(More Sweet than Sour) Sweet and Sour Tofu

I had some left over tofu from making the kimchi mondu, so I decided to fry them up into a stir-fry with some sweet chili sauce. This recipe is actually a friend of mine's that I've adapted as my own. Its simple to make and I like it because of the festive colors.

Ingredients:

1/2 a block of tofu (drained)

1/4 of an onion, chopped

1/3 of a red, yellow and orange pepper, chopped

1 small carrot, chopped

vegetable oil

1/4 cup Sweet chili sauce

2 tsp Thai chili sauce (optional)

1/2 a small can of chopped pineapple, drained

(if you need to sweeten the sauce, add a tsp of pineapple juice)

Slice the tofu then. Cut each slice in half then cut each half diagonally. They will make triangle shapes...

     as shown in these two photos

Pan fry the tofu in some vegetable oil on med-high heat until they turn golden brown.

Once the tofu is golden, drain any excess oil and leave about 1/2 tbsp oil in the pan. Add the vegetables and stir fry until the vegetables become just tender.

Turn the heat down to medium. Add the Sweet Chili and chili sauce (if using). Season to taste. 

Add more chili sauce if you want more spice or add pineapple juice to mellow out the spice and add more sweetness. Add the pineapple right at the end (just before taking the stir-fry off the heat) and cook for an additional minute.

Serve immediately with rice and ENJOY!!!

Kimchi Mondu (김치만두)

This recipe is to pay homage to my Korean heritage. I used to make this in Korea all the time in big batches and freeze them for later. You could make the dumplings without kimchi but it gives the dumplings an added spice. Oh... did I mention, mondu is Korean for dumpling. (in case you were wondering)

Ingredients

1/2 a small green cabbage (finely chopped)

1/4 of an onion (finely chopped)

1 large white mushroom (finely chopped)

1 medium carrot (grated)

vegetable oil

vermicelli noodles (1/2 a cup, cooked; chopped)

tofu (1/2 the container, drained)

1/4 cup kimchi (finely chopped; optional)

2 Tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp sesame seed oil

salt and pepper to taste

1 egg

1 pkg wonton shells

water to seal the shells

You want to be sure that all your vegetables are finely chopped because you are filling small wonton shells and if the mixture has too many big chunks it will overflow out of the shells. 

In a large pan, cook the first four ingredients in some vegetable oil on medium heat until the vegetables are almost tender. At this point you want to season the vegetables with some salt and pepper.The vegetables will shrink in size. Meanwhile, cook the noodles according to package instructions.

Once the noodles are done, drain, set aside and let cool. Once the vegetables are tender, add about half the kimchi and juices into the mixture.

At this point you are just combining the flavors so cook vegetables for another minute then take off the heat to cool.

In a large mixing bowl, crumble the tofu by hand. Add the remaining kimchi and juices along with the cooled chopped noodles. Combine. Add vegetables, egg, soy sauce and sesame seed oil to the mix and combine.

WARNING; the mix is not pretty. Spoon a tsp of the mixture in to the center of the shell. Using your finger, apply water to the edge of the shell, fold the shell over and crimp the edges with a fork.

Repeat... Then repeat... And repeat some more until all the shells are filled. 50 by my count.

Cook the dumplings on low heat with very little vegetable oil until the dumpling shells start to bubble very slightly. At this point, take off the heat and let the dumplings cool before placing in freezer storage bag and store in the freezer.

To serve, pan fry the dumplings on medium-high heat until the shells become golden brown. Serve with some soy sauce and enjoy!

(If you don't want the kimchi, or don't have any, follow the recipe and just omit the kimchi.)

Vegetarian Soul Food (Part 1); Smothered Cabbage

For those of you who don't know me, I am of African-American and Korean decent so you know I got to have my soul food. Growing up my dad (the Black parent) would make cabbages from bacon (and it's grease), and as much as I loved that as a kid, I needed to a recipe for cabbages that was vegetarian friendly. I had a similar recipe to this one but when I found this recipe, I knew this was the one I would stick to for life.

Ingredients:

1 small cabbage (chopped)

2 tbsp of olive oil

1&1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp mustard seed

salt

1 tsp sugar

5 tbsp of water

In a pan on medium heat, toast the mustard seed and red pepper flakes until the mustard seed start to pop. As soon as it begins to pop, quickly add the cabbage to the pan.

Cook the cabbages for about 4 minutes until the cabbages start to wilt. Season with salt. After the four minutes, add water and sugar. Cover the pan and cook for another four minutes.

