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!

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

.
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!

Baked Herbed Blintz

I tried a blintz recipe few days ago and somehow managed to turn it into a crepe: I poured all the batter into one big frying pan - the crepe was too thick to be folded into envelope. This time I used a 8.5" pan and was patient enough to divide the batter into 4 portions. Instead of frying the blintz again, I baked them until the top was nicely browned.

We were both very happy with this. There's so much possibilities with the filling, and sauce to serve. I may make it a sweet blintz next.

Ingredients:
(serve 2)

Filling

For some reason I roasted two bell peppers for no reason a few days ago, not to mention the left over Ricotta. This cut down the preparation time considerably. I prepared the filling the night before knowing that Adrian was leaving home early the next morning. It always helps to have plan.

• Red and yellow bell pepper
  
• 1 clove garlic, minced
  
• Homemade ricotta cheese
• Parmesan cheese, grated

1. Rub bell pepper with olive oil and sea salt. Bake at 180C until bell peppers collapsed. Peel the skin, remove seeds and juices. Sliced into wedges. Take just enough of what you need and chopped into cubes.
2. Mix roasted bell peppers with the rest of the ingredients. Taste and adjust with sea salt if necessary.
3. Cover and store in refrigerator until ready for use.

Crepes

The crepe batter too was prepared the night before. It's quick an easy. Besides basil and parsley, coriander and tarragon would be a good mix too. You may want to add the chopped herbs just before frying: some of the basil leaves were browned the next morning.

• 1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup miso soup
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon pure sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley and basil, chopped

Whisk the ingredients together to mix. Taste and adjust with sea salt if necessary.

The Assembly

Here's another ingredient good to have handy: pesto. Alternately a herby tomato sauce may do the trick.

• Parmesan cheese, grated
• Rocket pesto
  

1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Brush a 8.5" skillet with just enough butter to coat the pan. When the pan is well heated, remove from heat and pour about half of 1/4 cup of batter into pan. Tilt and swirl the pan to coat the bottom with a thin even layer of batter. Return to heat.
3. Fry the bottom till browned and the top set. Remove to a plate with cooked site up. Repeat to make 4 more crepes.
4. Lightly coat a baking tray with butter. Take 3 - 4 spoonful of ricotta filling and place it to the center of each crepes. Fold the edges into the middle to make blintzes. Place blintzes seam site down, in one layer, onto the prepared tray. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and bake for 20 minutes.
5. Drizzle with pesto and garnish with basil leaves to serve.
   

Barley Grilled Vegetable Salad with Avocado Dressing

Finally the long awaited house-warming/ Christmas party at Sandra and Nico's was here. It was aptly themed "Bring your own food". Clever hosts. I thought I would bring some dessert but Francois said he was bringing something sweet. Gate also mentioned raspberry crumble. What a bummer. What can I bring that I could prepare in advance, ok to be served not warm?

I thought about making a fruit salad with maple-spiced nuts. Then I remembered there was a pack of barley that I cooked and freeze in the freezer a while back. Maybe I should make a big bowl of something like the Barley Pilaf, which I did and made a few changes to make the preparation easier. I remembered a avocado dressing that I made before, which Adrian liked and decided to use that as a dressing for the grilled vegetables. I added hard-boiled eggs for that extra protein for the vegetarian Yogis and Yoginis. There's also the roasted cashew for the texture and goat cheese for the distinctive taste.

The dressing ingredients would most likely make more than what you need. We used the extra as nacho dipping; worked as guacamole. For some reason, besides Adrian, I knew Sandra would approve the dish. She did. I was pleasantly surprised that everyone else did too! I don't get to cook for many people all the time. Sometimes I think Adrian may be just acting out to keep me in the kitchen. It's good to know others enjoyed my cooking too.

Ingredients:

For the dressing:
(you may not need all of this)

• 2 avocados
• 2 cups coriander leaves
  
• 2 cloves garlic
• juice of 2 limes
• 1 cup yogurt
• 1 cup sour cream
• sea salt to taste

1. Blend all the ingredients together to a smooth consistency. Set aside in the refrigerator.
   

For the barley:

• 2 Cups cooked barley
• 1 onion, minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced

1. Saute onion with a generous pinch of sea salt until translucent. Add garlic, fry until fragrant. Stir in cooked barley. Toss to coat. Set aside.

For the tomatoes:

• 10 Cherry tomatoes, halved
  
• 4 TB extra virgin olive oil
• 2 TB Balsamic Vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon each of cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper, chili flakes and ground coriander
• Natural cane sugar

1. Preheat oven at 200C.
2. Whisk together olive oil, vinegar and spices. Toss in tomatoes to coat.
3. Arrange tomatoes on baking pan with cut sides up. Sprinkle sugar over tomatoes.
4. Bake until tomatoes are shrunken, about 20 minutes.

