Vegetarian Halal Chinese Char Siew (Mock BBQ Pork, resipi char siew) Recipe using Tau kan (Wet Bean Curd Blocks)

The normal vegetarian char siew that you often seen being sold at shops are made from flour. I tried to experiment making Char Siew from tau kan (wet beancurd blocks) and the result turns out great. I managed to make the aroma and texture of the taukan same are the flour vegan char siew. You can buy tau kan from any vegetarian food vendor.
Below is my recipe for vegan char siew using taukan as the main ingredient.

Ingredients
Tau kan, 6 pcs
Five Spiced Powder, 1 teaspoon
Soya sauce, 3 table spoon
Sugar, 3 table spoon
Dark Soya sauce, ½ teaspoon
Chinese Red rose wine, 1 teaspoon (optional, not halal)
Corn flour, 3 teaspoons
Salt to taste

Marinate the taukan (wet beancurd blocks) with all the other ingredients. Keep aside for at least 20 minutes. You can deep fry these char siew or barbecue them. I deep fried the char siew until they turn golden brown. Cut into slices and serve with white steamed rice.

Vegetarian Stir Fried Lotus Roots with Celery and Cauliflower Recipe- Chinese Style

The crunchy texture of young lotus roots is simply amazing. Lotus roots with celery and cauliflower make a good mix in any dishes. I combine these wonderful vegetables and made a vegetarian dish out of them. Here is my Vegetarian Stir Fried Lotus Roots with Celery and Cauliflower recipe.

Ingredients
Young Lotus roots, 6 inches in length, cut vertically
Celery, 2 stalks, cut into thick slices
Cauliflowers, about the size of a fist, clean and cut into bite sizes
Carrot, 10 to 15 slices
Garlic, 3 pcs, chopped finely
Sesame oil, ½ teaspoon
Vegetarian oyster sauce, 1 table spoon
Soya sauce, 1 table spoon
Salt to taste
Corn flour mix with a little water to thicken the gravy
Shou shing chiew, (Chinese cooking wine, optional), 1 teaspoon

Heat up wok and put in 2 teaspoon of vegetable oil and sauteed garlic until fragrant. Put in the lotus roots, carrots and cauliflower. Add in sesame oil, vegetarian oyster sauce, and soya sauce and shou shing chiew. Put in the celery and a little water. Add corn flour mixed with water to thicken the gravy. Add salt to taste. Serve with steamed rice.

Chinese Vegetarian Fried Tofu with Long Beans and Celery

Actually I wanted to cook fried tofu with celery only but since I have got some long beans that have been sitting in my fridge for quite some time, I decided to add this into the dish. Fried tofu itself is already very tasty but then if it is cooked with celery it taste even better.
Here is the recipe for vegetarian fried tofu with long beans and celery

Ingredients
Tofu, 1 block, 3”x3”x3”, cut into 1”x1”x1” cubes
Celery, 2 stalks, cut into thick slices
Long beans, 3 pcs, cut into 1 inch length
Salt to taste
Soya sauce, 1 teaspoon
Garlic, 3 pcs, chopped finely
Onions, 1pc, cut into four
Vegetable oil

Deep fry the tofu in hot vegetable oil until crispy. Drain away excess oil from the fried tofu and put aside.
Heat up wok and add in 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Sautéed onions and garlic until fragrant. Add in the celery and long beans. Fry for a short while. Add some water, soya sauce, tofu and salt to taste.

Simple Vegetarian Stir Fried French Beans Recipe – Chinese Style

My kids love to eat French Beans (Scientific Name, Phaseolus Vulgaris) which is relatively easy to cook. Somehow, it is easier to get kids to eat French Beans compared to other type of green vegetables. Green French beans are full of vitamin C.
I normally stir fried them in Chinese wok.
Here is my simple stir fried French Beans recipe.

Ingredients
French Beans, 10 pcs, cut into thin strips or one inch length
Garlic, 3 pcs, chopped finely
Salt to taste
Vegetable oil, 1 table spoon

Heat up wok and put in the vegetable oil. Add in the garlic and fry until fragrant. Increase heat of the wok; be careful not to burn your garlic. Quickly put in the French Beans and fry until you see there is a change in the green colour (from light green to a darker shade). Add a little water and salt to taste. Serve with steamed rice and other Chinese vegetarian dishes.

Romaine Lettuce and Bell Pepper with Cheese and Orange Juice Dressing – Vegetarian

I love the crunchiness of the bell peppers (capsicum) and Romaine lettuce salad. I decided to use orange juice as one of the ingredients for my salad dressing instead of the usual lemon juice.
Mozzarella cheese added a little body to my salad mix. I used minced garlic for this recipe, so if you don’t take garlic you can actually exclude it.

