Simple Cucumber Tofu Salad with BBQ & Thousand Island Dressing Recipe

This is a very simple recipe to prepare and I would make this whenever my kids grow tired of stir fried vegetables. There are so many ways of cooking tofu and it can also be made into nice salad dish. For some greens and crunchiness, I topped the tofu with some fresh cucumber strips. You can also add some croutons to this salad.

Here is the recipe

Ingredients
Tofu, 3 blocks, cut into four each
Cucumber, 1 small, remove seeds and cut into strips
Hickory Barbecue sauce, to taste
Thousand Island Salad Dressing, to taste (Alternatively you can also use Mayonaise)
Salt, to taste
Pepper to taste

Deep fry tofu in hot oil until they turned golden brown. Drain away excess oil and arrange to tofu on a plate. Top the fried tofu with the cucumber strips. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour the hickory barbecue sauce and Thousand Island Salad Dressing on the Tofu Cucumber salad.

Stuffed Tofu Pok Balls with Chicken and Water Chest Nut Recipe

Previously, I cooked Stuffed Tofu Pok Balls with prawn meat but this time I added in chicken meat and water chest nut to change the fillings texture a little bit.
To see how you can turn the tofu balls inside out, please refer to my previous post.
These tofu balls with stuffing are good as finger food for parties or picnic outings. They taste good if eaten with chilly sauce.

Ingredients
Tofu Pok, 10 pcs

Fillings
Onions, 1 pc, chopped finely
Water Chestnut, 2 pcs, chopped finely
Sesame oil, 1/2 teaspoon
Light soya sauce, 1 tablespoon
Salt to taste
Corn flour, 3 teaspoon
Pepper, 1/2 teaspoon
Prawn meat, 100gms, minced
Chicken meat,  100 gms

Make a small cut on the tofu pok and turn it over. Mix all the filling ingredients together. Stuff the tofu with the fillings mixture. Deep fry the tofu pok balls in hot oil until they turned golden brown. Drain away excess oil. Serve with chilly sauce.

Claypot Tofu with Pak Choi (Chinese Cabbage) and Salted fish Recipe

To get the best out of this dish, you must use tofu that are made for frying. This type of tofu is hard on the outside but really soft inside. After deep frying this tofu, the skin would be crispy but the inner portion remains soft. It would be easier to use a non-stick wok when frying tofu as the stick easily to normal wok.
I love this claypot tofu dish because it has all the main ingredients inside it; no need to cook other dishes liao! ha ha ha!

Ingredients
Tofu, 3 pcs, cut into 4
Carrot, 1 pc, cut into slices
Onion, 1 pc, cut into 4
Garlic, 3 cloves, chopped finely
Pak Choi (Chinese Cabbage), 5 leaves, cut into 1" length
Salted fish, 2 pcs, deep fried and cut into small pieces
Egg, 1pc
Prawn, 5 medium
Corn flour and water mixture

Deep fry tofu until the skin becomes crispy and golden brown in colour. Put aside and drain away excess oil. Hea up wok and add in a little vegetable oil. Add garlic and stir fry until fragrant. Add carrot, onion and prawn. Pour in some water and bring to a boil. Add in the pak choi. Add corn flour and water mixture to thicken the gravy. Beat egg and pour it into the gravy. Pour the gravy on the deep fried tofu. Garnish the top with deep fried salted fish and spring onions before serving.

Special Three Treasure Prawn and Tofu Dish (Sounds Like Expensive Restaurant Dish Pulak!)

This is one of my weekend recipes.  I was thinking, since I will be deep frying the prawn, why not fry the tofu that I have in the fridge as well. My family ended up having their weekend dinner with a plate of 3 types of dishes in it! LOL!

Dish 1 - KFC Flour Deep Fried Tofu
Ingredients
Tofu, cut into cuboid blocks
Any fried chicken flour off the shelf

Heat up wok and put in vegetable oil for deep frying. Coat the tofu with the fried chicken flour. Deep fry the tofu until they turned golden brown.

Dish 2 - Plain Fried Tofu
Ingredients
Fresh Tofu, cut into cubes

Deep fry the tofu in high eat until the skin turned golden brown. Don't fry it too long or it will become tough.

Dish 3 - Prawn Fritters
Please refer to my, Deep Fried Prawn Fritters Recipe post.

Arrange all the dishes on the serving plate as shown in the above photo before serving.

Sweet and Sour Tofu with Prawns Recipe - Healthy Combination

Sometimes when I do not have the ingredients to cook soup, I would make it up with a dish with gravy so that the kids can flood their rice with it. Normally I would deep fry the tofu and eat it with chilly sauce. Tofu also goes along well with tomato sauce and this is the dish that I came up with. Check out this Sweet and Sour Tofu with Prawns meat recipe.