For the vegetables:

• 2 red bell pepper, seeded, cut into wedges
• 2 yellow bell pepper, seeded, cut into wedges
• 2 zucchini, cut into 1" thick coins
  
• 1/2 Cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 Cup Balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sea salt

1. Whisk all ingredients together. Toss in vegetables. Bake in oven until tender.
2. Remove from oven. Cut zucchini coins into quarters. Cube vegetables.

To assemble:

• 4 hard-boiled eggs, sliced into coins
• 1 cup cashew nuts, roasted and chopped
• Goat cheese, crumbled
• coriander leaves to garnish
  

1. In a large serving bowl, toss barley with 1/4 of the avocado dressing.
2. Top with grilled vegetables, tomatoes, eggs, cashew nuts and goat cheese. Drizzle more dressing over. Garnish with coriander leaves if you wish.
   

Parmesan Polenta with Chili-roasted Mushroom

I have been wanting to make this savory polenta since the day I bought the polenta. For some reasons I kept getting sidetracked by the sweet polenta recipes:

• Polenta and Ricotta Cake
• Polenta Lemon Muffins with Homemade Lemon Curd

Anyway here it is. It's better than I thought it would be. Parmesan goes very well with the otherwise bland polenta. I must also credit it to the chili-roasted mushrooms: It started with the inspiration coming from chili-roasted tomatoes that I made last night and the bottle of chili oil that I whisked up months ago for Hummus on Fire. Last but not least: my latest discovery of egg frying trick.

If you don't have cream, use 1 Cup milk to 1 Cup water. I ran out of milk hence the use of cream.

Ingredients:
(2 main servings)

• 1/2 C uncooked organic polenta
• 1/2 C cream
• 1 1/2 C water
• salt and pepper
  
• Mushrooms, cut into bite-sized chunks
  
• Splash of dried chili-infused olive oil
• sea salt and black pepper
• Pinch of paprika
• 1/2 C Parmesan cheese, shaved
• Chives, chopped
  
• 2 Eggs

1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Coat chopped mushrooms with chili oil, sea salt, black pepper and paprika. Roast in oven for 15 minutes.
3. In a saucepan, mix together polenta, cream, water, salt and pepper. Bring it to boiling over medium heat, turn to low heat and let cook over cracked lid.
4. In a skillet, heat a tablespoon of butter over medium heat until sizzling. Crack the eggs over. When egg whites set, pour a couple tablespoons of water over and cover with lid. Remove when egg yolks are cooked to desired doneness.
5. Stir Parmesan into cooked polenta and spoon into individual serving plates. Top it with chili roasted mushrooms, fried egg and garnish with chives.
   

Dill and Buttermilk Biscuit with Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese

My first attempt of this recipe was almost disastrous. I added only half of the required flour and didn't listen to my gut feeling. It was too late when I saw how the batter had gone flat after 5 minutes in the oven. I literally squatted in front of the oven and watched for the next 15 minutes as it continued to bake. Even Adrian knew something was amiss-ed. It ended looking like a jigsaw puzzle/ world map/ deformed pizza. Nevertheless it smelled really good. Adrian took a small piece of it and proclaimed "WOW!". So I decided to let it be.

It would have been the envy of breakfast club with a pretty looking fried egg. Anyway I'm glad I didn't throw the now-deformed biscuit away. It was really good. The credit must go to the sharp cheddar, which was the best I've bought so far (it came buy-one-free-one, too! Go get it now at Paragon's Gourmet Market.)

I also came to learn a new trick frying egg: wait for the egg white to set and pour in a couple tablespoon of water to the skillet. Cover so the yolk steams and set to your liking.

Anyway my undying spirit swore to make a come back - immediately the next day. You'd think I'd stick to the core of the recipe. Tsk, tsk, tsk. I decided to substitute the flour with 1/2 cup wholemeal, double the amount of baking powder and added an extra splash of cream to the batter.

As it turned out, with the correct shape and form, Adrian proclaimed "It's all good and delicious, but I prefer the messed up one." What do you know? Accidents make geniuses.

With sun-dried tomato scrambled egg.

Ingredients:

(makes 6 bun-sized or 12 cookies-sized)

For the Biscuit

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
• 2 oz coarsely grated extra-sharp Cheddar
  
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
• 1 cup buttermilk (1 TB lemon juice + 1 C milk)
  

1. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Add the grated butter and mix until coated in flour.
2. Add the dill and the buttermilk until you get a sticky dough. Line a baking sheet with baking paper and preheat oven to 200C.
3. Spoon 6 mounds (or 12 for cookies-sized) of dough about 2 inches apart onto an ungreased large baking sheet. Brush with melter butter.
4. Bake until puffed and pale golden, 15 to 20 minutes (or less if you make it into cookies-sized).

For the Cream Cheese:

• 1 box cream cheese
  
• juice from 1/2 lemon
• 15 capers
  
• 1 tbs chopped dill
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Mix the cream cheese with the lemon juice, capers and dill, add salt and pepper to taste.

To serve:

1. Slice biscuit into halves.
2. Spread cream cheese over the inside of biscuits.
3. Put rocket salad on top of cream cheese, followed by smoked salmon and fried egg. Top with the other halve of biscuit.
   

