Dinner and Breakfast Tempeh

I was very surprised not many people know about tempeh. I first heard of it when I was in college. A couple of Indian friends were eagerly anticipating this thing that Hanisha was going to bring back from Indonesia. "What is it?" I asked. My college mates were astonished. "You don't know tempeh?" As if I had committed the greatest sin. Then they went on to describe at length what a delicious delicacy tempeh was. I learned that day tempeh was an Indonesian thing. Period.

Two and a half years ago, when I got married to Adrian and subsequently moved to Bangkok, I started cooking. Back then with little to zilch experience in the kitchen, I visited 101 Cookbooks religiously. Everything I cooked was from Heidi Swanson. I'm proud to say I have outgrown that phase. Nevertheless 101 Cookbooks still serves as my inspiration from time to time.

One of the recipe I took from 101 that I liked very much was this TLT Sandwich recipe. I have always wanted to make it again since then. Unfortunately for reason unknown to me, tempeh was only available during the Thai vegetarian month. I waited. A year later, no sign nor sight of tempeh anywhere. Have they stopped selling? I was very disappointed and frustrated. Local people whom I asked have no clue what I was talking about. Some good-hearted ones directed me to the Vegetarian Society in JJ Market but to no avail. Sigh.

From left: Adrian tucking in to his famous Malaysian foods, mamak-styled. Me savoring local nyonya foods at an antique house in Jonker Street.

(L) Old man preparing teh tarik ("pulled tea"). (R) Haven't seen this boiler for ages!

When Adrian and I went back to KL to visit my family, we took a detour to Melaka - the historical state of Malaysia that was adorned World Heritage site status by the UNESCO in 2007. The trip started in order to satisfy Adrian's curiosity about this place - many people have mentioned it to him. It somehow ended as a history refreshment course for me. There were a few things that upset me, such as the building of shopping malls on the once recreational field near Porta De Santiago (which was wrongly called A'Farmosa by Lonely Planet, said our tour guide at the Red House museum). Its short fall was compensated by the boutique hotel - Courtyard@Heerem - that we stayed a night at, and the guided tour at the museum.

The Geographer Cafe and the curried tempeh.

There was also the sampling of nyonya foods and not to forget a tempeh dish from Geographer Cafe. It was a kind of finger foods, fried with curry powder. It was so good it reignited my desire for tempeh, and I vouched to buy some to bring back to Bangkok.

Unlike traditional tempeh, which is made from fermentation of cooked soya beans, this is of black beans.

Upon our return to KL, our first stop was to Just Life organic store. There, right in front of me, was 5 packets of freshly made, newly arrived organic black bean tempeh! I was ecstatic. I took all of them. Naturally I had been excited to cook with tempeh since then.

I took a quick search in 101 and found a couple other tempeh recipes that I wanted to try. I decided to make the Orange-pan Glazed Tempeh. This recipe features a simple ginger and garlic-spiked orange glaze that smells like a gingered duck dish that my grandmother used to make. Adrian thinks it's just like teriyakki chicken. The beans also make the tempeh looks awfully a lot like meat.

I was so excited about the TLT Sandwich that I couldn't stop smiling the whole night. I even asked Adrian if he could guess what's for tomorrow's breakfast, just to tell him "I'm not gonna tell you. It's gonna be real good."

As Adrian watched me assembling the sandwich, he said "I don't think it's going to make a sandwich." I crudely replied "It's an open-faced sandwich!" No one is dampening my enthusiasm for the breakfast that I'd been waiting for two years!

As it happened, we both loved this two tempeh dishes a lot. Off I go and scavenge for more special tempeh recipes. 3 more tempehs awaiting in the fridge!

Mexican Pumpkin Burrito

Blogging takes discipline. It's been almost one month since I last posted. I was (and still am) feeling lazy to blog although I haven't stopped cooking since I came back from KL 3 days ago.

Firstly, I was surprised to see the refrigerator stocked with foods and fruits the morning after I came back. Then there, in the kitchen, stood my handsome husband, with knife on one hand, chopping board on the other. He pulled out some mocked crab meat, sun dried tomatoes, rocket pesto (that I made before we left to Oman, which I had forgotten, and astonished to see he had been cooking with while I was away!), eggs, cheese, etc, and made me an omelet! There's also the mixed fruits smoothie that he's very proud of - came with this super awesome date honey that we bought from Oman.