Ingredients
Tofu, 1 block, cut into bite sizes
Garlic, 3 pcs, chopped finely
Onions, 1 pc, cut into four
Prawns, 5, shelled
Tomato sauce, 7 spoons
Worcestershire sauce, 1 dash
Salt to taste
Sugar, a dash
Cucumber, cut into bite size
Spring onions, 1 stalk, cut into one inch length
Corn flour and water mixture

Note : Can add a little pounded peanut (kacang tumbuk) for extra kick.

 Deep fry the tofu in hot oil and put aside. Heat up wok and add a little vegetable oil. Saute garlic until fragrant and add in the onions. Add water, tomato sauce, Worcestershire (Lee and Perrins), salt and sugar. Bring to a boil. Add prawns and thicken the gravy with corn flour and water mixture if required. Arrange the fried tofu, spring onions and cucumber on a serving plate. Pour the sweet and sour gravy over the tofu and serve.

Braised Pork with Lemon Rind and Tofu Recipe

I bought a nice cut of pork with the skin and some fat intact. It is time for me to bring out my pressure cooker from the cabinet again. I need to cook this thick slab of pork until it is tender. Apart from using the normal spices like cinnamon and star anise, I also added some lemon rind for a little tangy flavour. Some tofu came in handy in order to provide a little balance to the rich and oily pork gravy.

Ingredients
Pork with skin and fat intact, 1 slab, 600 gms
Star Anise, 2 pcs
Cinnamon, 2 pcs
Lemon Rind, a little
Tofu, 3”x3”x3”, cut into cubes
Light Soya sauce, 2 table spoons
Dark Soya Sauce, 1 table spoon
Sugar to taste
Salt to taste
Corn flour, 1 tablespoon
Garlic, 1 whole bulb
Spring onions and Parsley for garnishing

Marinade pork with light soya sauce, dark soya sauce, sugar, salt, lemon rind and corn flour. Put pork in pressure cooker and add desired amount of water. Put in the star anise, cinnamon and garlic. Cook at high pressure for 45 minutes. Let it cool down a little and release the pressure valve before opening the lid. Add in and tofu bring to a boil without putting the lid on. Garnish with spring onions and parsley before serving.

Mei Gai Yuan Restaurant, Jalan Burung Pucung, Taman Bukit Maluri, KL – Simple Family Meal

The restaurant outdoor section and indoor airconditioned section directly opposite each other across the road.

Sea cucumber soup......................................................and Butter Squid

Stir fried French Beans and Braised tofu with chicken meat

All the dishes we had

I have passed by this restaurant many times but never try the food here before. One day, I decided to take my family to this restaurant to try out the dishes there. The Mei Gai Yuan restaurant in Tmn Bkt Maluri has two sections; one in the air conditioned shop lot and another section directly opposite it which housed an outdoor eating area and also the kitchen. Therefore, the air conditioned section is rather clean and not smoky at all! We ordered Butter Squid, stir fried French Beans and Braised Tofu. I saw there was a promotion for sea cucumber soup, so I ordered a single serving one just to try it out. The butter squid (RM12) is fried to perfection and is also very flavourful. Everyone loves it, especially my kids! There is nothing to shout about the stir fried French Beans but the serving is rather generous. It cost RM8 per plate. The Braised Tofu looks quite plain but then it actually tasted very nice. I like the fresh and crunchy spinach in this dish. The pre fried tofu has nice aroma and the sauce is savoury! They cooked the Sea Cucumber Soup like the usual starchy shark fin soup. Anyway, I find it very nice and I ate most of it! The total bill plus tea came up to be RM44.50. (4 adults, 1 child, 1 toddler)

 Address : Restaurant Mei Gai Yuan 38, Jalan Burung Pucung, Taman Bukit Maluri, Kepong, 52100, Kuala Lumpur (They have a Manjalara branch too, but I don’t have the address) Tel 012 3177946, 012 3335118
Business hours : 1 pm to 12 am
Map to Mei Gai Yuan

Making Tofu (豆腐, 豆腐, とうふ, 두부, đậu phụ, tokwa, tauhu, เต้าหู้) Using Nigari Salts Solution, yummy marmite tofu!

