Vegetarian Fried Chinese Chives Flowers (Ku Chai Hua) with Ginger Recipe

It has been a long time since I last cooked this dish. I like to cook Chinese chives flowers with a little starchy gravy just like the way I fry kailan or broccoli.
Here is my stir fry Chinese Chives Flowers recipe.

Ingredients
Chinese Chives Flower, 1 bunch, cut into 1” length
Ginger, 5 slices
Carrot, 1 pc, cut into bite sizes
Light soya sauce
Garlic, 3 pcs, chopped finely
Chinese cooking wine (shao shing chiew, optional), 1 teaspoon
Vegetarian oyster sauce, 1 tablespoon
Corn flour and water mixture
Salt to taste

Heat up wok and put in 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil. Put in the garlic and sauté it until fragrant. Throw in the ginger and carrot. Add Chinese chives flowers and light soya sauce. Stir fry for a short while and add in the Chinese cooking wine. Add vegetarian oyster sauce and salt to taste. Pour a little corn flour and water mixture to make to thicken the gravy. Serve with steamed rice.

Young Tapioca Shoots with Sambal

This is another popular dish in the outskirt districts of Java Island. Young tapioca leaves are soft and it is nice if eaten with vegetarian sambal. However there are some sap in these young leaves that needs to be removed before eaten. In order to do that they are best boiled in water with a little soda bicarbonate added. Boiling the leaves this way also helps to soften the fibres in the leaves. Tapioca leaves have high contents of nutrients, protein and crude fibre.

Ingredients
Tapioca leaves, 1 bunch, remove stems
Water, 1 pot
Soda Bicarbonate, 1/3 teaspoon

Put water in a pot and bring to a boil. Add tapioca (ubi kayu) leaves and soda bicarbonate. Boil until the leaves turned dark green. Drain away excess water and serve with sambal (chilly).

Jawa Vegetarian Chap Chai Recipe

This recipe is popular among the community in Jawa Island, Indonesia. Fried flour is the base ingredient in this recipe. The aromatic fried shallots gave the dish a very nice flavour. For some crunchiness, vegetables like cabbage, spring onions and carrots. The Chap Chai is a quite a unique dish. Check out his recipe!

Ingredients
Flour, ½ cup
Water
Salt to taste
Cabbage, 2 leaves, cut into bite sizes
Carrot, 10 to 15 slices
Shallots, 4 pcs, slice thinly
Spring onions, 2 stalks, cut into 1” length
Vegetable oil

Mix flour, water and salt to form a batter. Heat up frying pan and put in some oil. Spread the batter on the pan thinly and fry until it is cooked. Cut the fried flour into bite sizes and put aside.
Add a little vegetable oil in the pan and sauté shallots until they turned golden brown. Add in the cabbage, shallots and spring onions. Stir fry for a short while. Put in the fried flour. Add a little water and salt to taste. Serve with steamed rice.

Vegetarian Stir Fried Crab Mushroom with Bok Choy Recipe

This is the first time I combined bok choy with crab mushroom. I was a little worried whether these two ingredients match or not but the results turned out quite good. For extra body and flavours I added starch with Chinese cooking wine to it. The tasty crab mushrooms blend well with the crunchy bok choy.

Ingredients
Crab Mushroom, 1 bowl
Bok Choy, 1 bunch,
Ginger, five slices
Garlic, 4 pcs, chopped finely
Chinese Cooking wine (Hua Tiau Shao Shing Chiew), 1 tablespoon
Light soya sauce, 1 tablespoon
Salt to taste
Sesame oil, ½ teaspoon
Corn flour and water mixture as gravy thickener
Vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon

Heat wok and put in vegetable oil. Sauté garlic and ginger until fragrant. Put in the white crab mushroom and bok choy. Stir fry for a short while. Add light soya sauce, Chinese cooking wine, sesame oil and salt to taste. Pour in a little water. Add corn flour and water mixture. Serve with steamed rice while still hot.

Vegetarian Smoked Tofu Recipe

Raw rice, tea and sugar to smoke the tofu

I used the same ingredients to smoke the tofu as in Lily Wai Sek Hong’s smoked ribs recipe. This resulted in a totally new flavour for my vegetarian tofu dish and a new acquired taste as well. Anyway, I guess we are used to smoked meat than smoked vegetarian tofu! LOL!
Here is my simple smoked tofu recipe.

