General Tso's Tofu

Blogging Marathon# 52: Week 3/ Day 2

Theme: Weekend Special Dinners

Dish: General Tso's Tofu
Today's weekend special is a Chinese-American dish called General Tso's Tofu. It is the vegetarian version of General Tso's Chicken that is quite a popular item on Chinese fast food and restaurant menus in America and Canada. From what I read, this dish is unknown in China and is probably been introduced by one of the many Chinese chefs who came to America years ago.

In the original version, it is a sweet, slightly spicy and the chicken is deep fried. In this vegetarian version, tofu is used instead of the meat and it is baked until crispy.

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China -- Vegetarian Shanghai Fried Rice

BM# 44: A-Z Cooking Series -- Around the World in 30 days

Country: C for China

Dish: Vegetarian Shanghai Fried Rice

So after trying 2 dishes from South America (Argentina & Brazil), we are travelling all the way to Easten Asia, to China. C for China was an obvious choice for me. Being in the apparel retail industry for as long as I did, I've had a lot of interaction with China and lot of Chinese too.
I went to China 8 years back for business and had a chance to try the local Chinese dishes. Traditional Chinese food is very different from the Chinese food we get in both India and the U.S. Both of the Indo-Chinese and American-Chinese dishes are highly customized and cater to the local palate.
Chinese cuisine is highly diverse and varies between the provinces. Styles and tastes are varied by class, region and ethnic backgrounds, A number of different styles contribute to Chinese cuisine but perhaps the best known and most influential are Cantonese, Shandong, Jiangsu and Szechuan cuisines. These styles are very distinct from one another due to factors such as availability of ingredients, climate, history, cooking technique and lifestyle.

I had so many Chinese dishes in mind that I wanted to try and I even asked one of my close Chinese friend to give me few recipes too. She told me few simple salad recipes, but that was before we went on India trip. At some point in the middle, I remembered this Shanghai Fried rice that I ate in Shanghai and I decided to make this simple fried rice for today.

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Fuzian Stir Fry

BM# 34: Week 4/ Day 1
Theme: Cooking from Sapana's blog
Dish: Fuzian Stir Fry

Week 4 of BM# 34 and the theme for this week is one of my favorite themes, 'Cooking from fellow BMer'. I love browsing through blogs, but these days I hardly get anytime to do that, so this week's theme is great to focus on just one blog, pick 3 dishes and post them.

Valli paired me with lovely Sapana who blogs at 'Cooking with Sapana'. Sapana has been blogging for about an year, but already has about 400 recipes on her blog. So you can imagine how tough it was to chose only 3 dishes for the week :-) I picked dishes based on the limited ingredients in my pantry, because this past week my husband was travelling and I didn't go grocery shopping.

Sapana has a variety of recipes to choose from, both Indian and International. So for the first day, I picked her 'Fuzian Fried Rice' recipe, but instead of making a fried rice I made just the veggie stir fry and served it with rice.

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Vegetarian Wonton Soup

This is our first International Food Challenge and this month we are exploring Cantonese Cuisine, which comes from Guangdong Province in Southern China and it is one among the 8 great traditions of Chinese cuisine.

The basic cooking techniques of Cantonese cuisine includes roasting, stir-frying, sauteing, deep frying, stewing and steaming. Steaming and stir-frying are most commonly used to preserve the natural flavors of the ingredients. The most characteristic cooking methods of this cuisine are cooking in salt, cooking in wine, baking in a pan.

Saras @ Sara's Yummy Bites and Shobana @ Kitchen Secrets and Snippets selected 4 Cantonese recipes to try. I picked 2 dishes that I have always wanted to try -- Vegetarian Wonton Soup & Scallion Pancakes.

Wonton soup involves quite a few steps; making the filling, cooking the noodles and assembling. But the end result is very hearty and worth every minute of the time spent. I followed the recipe given to us to the 'T' and it came out yummy!! 

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Scallion Fried Rice

Time for another edition of Blogging Marathon. Today we start the 20th edition of Blogging Marathon and my theme for this week is "Cooking with Onions". Onions happen to be the most used veggie in my kitchen, not unusual for Indian cooking. But I don't usually make dishes ONLY with onions, they are generally part of the dish but not the entire dish itself (if that makes any sense). 

