 gm cauliflower
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 large onion. sliced thinly
2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup Mozzarella cheese or Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon chopped spring onion and parsley

Method:

Soak the whole cauliflower for some time. Rinse and cut into florets. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Bring water to boil on a gas stove and blanch cauliflower for 3 minutes or just firm and tender. Remove and put a side to drain. Spread cauliflower on oven proof dish and sprinkle onion slices and garlic over cauliflower. Add salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle cheese on top. Bake for 20 mins or until cheese has melted and lightly brown.

Eat more tumeric. This is a natural way of curing arthritis. Tumeric is one of the most studied of the natural remedies. It is a natural medicine to treat inflammatory disorders. Tumeric can be prepared in many ways. Try this simple dish using tumeric.

Ingredients:

3 Japanese cucumbers
1 carrot
half yam bean
2 red chilli
1/2 inch ginger, shreded finely
2 pips garlic
6 small onions
2 slices lengkuas (galangal)
1 inch piece fresh Kunyit (tumeric)
2 candlenuts
vinegar, sugar salt to taste
3 spoonful oil

Method:

Wash and cut cucumber, yam bean, and carrot lenthwise of 1 inch long and not too thick. Cut chillies lenthwise. Pound lengkuas, garlic, small onions, turmeric and candelnuts finely. Heat oil in a wok and fry the pounded ingredients till fragrant. Add in lemon grass, vinegar, sugar and salt. Simmer for 5 minutes and let it cool. Put the vegetables in and let it stand for about half a day before serving.

Loofah can be bought in super markets. It depends on its size. Choose one loofah for two persons. Over grown loofah is tough, so take care to choose the young one. Here is a simple dish to prepare in a hurry.

Ingredients:

1 loofah, cut into wedge-shaped
1 big onion, cut into wedges
1 tablespoon light soya sauce
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 egg

Method:

Heat oil in a wok and saute the galic. Add in the loofah and big onion and stir-fry for a minute. Then add soya sauce and oyster sauce. Sprinkle a little water and mix well. Break an egg in the bowl and beat a second, then add in the loofah. Scramble it until gravy thickens. Season with salt and pepper. Dish out and serve.

Here is a mixed vegetarian dish to try. Cook it on a day if you do not eat meat. The ingredients can be bought in a grocery store or shopping mall. Soak and clean the dried ingredients a day earlier to save time on your cooking.

Ingredients:

1 whole big cabbage, soaked to clean, cut to pieces
15 strips of ‘kamcam’ or lily flowers
6 pieces of ‘wan yee’or black fungi
5 pieces Chinese mushrooms
2 pieces ‘tim chuk’ or sweet dried bean curd sheets
50 cents sohoon or mungbean vermicelli
6 pieces ‘tau foo pok’or bean curd ball, cut into halves
1 teaspoon ginger strips
3 cubes red beancurd or ‘nam yue’, mashed to paste
1 teaspoon minced soya paste
salt and pepper to taste
1 red chilli, sliced
enough oil to fry

Method:

Soak sohoon, lily flowers and black fungi and chinese mushroom seperately till soft and wash clean. Clean off roots of fungi and lily flowers and mushrooms. Blanch lily flowers and fungi in hot water. Drain and put aside. and wipe dry beancurd sheets and cut into half inch stips. In a wok, add enough oil to fry bean curd strips and drain on kitchen paper. With the same oil, fry ginger strips till fragrant. Add in nam yue and soya bean paste. Continue to stir-fry. Add mushrooms, lily flowers, fungi and bead curd strips Stir for a minute and add water to cover surface. Simmer for 10 minutes and add in cabbage and bean curd. Cover lid to cook further 2 minutes or longer if you want the vegetables soft. Add salt and pepper to taste. Put in the chilli to garnish.

Mustard heart is ‘kai choy tam’ in Cantonese. Eat more green leafy vegetables to boost your health and also detoxify your body. This dish is very simple to prepare and delicious too. You can include this dish occasionally as scallops are expensive. You can buy small ones or big scallops for this dish.

Ingredients: 4 persons

500gm mustard heart
50 gm scallops (kong yee chee), soaked and clean
1 tablespoon soya sauce
1 teaspoon cornflour with alittle water to mix.
1 tablespon Sesame oil
1 tablespoon fried onion oil (oil which have fried with onion)

Method:

Blanch mustard heart in boiling water and put on a serving dish. Steam the scallop for half an hour and spread the scallop on top of the vegetable. Heat a wok and put fried onion oil. Mix cornflour with water and steamed scallop water. Add soya sauce, sesame oil and dash of pepper and salt to taste. Simmer till thick. Pour the sauce on top of the dish and serve.

A simple vegetarian soup with celery, beancurd and Chinese mushrooms. It just take about half an hour to get ready. You can buy the white beancurd or the fried type.

Ingredients:

2 pieces beancurb, each cut into 4 parts
30 gm shitake mushrooms, soaked and each cut into 4 parts
1 stalk celery. cut into cubes
4 cups water
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Add water in a pot and bring to the boil. Add beancurd and mushrooms. Keep boiling for 10 minutes on high. Lower heat and add celery and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.