As I tasted the foods cooked by my loved one I was overwhelmed by a sense of joy and happiness, which was contradicted by a sense of loss: like a mother who just realized her child is no longer her baby. LOL. You know that ain't gonna happen. He will soon realize what he did was mere child's play. WAHAHAHA!

We were discussing about dinner. Adrian mentioned a pumpkin taco recipe that he saw (somebody has been doing his homework). I couldn't find anything good from the internet, and hence decided to piece together bits and puzzles from different sources.

I started by putting pumpkin, orange chili pepper and red bell pepper into the oven for roasting. Remember to check on the chili pepper. I pulled mine out on the late side and it turned out a little burnt. I was going to use Jalapeno pepper but couldn't find them at Central Silom. I blame it on the red-shirt protest, which forces the Gourmet Market in Paragon to close (for weeks now!) I seriously need them to dissolve so I can get back to my normal grocery shopping. Anyway, this orange chili pepper was the only pepper available other than Thai chili and green chili. It's actually quite hot. I chose to remove the seeds to keep the hotness low.

One complaint I have about being, and cooking vegetarian: too much chopping. Since this "project" is the brainchild of Adrian, I made him did the hardest part: onions. I wish I had video-taped his teary eyes.

Adrian did the chopping and mashing of the guacamole. We used orange chili pepper (with seeds) and a green sweet pepper for taste. The roasted pumpkin seeds added an excellent touch to the taste and texture.

It happened that George was coming for a game of chess. "Is there enough food for George?" asked the chess maestro's protege - Adrian Cox. OF COURSE, and it's always more fun to cook for more people (no more than 4 at a time though).

As I laid the foods down on the table, I announced we were going to compete and make our own best burrito with the ingredients available: flour tortilla, guacamole, sour cream, rocket leaves, tomatoes, pumpkin seeds, cheddar cheese, roasted spiced pumpkin, roasted spiced red bell pepper, and red kidney beans and corn mix.

The touch of white sesame seeds was something I learned from May-Kay Dee in Khao San. You can cook the red bell pepper without roasting; it's a request from Adrian that I dutifully complied. We weren't sure how long it would take to cook the dried black beans, hence the use of canned beans. The corns though were fresh from the cob.

Adrian looking proud of his burrito that which he wouldn't have its photo taken. George took the contest seriously. I was mostly teasing and laughing at Adrian.


George's vs mine.

Adrian refused to let me take a picture of his burrito. For reason you can think of. It was a very close call between George's and mine. I think mine looked pretty but I have to give it to George because he's our guest :p Prize? George got to finish the last bite of everything! I thought I had made too much for three persons, but turned out everyone had rather good appetite this day. Hurray for Mexican!

Happy eating people.

A good meal is never complete without dessert. For something quick and easy, I made pudding using this Dark Chocolate and Peanut Butter Pudding recipe from my first post. Instead of chocolate, I used organic black sesame paste. It was surprisingly better than I thought it would be - it's delicious and taste healthy. I thought of Tam as I made this because she was begging for some the last time I made it for Adrian.

Ingredients:

(serve 3)

For the Veggie Filling:

• 2 roasted red bell pepper, skins and seeds removed, julienne
  
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• Sea salt to taste

1. Saute onions and red bell pepper with a pinch of salt. Add spices and cook until well coated and fragrant.
2. Keep warm in the oven at 100C.

For the Pumpkin Filling:

• 1/2 roasted pumpkin
• 1 Tablespoon cumin
• 1 Tablespoon chili powder
• White sesame seeds
  
• 1 roasted orange chili pepper, seeds removed and chopped
• Sea salt to taste
• 1 can organic red kidney bean
• 1 corn, niblet only
  

1. Scoop pumpkin out and mash to a smooth consistency. Saute pumpkin, with the remaining ingredients until it becomes golden in color. Taste and adjust with sea salt. Sprinkle with white sesame seeds.
   
2. Keep warm in the oven.
3. Use the same pan to cook together red kidney beans and corn niblet. Taste and season with sea salt.
4. Keep warm in the oven.

To Assemble:

• Arugula leaves
• Sharp white Cheddar cheese, grated
• 8 cherry tomatoes, diced
• Guacamole
• Sour cream (lemon juice + Cream)
• Toasted pumpkin seeds
  
• Flour tortilla
  

1. Wrap tortilla with aluminum foil and warm in the oven at 180C for 10 minutes.
2. Make your own burrito using all the ingredients above!
   