Ingredients
Tofu, 1 block, cut into 1“ thick slices
Spring onions, 2 stalks, cut into small pieces
Light soya sauce, 3 tablespoons
Vegetarian Oyster sauce, 1 tablespoon
Olive oil or any vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon
Shallots, 3 pcs, cut into slices and deep fried until crispy


For Smoking Tofu
Raw Rice, 1 tablespoon
Chinese tea, 1 tablespoon
Sugar, 1 tablespoon

Put tofu on a steaming tray. Add in light soya sauce, vegetarian oyster sauce and olive oil. Steam the tofu in high heat for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and drain all the water from the wok. Line the bottom of the wok with an aluminium foil to protect it and put in all the ingredients for smoking. Sprinkle some water over the raw rice, Chinese Tea and sugar. Put the tofu tray into the wok and cover up the lid. Turn on the heat and smoke the tofu for 10 minutes. Garnish with spring onions and deep fried shallot before serving!

Simple Vegetarian Chinese Style Stir Fried Spinach Recipe

I bought a bunch of fresh Chinese spinach from the wet market last weekend. My favourite way of cooking the spinach is by frying it in a hot wok. If the wok is hot enough, you will have a spinach dish with nice ‘wok hei’ (wok burnt) smell.
Cooking the spinach briefly would help to break down some of the nutrients to enable our body to absorb them better. This is a rather healthy way of cooking green spinach.

Ingredients
Green Spinach, 1 bunch, cut into bite sizes
Olive oil or Vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon
Salt to taste
Garlic, 3 pcs, chopped finely

Heat up wok and put in the vegetable oil. Put in the garlic and stir it quickly to avoid burning it. Add in the spinach and fry until it turn a little light green in colour. Add a little water and salt to taste. Serve while still hot.

Simple Vegetarian Stir Fried Young Sweet Potato Shoots Recipe

This inexpensive vegetable is tasty and easy to cook. Sweet potato shoots (pucuk ubi keledek) normally do not contain harmful agricultural chemicals because they are rather easy to cultivate. I planted some in my backyard and they grew a little too ‘wild’. Therefore I have to get rid of them. Anyway, one bunch of sweet potato shoots average price is around RM1 (USD 0.30).

Ingredients
Sweet potato shoots, 1 bunch, cut into bite sizes
Garlic, 3 pcs, chopped finely
Vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon
Salt to taste

Heat up frying pan and add in a little vegetable oil. Add in the garlic. Put in the sweet potato shoots and turn up the heat. Stir fry for a short while and add a little water. Bring to a boil and put in salt to taste. Serve with steam rice while still hot.

Vegetarian Black Glutinous Rice (Bubur Pulut Hitam, Bee Koh Moi, hak lor mai chok) Recipe

This is a great dessert for the Ramadan month. Bubur Pulut Hitam (Black Glutinous Rice) is normally eaten with Coconut Milk and I love the smooth taste of this yummy dessert. My sister in law gave me a packet of black glutinous rice bought from Kedah. Very likely it was imported from Thailand through the southern border. The black glutinous rice should be boiled with water until they turned soft before adding the sugar or else the rice grains will never become tender.

Ingredients
Black Glutinous Rice, 1 cup
Water, 5 bowls
Coconut milk, from 1 coconut
Sugar to taste
Salt, a dash
Pandan Leaves (Screw pine), 5 pcs

Pour water into a pot and add in the black glutinous rice. Put in the pandan leaves (screw pine). Boil until the rice grains turn soft. You will have to open a lid a little or the content inside would overflow during cooking. Add salt and sugar to taste. Scoop a portion of the vegetarian bubur pulut hitam(black glutinous rice porridge, hak lor mai chook) in to a serving bowl. Pour a little coconut milk on top and serve.

Simple Chinese Vegetarian Spinach Soup Recipe

Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) is inexpensive and taste great too. It is full of nutrients and there are many ways to prepare spinach dishes. Spinach is a good source of Vitamin A, B, C & E, many types of minerals, iron and folic acid (B6). I tried putting it in soup and the end result tasted quite good! No wonder Popeye loves Spinach so much! LOL!

Ingredients
Spinach, 1 bunch, cut into small strands
Chinese Red Dates, 10 pcs
Dried longan, 10 pcs
Olive oil, 1 teaspoon
Water, 7 bowls
Salt to taste

Put water in a pot and bring to a boil. Put all the ingredients in the boiling water. Let it simmer under medium heat for around 20 minutes. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Deep Fried Vegetarian Vegetable Fritters Recipe

Everyone loves deep fried crispy fritters especially when there are hot out from the wok. Prawns are the common ingredient use in non vegetarian version of this fritters. You can add any crunchy types of vegetable in the batter and it is the final texture of the fritters that will tell whether the fritters are good or not! This is also a good way to get kids to eat vegetable.