Smoked Salmon Frittata

Ingredients:
(serves 6)

• 6 large eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
  
• 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/4 pound smoked salmon, torn into pieces
• 1 cup shredded Gruyere cheese
• 5 green onion, chopped
• 2 TB fresh dill
  
• 1 TB butter
• Dill sprigs and sour cream to serve (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
   
2. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, sour cream, salt, and Tabasco sauce. Blend in flour to combine. Stir in salmon pieces, cheese, onion, and dill.
3. In a ovenproof skillet, melt the butter. Pour in egg mixture. Allow the bottom to set and transfer to oven to bake for 20 minutes or until the top browned.
4. Cut into wedges, serve with dill sprigs and sour cream.
   

Florentine eggs on Sourdough Muffins

In the cooking terminology, Florentine refers to foods cooked in the style of Florence, Italy - typically eggs, meat and fishes that contain spinach and creamy Mornay-style sauce. As the story goes, Catherine de Medici, an Italian wife of France's Henry II, introduced spinach to the Court of France n 1550. In honor to her Italian heritage, she decided to name any dishes containing spinach "Florentine". I was short of spinach leaves and so used tomato slices for half of the sliced muffins. I hope Catherine would approve.

You may consider this a cheating recipe that strays from the "traditional" way of making Hollandaise sauce. It sure safes time when you are either in a hurry or not in the mood for messing the sauce up. And hey! With a winning combo of sour cream, mayonnaise and mustard, you know this cheater rocks!

I did a revisit to a couple of my previous posting: Cinnful Apple Fruit Salad and Mulled Hot Chocolate.

This hot chocolate is so hard to disappoint; it's a no fail recipe. Adrian had it with a shot of espresso, which was not to my liking but approved by the coffee connoisseur himself. As for the salad, I thought it was strange that it wasn't as flavorful as the last time: apparently I left out the vanilla extract.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sour cream

2 tbsp mayonnaise

1 tsp Dijon mustard

4 Eggs, poached

2 sourdough muffins, split, toasted

1 cup Fresh baby spinach leaves, cooked

Dash of pepper

1. In a double boiler, mix sour cream, mayonnaise and mustard. Stir till warm. Set aside. You can also use microwave.

2. Meanwhile, spread about 2 tbsp sauce on each English muffin half. Top each with half of the cooked spinach leaves.

4. Place poached egg over spinach. Top each with half of the remaining sauce, sprinkle with pepper.

Vegetable Casserole

I've been into making breakfast casserole lately. It's easy and delicious. You can use just about any vegetables you have in the fridge. For instance, I put some frozen vegetables I had left from the Baked Stuffed Bell Pepper for yesterday morning, and a combo of zucchini, tomato and mushroom this morning. They both turned out equally delicious.

I don't have a standard measurement, it goes something like this:

Ingredients:
4 eggs
1/4 cup of milk
pinch of salt and pepper
cheddar cheese, cubed or grated
gruyere cheese, grated
chopped herbs (thyme, parsley, basil, tarragon, etc)
Mixed vegetables (broccoli, zucchini, tomato, capsicum, mushroom, etc)

Mix and stir all the ingredients together in a big bowl. Pour over a greased casserole. Bake at 175C for 30 minutes or until the top turns golden brown.

Sun Dried Tomato Goat Cheese Scrambled Egg

I used to love scrambled egg. My ex-boyfriend taught me to make my first scrambled egg: lots of Parmesan and cheddar cheeses.
Somewhere along the way I turned to omelet; I figured they are essentially the same since I put milk to omelet, too. Also, it's easier to handle and doesn't require as much attention as scrambled egg. So this is my first scrambled egg in a long time. It kind of rekindled my love for scrambled egg again because Adrian thinks it's great.

The key to good scrambled egg comes with heat control; the lower the heat and the more constant the stirring movement, the creamier the end product. You also want to remove it from heat when the egg is just slightly undercooked. If this technique is followed, the eggs should be moist in texture with a creamy consistency. If any liquid is seeping from the eggs, this is a sign of under cooking or adding overcooked high-moisture vegetables.

Ingredients
4 eggs
4 Tablespoons cream (for use of other liquid, such as milk, it should be 2 tablespoon of liquid to one egg)
Goat cheese, shaved
Sun dried tomato, chopped
1 Tablespoon of herbed olive oil that the sun dried tomatoes are soaked with (or butter)
Fresh thyme and tarragon, chopped
salt and black pepper to taste

1. Beat eggs, cream, and salt and pepper together.
   
2. Fold in sun dried tomatoes and goat cheese.
3. Heat olive oil over high heat. Stir in the egg mixture. Quickly turn the heat to low when egg coagulate. Stir the egg mixture frequently to form small and soft curds.
   
4. Remove from heat while the egg is still slightly undercooked. The egg will continue to cook and set.
5. Sprinkle with fresh herbs to serve.