Recipe: Braised Tofu with Mushrooms and Carrots

I had a conversation with M this weekend about being given the choice to give up vegetables or to give up meat. For me, I could cut out meat. For him, it was the opposite.



Before I moved in with him, I would have primarily meat (usually chicken) once a week for lunch; for dinner, I'd have lots of vegetables with small amounts of meat. Now, I eat meat everyday. Sometimes I have it for breakfast as well! Now, I like meat, but I love vegetables as well. Sometimes I actually crave certain vegetables.

It must have crept into my subconcious, as we went grocery shopping yesterday and I decided to make braised tofu with roast pork - however, when we were done dinner, I put some leftovers away and said, "what's that in the corner? Oh! I totally forgot to add the roast pork!" And I (I can only speak for myself) didn't even miss it.

Thus, we have a recipe for Braised Tofu with Mushrooms and Carrots. :)

This recipe was inspired by Kylie Kwong's Food TV show, "My China". Her dish was Braised Tofu with Tomatoes - I actually didn't feel like having tomatoes, so mushrooms and carrots would suffice.

Ingredients
1/4 c canola oil
1 package (350g) firm tofu, cut into 3/4" slices (I used Sunrise brand)
~1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced
1" of ginger, sliced
1/2 carrot, sliced

3 T Chinese cooking wine
1 T sugar
1/2 t dried red chilis (or to taste)
1-2 T soy sauce
2 T white vinegar
Green onion, sliced, for garnish

Method
In a large pan, heat canola oil at medium heat.

Drop in slices of tofu away from you, and allow the slices to brown slightly. Flip over with tongs and allow to brown. Remove tofu from pan.



Saute ginger until fragrant. Add mushrooms and carrot and saute until mushrooms are soft. Add cooking wine to pan and stir. Allow to evaporate for about a minute before adding sugar, chilis, soy sauce and vinegar. Make some space for the tofu; add the tofu into the pan and baste with the pan juices. Allow to braise and heat through until sauce has reduced by half.

Plate, garnish with green onions, and enjoy with steamed rice!



I found the tofu nice and "pickle-y". The leftovers were nice for lunch as you could taste the spiciness of the chilis, and the sweet / sour / saltiness of everything else. Num!

If I would change anything, it would be to change to a medium tofu. Although the firm tofu was nice, it was a little too chewy for this dish. Still, a healthy recipe keeper.

Review: La Casita in Gastown (Vancouver BC)

La Casita is a family run Mexican Restaurant meets sports bar meets "place to hang out on the weekends with the guys". The portions were substantial and being that we weren't quite satisfied with our dineout meal, we wandered into La Casita and were warmly greeted by the manager and waitstaff.



We were, admittedly, half-full, but it was the weekend and after flipping through their large menu, we decided to split combo #4, and two drinks that the waiter recommended, the Casita Sunrise. It was like a tequila sunrise, but with pineapple and orange juice, and (if I heard it correctly, 2 oz of tequila). Personally, I don't think it was two ounces of tequila, but it could have been the food that made me full, and not boozy.

Combo four came with two chorizo and mushroom quesadillas, a salad, and six hot wings. M really liked the quesadillas. He said that the flavour of the mushroom and chorizo really came through. I would like to note, and I appreciate that he tortillas were home-made. Home made tastes better!

I was actually getting a little full, and liked that the salad wasn't a plain green salad. It was a marinated slaw of sorts, and I love that they had fresh avocado garnishing the plate. The chicken wings were average, although I liked that there was extra hot sauce on the table for you to add as you pleased! Another bonus was that the food, although filling and rich, was not greasy. Finally, a Mexican restaurant that is not all about greasy fingers and shiny lips!

Service was great, considering that we had just come from a higher end restaurant with no service but almost triple the price tag!



We were really too full at this point but we finished the entire combo nonetheless. For under $30 and full bellies, we would love to visit La Casita again, perhaps to watch UFC? I was told that there was a larger group area downstairs, with karaoke and televisions!!

La Casita

101 Cordova Street [map]

Vancouver, BC

Phone: 604-646-2444


...I forgot to note that the bill came with a unique touch: the double bubble gums! haha! To freshen the breath, and for an after-dinner comic. :)

Chowtimes has an Invite for a Cocktail Night at Pearl Drops Teahouse!

Correction: I'm so s-m-r-t. I totally assumed that this was somewhere else without checking my facts. Pearl Drops Teahouse is on Willingdon near Hastings - read, near the Chevron gas station and across from the Safeway.

They are having a Free (virgin) Cocktail Night this Saturday, February 7th from 7pm to 10pm. There are more details at Chow Times including a map.