Revisit Georgraphy Class

Last November when I came back to Bangkok from Singapore, a Irish man came to my class. I didn't pay much attention to him more than I would to any first-timer to my class. At the end of the practice this man came and introduced himself as Grant. We chatted a little bit, and he invited me to teach at where he lived. "Muscat". Sure, I'll go. He had a look at my face and offered "it's in Oman." Great. Whatever. I'll go anywhere in the world. HAHA!

So that's how the story unfold. I had absolutely no clue where Oman, or Muscat was. Neither did many people I talked to. So, here it is, once and for all - it's neighboring Saudi Arabia and UAE. The next question is: what the heck am I going to do there? Well, my cooking skill is not yet Gordon Ramsey or Jamie Olivier famous, but I have Yoga. "To who?" Good question. According to Grant, he felt he had benefited much from Yoga. He's an old man (his own words), who wished to contribute something to the Yoga community in Muscat, however small. And that's what he does, aside from his full time job with the highway company, - to bring good Yoga teachers (*ahem*) to Muscat. "I've been to all the big and small yoga studios in Bangkok and you are the only person I approached." *AHEM*

We have been in talk through emails for a few months since. Adrian did not hesitate to make it clear that he's coming with me, and so he is. This is indeed a great opportunity - we probably would never think of visiting Oman if it's not for this offer. A well-traveled friend of ours, Bill, showed us beautiful pictures he took in Oman, and from what little we gathered, it's a jewel tucked in the middle east. How exciting! Think about this: 2 days of teaching, 5 days of sightseeing! WOOHOO!!

We'll be back to Bangkok for Songkran, on the 13th and 14th May, after which we fly to Kuala Lumpur to fulfill the promise I gave to my parents - I skipped Chinese New Year Reunion, and negotiated with my mother to go back in April during Thai New Year when Yoga Elements Studio will be closed. Apart from the two-day rest stop in between Muscat and KL, I'm going to be away from home for three weeks. That means time to clean out the fridge.

I had two eggs, some greens, a few connoisseur-grade French cheeses, some homemade condiments, and a piece of puff pastry sheet. Here's what I put together:

1. Pinto beans + Cheddar cheese + spring onions = Refried beans
2. Rocket leaves + cherry tomatoes + Feta cheese + lettuce + olive oil + balsamic vinegar = salad
3. Put together 1 + 2 + sunny-side up + Portobello mushroom = Vegetarian Big Breakfast

I thought the Portobello mushroom looks rather like a piece of steak

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For some reason unbeknown to me, the pastry didn't hold up the filling very well. A big chunk of the cheeses was lost during baking. Still good though.

Breakfast is not complete without something sweet in this house. I divided the puff pastry sheet into two for Sweet Baked Turnovers:

1. Homemade mulberry jam + "strong cheese" + almond
2. Dried figs + blue cheese

Bon Appetite!

Tahini Muffins with Mulberry

Nok Pinnada gave me a box of fresh mulberry, along with the beetroots and some lettuces. I wasn't sure what I could do with the mulberry besides eating them fresh. I was paranoid they will turn bad before I could eat them all. Therefore I immediately turned the mulberry into jam as soon as I got home. I had been waiting to do something with it since then. Now came the chance.

Here's a website for tahini. You'll find a brief write up on this sesame products and some recipes to go with it. I once made my own tahini: just grind up toasted white sesame seeds and add some oil. However it's such a pain to make because I don't have a food processor; it took considerable patient to grind them in batches after batches after batches with the grinder. When I eventually invest in a food processor, there going to be so many more homemade condiments: Nutella, peanut butter, tahini, and all kind of nuts spread. Until then, I digress.

Instead of using raisin as suggested on the website, I replace it with mulberry jam. When Adrian came home to the muffins, his first reaction was "they are blue". I was thinking black. I promised some students I would bring something yummy to them this Saturday if they come to my Yoga class. I was rather hesitant to pack the muffins, thinking if I should have baked something "sinful" with chocolate, or sweet and pleasant like strawberry, instead of the boring oatmeal, and tahini.

As I walked down to the apartment pier, waiting for the boat, I found a turtle sitting there next to one of the boat man. How interesting! It must have crawled up from the river. It was very curious and was sticking its head around its new place. Soon more residents came down and the turtle drew quite a commotion. Little did the turtle know what a day it made for us.