Ingredients
Flour, ¾ cup
Egg (optional), 1pc
Carrot, 1 small, cut into strips
French Beans, 5 pcs, chopped finely
Spinach, 3 stalks, chopped finely
Onions, 1 pc, chopped finely
Salt to taste
Water

Put all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and slowly add water while stirring the mixture. Add more flour if necessary. Heat up oil for deep frying. Use a small ladle to scoop some of the batter and deep fry in the hot oil until golden brown. Serve while still hot! Best eaten with chilly sauce.

Vegetarian Chinese Herbal Soup Recipe

In the normal non vegetarian Chinese herbal dishes,
Chicken is used as one of the main ingredients. The Chinese believe that chicken is nutritious and have healing properties when cooked for a long time. In this vegetarian dish, I replace the chicken with turnips which help to make the soup sweet. Below are the list of Chinese herbs I used and also the health benefits of each and everyone of it.

Yuk Chuk (Polygonatum root, Polygonatum odoratum) – Moisturises our internal organ, balances Yin energy, clear wind and softens the sinews.

Kei Chi (Lycium Berries, Lycium Barbarum) – Brighten the eyes, moistens the lungs and enriches Yin energy.

Longan Fruit (Yanrou, Euphoria Longan, nourishes the blood and spleen)

Ingredients
Turnips, one small, remove skins and cut into four
Kei Chi (Lycium Berries), 2 tablespoons
Yuk Chuk, around 10 pcs
Longan fruits, 8 pcs
Salt to taste
Water, 7 bowls

Pour water in pot and bring to a boil. Add turnips, kei chic, yuk chuk and longan fruits. Boil for one and a half hour. Add salt to taste and turn off the heat. The Vegetarian Chinese Herbal Soup is best eaten with steam rice.

Vegetarian Mee (Noodles) Mamak Spaghetti Recipe

I used spaghetti to replace the normal yellow noodles. Actually spaghetti would be a better choice compare to the yellow egg noodles. Mee Mamak is very popular in Indian Muslim restaurant in Malaysia. I have used egg in the recipe below but you can opt out from using it if you don’t take eggs. You can use some deep fried tau kee to garnish the Mamak Mee and also to give it an extra crispy texture.

Ingredient
Spaghetti, 1 bowl, (boiled and cooked)
Tomato sauce, 2 table spoons
Chilly sauce, 2 table spoons
Shallots, 3 pips, cut into slices
Egg, 1 pc
Tomato, 1 pc, cut into slices
Salt to taste
Light Soya Sauce, 1 table spoon
Dark Soya Sauce, ½ teaspoon
Bean sprout (taugeh, optional), ½ cup

Heat up wok, add a little vegetable oil and sauté shallots until golden brown and crispy. Add in the spaghetti and stir fry for a short while. Put in the chilly sauce, tomato sauce, salt to taste, light soya sauce and dark soya sauce. Crack the egg and add in to the mee. Fry thoroughly under high heat. Put in the beans sprout. Fry for a short while. Garnish with cucumber slices and serve.

Vegan Deep Fried Tofu with Carrot and Leeks Recipe

This is a popular dish after the Chinese celebrate the Chinese New Year. During these time leeks are available abundantly and this dish is a good change after eating all the hearty meals during the celebration. I have added in the carrots to give the dish an extra crunch and colour. Leeks go along well with tofu and this is one of my family favourite dishes.

Ingredients
Tofu, 1 block, cut into 1 inch cubes
Garlic, 3 pips, chopped finely
Leeks, 5 stalks, cut into thick slices
Carrot, 1 pc, cut into slices
Salt to taste
Vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon

Deep fry the tofu in hot oil until golden brown. Remove the tofu, drain away excess oil and put aside. Heat up pan and put in 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Sauté garlic until fragrant and put in the carrot. Add leeks and salt to taste. Pour in a little water and fry for a short while. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Fried Wet Twisted Tau Kee with Cinnamon Stick Recipe – Vegetarian

I love using this wet twisted tau kee (beancurd strips) in my vegetarian dishes. No matter how I cook them, the dish would always turn up nice. I decided to be a little more adventurous by frying the wet twisted tau kee with cinnamon stick and potato. This is a great dish to go with your steamed rice.

Ingredients
Twisted tau kee, 1 cup
Potato, 1 pc large, cut into cubes, deep fried or steam until soft
Cinnamon stick, 2 pcs
Frozen Vegetable mix (carrot, corn & green beans), ½ cup
Shallots, 3 pcs, cut into slices
Salt to taste
Vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon

Heat up frying pan and add in the vegetable oil. Sauté the shallots and cinnamon until fragrant. Add in the wet twisted tau kee and potato. Add frozen vegetable mix and salt to taste. Serve while still hot.