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Chinese (My) Style Green Rice

Vegan MoFo DAY 2:

This is an extremely easy and versatile dish that is quick to prepare and makes for a great weeknight meal and the leftovers are awesome for lunch. I add all available green vegetables and the variations are endless. I used green pepper, cabbage, green onions, edamame & avocado, but broccoli and any green leafy veggies will work just as well. I love to add buttery avocado just before serving so it doesn’t change color on me (in more scientific terms oxidize).

Ingredients (Serves 2):

Green pepper – 1 small or ½ of large, diced
Cabbage – ¼ of a head, finely chopped
Green onions – 1 bunch (5-6 stems)
Edamame – ¼ cup (thawed if frozen)
Avocado – 1 Brown
Rice – 2cups, cooked
Garlic – 2 cloves
Red Pepper flakes – a pinch (or more to taste)
Soy sauce – 1-2 tsp
Sriracha (or any other hot sauce) – to taste
Salt & Pepper – to taste

Method:

• Heat 2tsp oil (preferably peanut oil) in a medium sauté pan; add crushed garlic cloves and red pepper flakes; once garlic starts to turn light brown, add all the veggies.
• Sauté on medium flame until the veggies are tender (I like them lightly browned around the edges so I cook them on medium-high flame), season with soy sauce, hot sauce, salt and pepper.
• Next stir in the cooked rice, mix well; check the seasoning.
• Just before serving peel, slice and dice the avocado and mix into the rice and Enjoy!!

I packed this up for lunch and added avocado before eating, so picture has none of the buttery goodness.

Chinese style Vegetable Noodles & Eggplant

Hope everybody had a good weekend and everyone celebrating Thanksgiving had a good long weekend. We had a quiet Thanksgiving dinner at home and had family come over and stay with us on Friday and Saturday. Sunday was as usual, scrambling to get everything together before the week starts; shopping, laundry, mopping, cleaning etc.

This quick Chinese lunch came together in matter of minutes as we came home late from our shopping trip with grumbling tummies on Sunday. I didn’t use a lot of soy sauce or other seasonings and the final dishes tasted mild, so if you want some kick to the dish, add seasonings as per your taste.

These dishes go to this month’s IVAW: Chinese going on at Vaishali’s site Holy Cow.

Ingredients for Vegetable Noodles:

Noodles – I used tomato noodles, any asian style noodles can be used or even linguine or spaghetti would be good

Veggies – 2 cups, finely chopped (I used carrots, red & green peppers)
Scallions – 4, chopped (I used one huge Texas scallion)
Soy sauce – 1tbsp
Asian Chili sauce – ½ tsp (I used Sriracha)
Ginger – 1’ piece, finely minced
Garlic – 2 cloves, minced
Salt & Pepper – to taste

Method:

• Heat 2tbsp oil in a sauté pan or wok; add ginger & garlic and sauté for 30 seconds.
  
• Next add all the veggies and stir fry on medium-high flame until crisp tender, about 6-8 minutes. In the meantime prepare the noodles according to package directions.
  
• Once the veggies are tender, add soy sauce, chili sauce, salt & pepper. Finally add the noodles and toss them together. Serve hot.
  

I served the noodles with Sautéed eggplant in Black bean sauce. I had an eggplant dish from a Chinese take out in a mall and I absolutely loved it. Eggplant was creamy inside and the sauce was sooo yummy, I was thinking the whole I ate how to make it at home. I couldn’t figure it out and couldn’t find any recipes online, so if any of know how to make take-out style Eggplant dish, please leave a comment, I’d (or my tummy) really appreciate it. Coming to this recipe, it’s very simple with sautéed eggplants in store bought black bean & garlic sauce base.

Ingredients:
Japanese eggplants – 2, chopped into medium half moons
Onion – 1 small, chopped
Black bean & Garlic sauce – 1tbsp
Sugar – ½tsp
Corn starch – 1tsp
Sriracha sauce – 1-2 tsp
Ginger – 1” piece, finely minced
Garlic – 1 clove, minced
Salt & Pepper – to taste

Method:

• Heat 1tbsp oil in a wok or sauté pan; add ginger & garlic until fragrant.
  
• Next add onions and sauté until translucent.
  
• Now add eggplant and stir fry on medium flame until eggplant is tender.
  
• Add the black bean sauce, sugar, chili sauce, salt & pepper along with ½ cup of water. Let the sauce come to a boil and simmer for 3 minutes.
  