Ingredients
Romaine Lettuce, 3 bunches, washed and cleaned
Bell pepper (capsicum), 1 pc, cut into thick strips

For Salad Dressing
Extra virgin olive oil, 5 table spoons
Garlic, 1 pc, chopped finely (optional)
Mozzarella Cheese, 2”x2”x2” block, break into small pieces
Salt, a dash or to taste
Orange juice, ½ orange
Pepper, a dash

Mix all the salad vegetables with the dressing. Serve chilled or at room temperature. Great for roast chicken side dish!

Chinese Vegetarian Clear Tofu Celery with Tomato Soup Recipe

Celery (Scientific name, Apium graveolens) is the most common vegetable that is used as a base for soup or stock. The leafy stalk and taproot of celery can be eaten. Celery is a great source of Calcium. In this recipe I used Pascal celery from North America, which has a ‘U’ shaped stem.

Ingredients
Celery, 3 stalks, cut into slices
Tomato, 3 pcs, cut into four
Carrot, 2 pcs
Pepper, a dash
Soya sauce, 3 table spoons
Onions, 2 pcs, cut into four
Thyme, 3 sprigs
Hard tofu, 2pcs, cut into four
Salt, to taste
Vegetarian Oyster sauce, 1 tablespoon
Olive oil, 1 teaspoon

Pour 4 bowls of water in to pot and bring to a boil. Add carrot and onions. Boil for 15 minutes. Put in the rest of the ingredient and boil for another 15 minutes. Add salt to taste. Serve with steamed rice.

Clear Vegetarian Chinese Cabbage Soup Recipe

Clear soup is one of the essential dishes whenever my family ate steamed rice. Chinese style soup is normally clear and watery.
The nice sweet cabbage soup compliment many other dishes and it also helps smoothen the rice grains so that they are easier to be swallowed.

Ingredients
Water, 4 bowls
Carrot, 1 pc, cut into cubes
Shallots, 3 pcs, cut into slices and fried until crispy
Cabbage, 1 small, tear out the leaves and cut into 3”x3”x3” size
Corn, 1pc, to make sweet soup stock

Boil water in pot and add in the corn. Boil for half and hour. Add carrot and cabbage. Boil for another 20 minutes. Add in dash pepper and the fried shallots. Add salt to taste.

Authentic Nyonya Onde-Onde Recipe

Everyone in my family, being a Penang Baba and Nyonya descendents loves to eat onde onde.
Onde –onde is one of the local Malaysian foods that the Baba and Nyonya descendents adopted. These gluey and chewy balls coated with grated coconut make a very nice dessert. There is another shortcut method of making onde onde, which all the flour are mixed together but the kuih will be springy!

Ingredients
Skin
Glutinous Rice Flour, 350 gms
Corn Flour or Tapioca Flour, 100 gms
Sugar, 30gms
Salt, ½ teaspoon
Pandan (screwpine) Juice Concentrate, ½ cup
Oil, 1 teaspoon
Water, enough for the dough, to be added slowly

Coating
Coconut, grated, 1 coconut, add a litte salt

Fillings
Gula Melaka (or palm sugar), 150gms
Brown Sugar, 50 gms
Mix both fillings together.

Mix tapioca flour, oil, sugar and salt in 250ml of water. Bring to a boil to make a gluey mixture. Stir this often so that clumps will not form. Pour this over the glutinous rice flour and stir the mixture quickly. Add pandan juice. Make sure the dough is well mix. If it is to sticky to work on; add some more glutinous rice flour. Make the dough into ball around 3cm in diameter and then put in the fillings. Roll the ball until it is round and smooth. Put the onde onde ball in boiling water for around 1 minute. When the ball floats up, remove it and coat with the grated coconut. The onde onde is ready.

Vegetarian Avocado with Sweetened Condensed Milk Dessert

The Avocado (Scientific name, Persea Americana) is a native of South and Central America. It was also originally found in the Carribean. Sometimes avocado is also known as Aligator or butter pear. Some of avocado extract can be used as antibacterial chemical.
Apart from being a little creamy, the avocado is rather tasteless. I made this easy and simple avocado with sweetened condensed milk dessert. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients
Avocado, 1 pc
Sweetened Condensed milk. 2 table spoons
A little brown sugar

Cut avocado into halves and remove the hard seed. Use a spoon to scrape the flesh out. Put the thin avocado strips into a mixing bowl, add the sweetened condensed milk and brown sugar. Mix well and serve chilled.

Vegetarian Nyonya Pulut Inti (Glutinous rice with Grated Coconut in Palm Sugar)

Ever since my daughter watched The Little Nyonya serial drama in Astro, she has been bugging me to make Nyonya delicacies for her to eat. She is even more excited when I told her that she is a fifth generation Straits Born and her Great Grandmother is a Nyonya.
Well, here is one of the popular evergreen Nyonya kuih (dessert) recipe that was adopted by the Straits Born Chinese in Malaysia from the original Malay Pulut Inti kuih.