You do need to RSVP at melody@pearldropstea.ca


Pearl Drops Tea House

422 Willingdon Avenue

Burnaby BC

Review: Dundarave Sushi

Me and M were in Dundarave killing some time before we ate mountains and mountains of pasta at his moms house.

We visited the consignment store, and a womens' boutique (M excused himself and went to the man / hardware / etc store nearby). Since we'd only had breakfast, and it was already late afternoon, we knew that we had to have something to eat.



Dundarave Sushi looked great - inexpensive, quick, and light. There was a great bargain advertised on the sandwich board outside. Two combos at only $6.95 each! Of course, being the piglets that we are, we ordered something else off the menu. For $13.95, we shared a combo that included miso soup, tuna, tai, and salmon sashimi, two pieces of california roll, tuna, salmon, ebi, tamago and kani sushis, a green salad, and side of tempura of generous proportions.

At first I was reluctant to agree to order the combo, but once the tray of food came, I was glad I ordered it.



The food was delicious and the fish was so fresh! I literally ate my first piece of tai sashimi and said to M, "the north shore is really the place to go for sushi."

I'm glad to have found Dundarave Sushi - it offers fresh sashimi and sushi at a great price. And to boot, it's across the street from one of the best yarn stores in town!


Dundarave Sushi

2459 Marine Drive [map]

West Vancouver, BC

Tel: (604) 922-5588

Recipe: (Almost) Banana Baumkuchen!

While we were antiquing on Main street a couple weeks ago, I pulled M into a small Filipino grocery store to explore and pick up some goodies. We wound up pestering the store lady (who was really nice and informative!) and chose a couple items to purchase and savour later. One of the bottles that I picked was none other than a tiny $2.39 / 25ml bottle of banana flavouring.



When I was a little girl, and throughout my teenage years, I had an aunt who would travel to Singapore every couple of years or so. Being Chinese, she wound up packing edible goodies for her family at home in Canada. One of those, I remember, was a fragrant banana-flavoured cake with layers and layers of millimeter-thin sheets. She'd tell us stories of how she had to stand for hours in line *just* to get a couple cakes for us, but it was worth it.

Years later, I thought I would try to replicate the cake. I wanted specific tools, like a retangular crepe pan. A foodie friend from BCIT would end up gifting me one - but, it didn't work. I tried making a "stacked crepe cake", but it was nothing like what I had tasted years before.

Finally, I came across a recipe for baumkuchen. What is baumkuchen, you ask? Baumkuchen is a German layered cake. Traditionally, it is made on a metal spit. The metal spit is heated up and a thin batter would be brushed on. The spit would be rotated to coat, and due to the heat of the spit, it would cook quickly. Another layer of batter would be deposited on the cooked batter and thus the thin layers were prepared.



My method created a rectangular cake with a sort of "souffled pancake batter". Although the batter did, in fact, souffle at times, the end result was something that I was visually happy with. The flavour, however, leaves something to be desired, but I'll experiment with it and come up with a suitable substitution. Recipe can be found below.

Ingredients
8-10 egg yolks (eight if you're using large eggs, 10 if you're using medium eggs)

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 banana flavouring (need to add more!)
1/2 vanilla extract

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt

8-10 egg whites
1/4 cup sugar

Method
Grease a 5" by 9" loaf pan.

In a medium bowl, beat egg yolks until thick and lemon-coloured. Set aside.

In mixer bowl, beat together softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in banana flavour and vanilla extract. Incorporate egg yolks until well combined.

In a separate bowl, mix together flour, cornstarch and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix until just combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites until soft peaks form. Add 1/4 cup sugar and whisk until stiff peaks form.

Fold egg whites into butter mixture until incorporated.

Heat broiler up to high, or 400ºF. Adjust oven racks so that loaf pan will be approximately 8-10 inches away from top heating element.

Pour / scrape about 1/3 cup of batter into pan. Gently spread with a spatula so that a thin layer of batter coats the bottom of the pan. Broil for 1-3 minutes until the batter is an even golden brown. Remove from oven and spoon 1/4 to 1/3 cup of batter onto cooked layer. Broil again for 1-3 minutes until the batter is an even golden brown. Repeat process until all batter is used up.

Cool in pan ~10-15 minutes. Loosen from pan using a sharp knife; invert onto cooling rack. Trim the crisp edges from the cake; wrap and chill.

It is a somewhat arduous process, but the visual effects (and nostalgia for me!) are very beautiful.



I presented my aunt with a batch of baumkuchen yesterday. Even though the flavour wasn't exactly spot on, I hope she'd appreciate the effort!