• Mix 2tsp water in cornstarch in a separate bowl and add it to the pan. Simmer for 2 minutes and serve hot with noodles or fried rice.

Spicy Cabbage & Fried Tofu

Today's dinner is Chinese style spicy cabbage with battered fried tofu. I bought Nasoya Chinese spice firm tofu and wasn't sure if I wanted to make a soup or something else. I didn't feel going the healthy route with this one and I decided to shallow fry the tofu.

I mixed some all purpose flour, chili powder and salt in a ziploc bag; added the drained & cubed tofu; swished the pieces around in the flour; pan fried in 1tbsp oil until gloden brown all over. Remove and keep aside.

These tofu nuggets were yummy as is, but I made some gravy with the left over flour mixture. In the same pan, add 1 tbsp olive oil, whisk in the flour mixture and fry it loses the raw smell about 2-3 minutes stirring often. Add 2-3tbsp crushed tomatoes, 1/4 cup veggie broth, salt and pepper (remember there's chili powder in the flour) and simmer for 5-6 minutes until thickened. Serve over fried tofu pieces.

I also made Bryanna Clark Grogan's spicy cabbage with chinese black bean sauce. I added red & green peppers. For some reason my sauce was extremely black, but it tasted just awesome.
I made some quinoa to go with my tofu and cabbage. It was a filling meal.. yumm....

Seitan & Veggie Stir fry

This is a adaptation of Beef & Broccoli stir fry from my cookshelf Chinese cookbook.

Ingredients:
Seitan – 8 oz. drained and thinly sliced
Scallions – 1 bunch, thinly chopped

Mixed Vegetables – 2 cups (I used frozen broccoli stir fry vegetables; good options would be broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, water chestnuts, baby corn, snow peas etc)

Dark soy sauce – 2 tbsp
Ginger – ½“ piece, grated
Garlic – 2 cloves, minced fine
Chinese five spice powder – ½ tsp
Light soy sauce – 2 tsp
Vegetable broth – 2/3 cup
Corn starch – 2 tsp
Cold Water – 4 tsp
Salt and Pepper – to taste


Method:

• Whisk dark soy sauce, ginger & garlic, Chinese spice powder in a small bowl. Add it to the seitan and toss till all the pieces are coated evenly. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
• Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok or large sauté pan, add the marinated seitan and sauté until browned all over. Remove and keep aside.
• Heat 2 tsp oil, add the veggies and sauté 8-10 minutes on medium-high flame, stirring occasionally, until the veggie are tender. Return seitan to the pan.
• Stir in broth and light soy sauce. Whisk corn starch and water in a small bowl, stir this into the veggies. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2-3 minutes until the sauce thickens.
• Season with salt and pepper. Serve over rice or noodles.

General Pav's Seitan for A.W.E.D-Chinese

I usually make Chinese food at least once a week; be it Indo-Chinese, American Chinese or even Pavani Chinese(this is where I get extremely creative and add soy sauce and sesame oil in almost everything to make it Chinese). But I wanted to make something authentic Chinese for A.W.E.D-Chinese event (brain child of DK @ Culinary Buzaar)

So I searched online for General Tso’s Chicken (Seitan) recipe and found them here and here. I adapted both the recipes to make my own General Pav’s Seitan. I have to say it didn’t taste bad at all and it also had the same glazed look that General Tso’s dish does. I’m going to make it again.

Ingredients:
Seitan – 1 cup, homemade or store-bought (I used home-made Seitan)
Peppers – 2, I used one green, one red pepper
Carrots – 2 medium, thinly sliced
Chinese Broccoli – 1 bunch, chopped
Green Onions – 1 bunch, chopped
Ginger – ½” piece
Garlic – 2 cloves, crushed
All-purpose flour – 2tbsp
Cayenne Pepper – ½ tsp (or to taste)
Garlic powder – ½ tsp (or to taste)
Red Pepper flakes – ½ tsp
Salt & Pepper – to taste

For the Sauce:
Sherry (or Rice Wine) – 2 tbsp
Rice Wine vinegar – 1½ tbsp
Honey (or sugar) – 1½ tbsp
Corn Starch – 2 tbsp
Soy Sauce – 3tbsp


Method:

• Whisk AP flour, garlic powder, cayenne pepper and salt in a bowl. Drop seitan and toss around to coat with the flour.
  