As the BTS approached Siam station, there was loud noises coming from nowhere. I didn't know what it's about since it was in Thai. Then I remembered the news announcement of "biggest rally by the red-shirts" over this weekend. When I got down from the BTS at Chitlom, I bumped into Pi Or. I thought she had just finished her practice. Turned out, she was going to come to my class but because of the protest in the area, the streets were blocked and all the major shopping malls were closed, including Central Chitlom, where we usually walked through to get to the studio. And she couldn't call to the studio, thinking it might have been closed. "Oh no. What am I going to so with the muffins?" that was my thought. I somehow persuaded her to come with me. We braved the sea of red-shirted people and their rally cars, reached at the studio little perturbed by the loud noises over the speakers along the street.

I was really touched and honored to have 15 students showed up at my class despite the uncertainties and havoc these protesters were causing in the city center. When I announced of the muffins that I brought, I kind of wondered if I should have told them the ingredients - too healthy? I was so relieved when the students told me that they liked it. The health conscious ones liked it that it's not too sweet and delicious enough to be an indulgence. The skeptics were surprised what a treat "healthy" ingredients can be. PHEW~

Ingredients:

Mulberry Jam

• Fresh mulberry
• Natural cane sugar
• Freshly squeeze lemon juice

1. Put mulberry into a pot and sprinkle enough sugar to cover the top. Cover the pan and let it sit overnight. The berries release juices overnight.
   
2. Bring the pot to simmer over medium heat. Taste and adjust with sugar and lemon juice. Let it simmer for another 10 minutes.
3. Remove and spoon over to storing jar. Cover and refrigerate till needed.

Tahini Muffins
(7 big muffins)

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup natural cane sugar
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup organic tahini
• 1/2 cup virgin coconut oil
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla essence
  
• 1 cup mulberry jam
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped

1. Preheat oven at 180C. Grease a muffin tray with virgin coconut oil.
   
2. Sift together oat, flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt in a big bowl. Set aside.
3. Whisk together milk, tahini, coconut oil, eggs and vanilla essence till well blended.
4. Pour tahini mixture into flour mixture. Fold to combine. Stir in mulberry jam and chopped pecans.
5. Spoon batter over muffin tray. Bake at 180C for 25 minutes.
   

Goat Cheese, Roasted Tomatoes and Chives Stuffed Portobello Mushroom

I bought a packet of large portobello mushrooms the other day. Nothing specific in mind. Just that the big ones don't come often, and they are good for stuffing. It wasn't a very clever purchase since I am about to leave Bangkok for three weeks, and there isn't much dinners to make in the coming days. I didn't want to buy another bunch of greens and Camembert to make another pesto for stuffed mushroom although we did like them very much. Anyway I bumped into this recipe that uses goat cheese, which happened to be one of the four cheeses that Pi Soo gave me and that I'm yet to use. In the recipe it uses Pancetta (a kind of cured pork belly), not very vegetarian-friendly. I thought sun-dried tomatoes would go well with goat cheese but the last bits went to this morning's breakfast. Therefore I roasted some cherry tomatoes, which also needed to be rid of before Tuesday.

This is a very strong savory dish. Personally I liked it. Although I can imagine how some people may get turned off by the pungent goat cheese. If you are making this, I suggest to use big button mushroom instead of Portobello - you'll get a big enough well to hold up the stuffing when the stem is removed. Portobello mushroom is kind of flat. The stuffing sort of melt over the place while baking. Nothing major really.

Ingredients:

• 4 large Portobello mushrooms, stem removed, washed and dry
  
• 2 oz cream cheese (soften at room temperature)
  
• 1.5 oz goat cheese (soften at room temperature)
  
• 4 cherry tomatoes, halved
  
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
  
• 1 small bunch fresh chives, minced
  
• Breadcrumbs
• Sea salt and ground black pepper

1. Preheat oven at 180C.
   
2. Toss and coat tomatoes with enough olive oil and sea salt. Bake in oven at 180C for about 45 minutes - tomatoes will shrink in size.
   
3. Place mushrooms bottom side up on baking pan. Sprinkle with sea salt.
4. Blend together cream cheese and goat cheese. Set aside.
   
5. Saute onions and garlic till fragrant. Stir into the cheese mixture. Add roasted tomatoes, chives, salt and pepper.
6. Divide filling into 4 and spoon over mushrooms. Top with breadcrumbs and drizzle with olive oil.
7. Bake in oven for 15 - 20 minutes, until the top is nicely browned. Top with chopped chives if desired.