Ingredients
Glutinous Rice, 200 gms, soaked for 5 hours to soften
Pandan leaves, 3 pcs
Coconut Milk (Santan), from ½ coconut
Grated coconut, from ½ coconut
Palm Sugar (Gula Melaka), 2”x2”x2”, melted with a little hot water
Sugar, ½ cup
Banana leaves, cut into 6”x6”x6” to be used as wrapper (I could not find banana leaves in my neighborhood, so I just used clear plastic)
A little salt

Add salt and pandan leaves to glutinous rice and steam for 15 minutes or until the rice are cooked. Add coconut milk to the rice and steam for another 10 minutes. To make the Inti (toppings), mix the grated coconut with palm sugar and sugar. Stir until they are well mixed. Put around one small hand grip of glutinous rice on the banana leaves and then put a spoonful of Inti (toppings) on it. Wrap the banana leave into a pyramid shape and fold both ends of the leaves below it to hold the wrapping together.

Vegetarian Dragon Fruit Agar-Agar (Gelatinous Seaweed Jelly)

Agar-agar is a product of gelatinous seaweed and it is available in dried form. For health reason, instead of using artificial colouring, I used the juice from a red dragon fruit (pitaya). The final colour of my agar-agar jelly is deep pink. Actually it looks quite nice and tasty!

Ingredients
Dried Agar-agar strips, 1 packet, 1.5 oz
Water, 1400ml
Sugar to taste
Dragon fruit juice, sieved, ½ cup

Bring water to a boil. Add agar-agar strips and keep on stirring the mixture until all agar-agar strips are dissolved. Add sugar and dragon fruit juice. When the sugar dissolves, pour the mixture into a mould. Let it cool down to room temperature and then put it in the fridge. Serve this wonderful dessert chilled!

Chinese Vegetarian Mock Pork Trotter Recipe

Chinese Vegetarian Mock Pork Trotters

During my childhood days, I always look forward to eat vegetarian pork trotters whenever I follow my late grandma in observing 9 days of strict vegetarian diet during the Nine Emperor God Festival. I can still remember vividly the taste of the ready made vegan pork trotters that my grandma used to buy in Butterworth. It consist of bean curd sheets, like the one that they use for lobak (five spice meat rolls), with spice added and rolled tightly. I used taukan (wet bean curd blocks) as the internal part of the vegan pork trotters.
Here is the recipe

Ingredients
Taukan, 1 packet
Bean curd sheet, 1’x’x1’
Five spice powder, 1 teaspoon
Dark soya sauce, ½ teaspoon
Light soya sauce, 1 table spoon
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Cotton string to tie the vegan pork trotter


Taukan in spices


Vegan pork trotters all wrapped up and ready
for deep frying

Marinade the taukan with five spice powder, dark soya sauce, light soya sauce, salt and pepper. Use the bean curd sheet to wrap the taukan and shape it like an actual pork trotter. Then tie it up with the string and let it to rest in the fridge. Deep fry the vegan taukan in hot oil. Remove string and cut into slices. Serve with steamed rice or fried bihun (vermicelli).

Vegetarian Steamed Stuffed Tofu Pok Balls

I like to cook tofu pok by turning it inside out and then stuff fillings in it. Steamed tofu is indeed a healthy meal. The ones that you normally eat at restaurants are fried and it actually soaked up a large quantity of oil. But then of course it is tastier if fried.

Ingredients
Tofu Pok, 8 pcs, turned it inside out. See my post in Peteformtion blog on how to turn the tofu pok inside out via this link, http://peteformation.blogspot.com/search/label/Tofu%20Pok

Fillings
French beans, 5 pcs, cut into small strips
Turnips, 1/2 , but onto small pieces
Sesame oil, 1 table spoon
Corn flour; add with water until the filling mixture thickens
Salt to taste
Soya sauce, 1 table spoon

Fill up the tofu pok with the fillings. Steam the tofu pok balls in high heat for 20 minutes. Your stuffed tofu pok balls are ready!

Simple Chinese Stir Fried Choy Sum Vegetable- Vegetarian

The secret to cooking this simple Chinese dish is the ‘fire control’, ie how you control the heat of your wok and how fast you can fry it under the high heat. You will have to get all the ingredients ready before you start cooking because you will need to put in one after another ingredients real fast.

Ingredients
Choy Sum Vegetable, 1 bunch, cut into 1 ½ “ size
Garlic, 5 pcs, chopped finely
Light soya sauce, 1 table spoon
Salt to taste
Vegetable oil, 1 table spoon
Vegetarian Prawns, 3 pcs (optional, I did not use in this dish)

Heat up wok and put in the vegetable oil. Turn up the heat and then put in the garlic. Quickly add the vegetable before the garlic burn and turned into charcoal. Add salt to taste and soya sauce. Put in a little water and take the dish out from the wok. Serve with steamed rice.