Add pepper to taste. (At this point if the cabbage needs more salt feel free to add some more)

Enjoy by themselves or with other soul food comforts such and mac and cheese and sweet potatoes!

Citrus White Chocolate covered Strawberries

Looking to make something sweet for your sweetheart this Valentine's day? Look no further than these Citrus White Chocolate covered Strawberries. It is really simple to make and it only involves 5 ingredients!! Who doesn't love chocolate covered strawberries???

Ingredients:

Fresh strawberries

Baking white chocolate

(or microwavable dipping white chocolate)

1 orange

1 lemon

1 tsp sugar

First clean the strawberries and let them dry on a paper towel. Don't worry... The strawberries won't stay naked for long...

As the strawberries are drying, grate half of the orange peel and the peel of the entire lemon into a bowl. Add the sugar and combine. Let the fruit peels sit for 15 minutes or more. CAUTION: the sugar will draw out the moisture of the peels... discard any excess juices.

Meanwhile, in a double boiler, melt down the white chocolate bars. (If using the baking chocolate, otherwise follow the instructions on the microwavable chocolate)

Once the chocolate has been melted (and the strawberries are completely dry), dip the strawberries and lay the strawberries on parchment paper to set. Sprinkle the fruit rind on the strawberries as you lay them on the parchment paper. Put the strawberries in to the fridge for at least half an hour.

Enjoy the strawberries responsibly; WARNING: these strawberries are HIGHLY addicting and may cause your valentine to fall madly, deeply in love with you!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Better than your Chinese restaurant Egg Foo Young...

I had a bunch of extra eggs in my fridge so I wanted to find a recipe to utilize some of those eggs. Serve it with some brown rice and you got yourself a tasty meal.

Ingredients for Egg Foo Young:

1 tbsp soy sauce 

4 eggs

small hand full of bean sprouts

onions (chopped)

peas & carrots (frozen)

vegetable oil

Ingredients for sauce:

1 cup vegetable stock

1/2 tbsp of cornstarch

2 tbsp soy sauce (divided)

3 mushroom

1 tsp of sugar

pepper to taste

Cook about 1/2 cup of frozen peas and carrot mix in some water. While the peas are cooking, scramble the eggs with soy sauce. Add vegetables to the egg mix. The onions and beansprout don't need to be cooked but if you prefer them to be cooked beforehand, feel free to do so.

Ladle some of the egg mix onto a pan with vegetable oil and cook the eggs like a pancake.

Cook the eggs till both sides are golden brown and the eggs have cooked through the middle.

The recipe yields about four pancakes. 

Meanwhile, in a sauce pan, cook down the mushroom in some oil.

Once the mushrooms have reduced in size and have started turning golden brown, add 1 tablespoon of soy sauce. Cook the mushrooms for another minute. Add the vegetable stock, cornstarch, sugar and the remaining soy sauce. Cook till the sauce has thickened. If desired, add some black pepper to taste.

Serve immediately with some rice. This is great any time you need a vegetarian option when you're craving some Chinese food. I know you'll enjoy this as much as I have!

Red Velvet Love...xoxo

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Month two of cooking my way through my calender and this month is all about hot RED!!! This recipe yields 24 cupcakes... Yeah... you're reading that correctly... I said two dozen cupcakes!!! So there's plenty to go around (or to keep all for yourself)!!

Ingredients:

1 box of yellow cake mix

2 tbsp cocoa powder

5 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk

red food dye

Frosting:

1 pkg cream cheese (softened)

1/4 cup butter (softened)

2 1/4 powdered sugar (sifted)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat the oven according to the cake mix. Blend together cake mix, cocoa powder, eggs, oil and milk. Then add food coloring until you achieve the desired red. Here is my before and after... You can't tell from the picture but the mix was almost as red as my mixing bowl... Yumm!!

Add cupcake liners to pan then fill each cup about 2/3's of the way. Then bake according to the cake box. Mine baked for about 20 mins.

Once the cupcakes are cooked, take the cakes out of the pan to cool immediately. While the cakes cool prepare the frosting.

Frosting Directions:

Beat the cream cheese and butter till smooth on medium speed. Carefully beat the sugar into the mix on low speed. Stir in vanilla, then beat until smooth.

Frost the cupcakes and decorate to your liking. I always like to make twice the frosting because I like to pipe my frosting (and just in case anything happens... like today my faux piping bag burst... that's what I get for using a ziplock bag...). Enjoy!!