• Heat 1 tbsp peanut oil in a pan and sauté seitan on medium-high heat till lightly browned on all sides. Remove and keep aside.
  
• Rinse and wipe the same pan clean; add 1 tbsp peanut oil, sauté on medium-high heat green onions, carrots and peppers along with ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes till tender and browned around the edges, about 8-10 minutes. Keep stirring occasionally to avoid burning.
  
• Now add Chinese broccoli, cover and let the leaves wilt.
  
• In the mean time mix all the ingredients for the sauce to make smooth slurry. Add some water to help mixing.
  
• Slowly stir in the sauce and sautéed seitan into the veggies and cook on medium flame until the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and serve over brown rice or noodles.

Tofu & Vegetables in Black bean sauce

This is a vegetarian version of lovely Barbara of Tigers & Strawberries Peng’s Home style Bean-curd recipe. I had some baked tofu left over from this dish, that I made earlier, in the fridge. You can use extra firm tofu or baked tofu for this recipe.

Ingredients:

Extra firm tofu – 16 oz. package, drained, chopped into bite size pieces

Mixed vegetables – 2 cups (carrots, peppers, mushroom, snow peas, onions, celery etc – I used frozen snow pea stir fry blend)

Black bean sauce – 2 tbsp
Red chili flakes – 1 tsp
Ginger – 1 tsp
Garlic – 2 cloves, finely chopped
Soy sauce (low sodium) – 3 tbsp
Sesame oil – 1 tsp
Corn flour – 2 tsp (mixed in ¼ cup water to make a slurry)

Method:

• Fry tofu in little bit of oil, so that the pieces are lightly browned evenly on all sides. Remove and keep aside. Skip this step if using baked tofu.
  
• Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok or large pan, add ginger, garlic and chili flakes. Stir fry for 30 seconds.
  
• Add the vegetables and black bean sauce; stir fry till the veggies are crisp tender, about 7-10 minutes.
  
• Add soy sauce, corn flour slurry and 1 cup water, cook for about 2 minutes until the gravy is thick. Serve with brown rice.

Note: I added black bean sauce to the oil right after ginger and garlic and found out the hard way that its not a very good idea. The sauce hissed and sputtered in the hot oil and all over the stove and counters. So, don't try this at home.

Stir fry Vegetables with Tofu

Sometimes when I go shopping, I get excited and buy too much stuff (like soy meat, tofu)for one week. But as the week goes by I am either too tired to cook or sometimes I completely forget about them. But the good thing about these packaged soy products is that they usually have a long shelf life, which is good for me.

Anyway this weekend, as I was cleaning the fridge, I found a box of extra-firm tofu that I bought, hmmmm, may be 2 months ago (expiration date: September 2006, yippee). I also had half a bag of frozen broccoli stir fry vegetables. So I made stir fry vegetables with tofu and white rice.


Ingredients:Extra firm Tofu - 12 oz. box
Carrots - 2 medium
Sn0w peas - about 12
Frozen Broccoli stir fry - thawed
Water Chestnuts - 1/4 cup
Onion - 1 small
Green onions - 5-6
Red chili flakes - ¼ tsp
Ginger - 1” piece minced
Garlic - 2 cloves
Sauce Ingredients:Low-sodium Soy Sauce - 3tsp
Sherry or Chinese rice wine - 1tbsp
Vegetable stock - ¼ cup (you can substitute with water)
Sugar - 1tsp
Salt - pinch
Corn flour - 2tsp mixed in 1 tbsp of water

Method:

• Remove tofu from the package, rinse with water. Place it on several layers of paper towel and blot out the water. Cut it into 1 inch cubes.


• Thinly slice all the veggies. Make sure they are all almost the same size.


• Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a large wok or skillet. Add tofu and fry the cubes till they are golden brown on all sides. Remove with a slotted spoon onto paper towel.


• In the remaining oil, add red chili flakes, ginger and garlic and stir fry for 30 seconds. Add all the veggies and fry for about 3-5 minutes until they are crisp tender.


• Add the sauce to the veggies and bring it to a boil. Keep stirring constantly until the sauce thickens and becomes clear.


• Add tofu, salt and pepper and fry for 1 minute.


• Remove and serve hot with rice or noodles.