The tofu that are commonly available commercially are normally made using gypsum (sek ko fun, calcium sulfate) as coagulant. Sek Ko Fun is widely used in China to make tofu. Many claim that sek ko fun is not good for health. However, Sek Ko Fun (Calcium sulfate) is a good source of calcium that helps to make our bones strong. The Japanese people have been using Nigari salt (sea salt, magnesium chloride) as coagulant for tofu and I was told that Nigari is a better choice than sek ko fun. Anyway there are many types of coagulant for tofu like for example the Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) that is popularly used to flush gall bladder stone. Our normal kitchen vinegar can also be used as a coagulant but I have yet to try this method. I do no have a tofu making box with drainage hole, so a plastic sieve that I use to soak vegetables will work just fine. In order to make the tofu with fine texture, you must stir the coagulant and soya bean juice mixture one time clockwise and one anti clockwise. Pressing it using some weights will turn the tofu into blocks. Here is the step by step instruction to make tofu.

1) Soya Bean milk that I bought from the Kepong wet market, around 5 cups. Nigari salt solution.

2) Heat up soya bean milk to around 60 to 70 Deg C. Do not boil. Add 2 table spoons of Nigari salt solutions. Nigari salt has bitter taste so use it sparingly. The soya bean milk will start to coagulate after 15 to 20 minutes.

3) Drape a fine cloth over the sieve. I guess my new handkerchief works just fine. The best material would be your Pagoda T-shirt.....but you better use a new one or else, no one will eat your tofu...ha ha ha!

4) Pour the coagulated tofu into the cloth.

5) Tie up the cloth and put some heavy stuff on top of it. I used a bowl filled with water

6) When the tofu hardened, soak it in clean water to wash away the nigari salt so that it will not taste bitter.

7) My tofu, Peteformation production! See the sieve pattern on it?

8) Cook the tofu immediately because there are no preservative in it. I cooked Marmite Tofu with it. Want to know the taste of my home made tofu? Fresh and yummy!

Japanese Tofu with Eggs Recipe

On the request of Cleffairy, I would like to publish this Japanese Tofu Recipe that I have not cook for a very long time (hence I don’t have the picture). Unlike the hot plate tofu that you see in my post Ho Weng Kee, I did not use a hot plate to put the tofu. So its Cleffairy turn to try to cook this dish and publish it her blog. Cleff, remember to take a nice picture of the dish for us to comment. LOL. Ingredients Japanese Soft egg tofu, I roll, cut vertically into disc like shape Egg, 1pc Light Soya Sauce, 2 table spoon Dark Soya Sauce, ½ teaspoon Oyster Sauce, 1 table spoon Dried chillies, 3 pcs Minced Meat, 100gms Salted kurau fish, fried until crispy and break it into small chunks Garlic, 5 pcs, minced Vegetable oil Corn Flour to thicken gravy Water, ¼ bowl Steam tofu and put aside. Beat eggs and add a dash of soya sauce. Fry the egg in hot oil and make the diameter of the egg the same as the plate you are going to serve the dish. Take out the fried egg and put into a plate. Arrange the steamed tofu on top of the fried egg. Put some vegetable oil in the wok, sautéed the garlic, minced meat and dried chillies until fragrant. Add water, light soya sauce, dark soya sauce and oyster sauce. Make the gravy thick by adding some corn flour (or tapioca flour) mixed with a little cold water. Bring to a boil and add salt to taste. Pour the gravy over the tofu and sprinkle the fried salted kurau fish on top of the dish. Happy trying, Cleff!

Cooking For My Mom

My mom went for surgery to remove her cataract and also treatment for her glaucoma. She was unable to see because one of her eyes has been damaged by the effect of glaucoma. Therefore after her operation to remove the cataract on her other eye, she was unable to see for a few days. I was back to my hometown, Butterworth to visit her. I took over her kitchen and cook for her for several days, until her vision returns to normal. These are some of the dishes that I cooked up. 1) Steam pomfret with kei chi (wolfberries). Kei Chi good for eyesight. 2) Steamed grouper with ginger. 1) Grouper with bean paste, ginger and garlic. 2) Chinese herbal six taste soup (Lark bi) to improve appetite. 1) Steamed okra, my mom's favourite..........2) My mom grew tired of eating fish, so I cook Bak Kut Teh for her. Tofu fried with sweet soya sauce and spring onions. And for the rest of the family. Sambal udang (chili prawn) with cucumber and the roast pork I bought from the morning wet market.

My mom taught my maid to cook this jui hu char (nyonya fried turnips)

Simple Recipe – Vegetarian Sambal Petai Tau Kan (Chili Petai Wet Bean Curd Blocks)

Check out the above vegetarian recipe at my Vegan blog link Simple Recipe – http://veganformation.blogspot.com/2008/09/simple-recipe-vegan-sambal-petai-tau.html