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Strawberry Almond Tofu Dessert

by | Jun 6, 2011

Strawberry Almond Tofu Dessert

In the last week my life has changed so much and hopefully for the better. As you know I’ve been working as a chef for a few years but as well as cooking one of my other passions is drawing. When I was in my teens I had the option of either studying art or studying cooking and I ended up studying the latter but I’ve always wanted to see what I can achieve by studying something else.

So in the last few weeks I applied to study a full time course in Illustration at a well known college in Edinburgh and I’ve been accepted. Yay! I really love the people I work with but one day I will have to move back to my country and in Taiwan there are no places for female chefs. The vast majority of chefs in Taiwan are men and it’s very difficult for a woman to have a decent place in a professional kitchen.

Also, you’ll have to admit I’m a bit too delicate to work as a chef. Remember my broken finger last week and all my burns? It’s too much.

Another great bit of news is I’ll keep working part time at the same restaurant while I study but I’ll also have a lot more time to update my blog so you should expect to see a lot more recipes coming from me in the future and maybe one day (hopefully!) I’ll get my book finished!

So let’s talk about today’s recipe…

Strawberry Almond Tofu Dessert

The way I made this dish isn’t the traditional way for making Almond Tofu Dessert. The traditional way is you cut the almond tofu into small diamond shapes surrounded by pieces of diced fruit and syrup. I made this dish with strawberries as we’re in strawberry season right now and I chilled the dish in the fridge so this is a nice cool dish. This is a great dessert for the summer.

We believe almonds will give you beautiful smooth skin so we like to eat lots of almonds. The name of this dish might sound like a contradiction as there’s no tofu in this dish but the main ingredient, soy milk, is the same as from tofu, so I guess this is why we call it Almond Tofu.

This dish is made up of strawberry coulis at the bottom with the almond tofu on top, topped with fresh fruit of choice. The strawberry coulis has pieces of fresh strawberry in it as well.

strawberry almond tofu dessert

 

strawberry almond tofu dessert
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Strawberry Almond Tofu Dessert

Course Main Dish
Prep Time 2 hours
Total Time 2 hours
Servings 4 portions

Ingredients

Ingredients for Strawberry Coulis

  • 100 g fresh strawberries
  • 100 g caster sugar
  • 70 g water
  • 2 tsp corn flour

Ingredients for Almond Tofu

  • 1 ltr soy milk
  • 4 pieces gelatine
  • 150 g caster sugar
  • 200 g peeled almonds
  • 100 g water
  • 2 drops almond extract

Instructions

Procedure for Strawberry Coulis

  1. Use a food processor to purify 100g of fresh strawberries then put into a small sauce pot along with the water and sugar. Bring  this to the boil.
  2. Mix the corn flour with 2 teaspoons of water in a separate bowl and gradually stir into the saucepan from step one to ensure  even texture. Bring the sauce to the boil again after adding this mixture. Once it has boiled pour the mixture into a bowl and allow to cool down.

Procedure for Almond Tofu

  1. Use the food processor to blend the almonds almost to a powder texture.
  2. Put the almond powder, soy milk, water, sugar and almond extract into a saucepan and bring this to boil. Once at the boil allow to simmer for 45 minutes but stir occasionally while simmering to make sure it doesn’t burn on the bottom of the pan.
  3. After the 45 minutes pass the mixture through a sieve as we don’t want any lumps of almond. After passing though allow the mixture to cool down a little. Soften the gelatine and stir this into the cooled mixture. Cooling the mixture down before adding the gelatine is essential otherwise the gelatine would be destroyed at a high temperature.
  4. Once you have added gelatine allow the mixture to cool down until the dish is warm but not hot. At this moment you can prepare the glasses for pouring the mixture into.
  5. In the glass or dish that you choose to use, place fresh strawberries at the bottom and cover this with strawberry coulis. This should fill about one fifth of the glass/dish. Being gentle, cover the strawberry coulis with the almond tofu mixture until about 4/5ths of the glass are filled. Leave in a fridge until it has set (this should take about 1 hour but I left it overnight).
  6. Once the dessert has set place fresh strawberries on top and it’s ready to serve. I added blackberries for extra garnish but this is entirely optional.

 

Big Breasts Food – Green Papaya with Pork Rib Soup

by | May 30, 2011

Big Breasts Food – Green Papaya with Pork Rib Soup

So recently I haven’t updated my blog and for a really good reason. I broke a finger and more specifically my ring finger. Recently at work we’ve been really busy at work and a few people have called in sick so we’ve been super busy and I was at work one day in a rush and I banged my ring finger on a fridge door. My finger was bleeding a bit but really swelled up so I was worried I damaged the tendons in my finger.

Chris especially but also myself are the kind of people where if it hurts on the day we kind of leave injuries but if it’s still hurting two weeks later we seek medical advice. So the one weekend Chris hired a car and drove me to hospital where they x-rayed it and found I broke my finger. I got seen to fairly quickly but as usual the NHS didn’t want to do anything apart from give me a tiny piece of tape to tape my fingers together for a day or two.

Two weeks later we went back to hospital where we had a really long wait (this is very normal for the NHS) and I was told my the doctor I would have to live with a “wonky” finger (the tip of my ring finger isn’t straight). The doctor then said “you will never be a hand model” and builders have loads of wonky fingers. Hello! I’m a woman! Not a builder! Thanks!

They also didn’t give me any painkillers. In Taiwan you get sympathetic treatment all the time and the doctor will give you painkillers if you need them. Essentially our health care system is more humane. Doctors in Taiwan also aren’t sarcastic. They treat you effectively and compassionately.

broken chef finger
broken chef finger

Anyway, on with a recipe…

Green Papaya with Pork Rib Soup

A long time ago Taiwanese people were crazy about this soup. In Taiwan we believe green papaya will help young women grow larger breasts so as you can imagine loads of young girls ate green papaya thinking it will grow them big breasts so they will have a more beautiful curved body. Boys as you can imagine encouraged girls to eat green papaya so they would have bigger breasts to admire lol.

I tried eating this myself to see if I can enhance my boobs but I think I’ve grown too old for this to work, shame! But no matter if this grow big breasts or not soup is very important for one’s daily diet as it helps our bodies to hydrate and clean it.

green papaya with pork rib soup
green papaya

 

green-papaya-with-pork-rib-soup
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Green Papaya with Pork Rib Soup

Course Main Dish
Prep Time 2 hours
Total Time 2 hours
Servings 4 people

Ingredients

  • 1 small green papaya available in Chinese supermarkets
  • 400 g pork ribs diced
  • 2 small ginger
  • 1 small carrot for garnish
  • water

Instructions

  1. Boil a pot of water and blanch the pork ribs. This will clean the ribs and remove any dirt from the bones. You’ll see the excess dirt, for example blood, float on top of the water. Once you see this wash the ribs under cold water.
  2. Put the ribs back into the pot along with the ginger and around 2 litres of cold water and boil it. Once it reaches the boil reduce heat and simmer for 1.5 hours.
  3. Peel and remove the seeds from the green papaya. Dice the papaya and for the carrots you can use a ring cutter to cut it into a flower shape (if you wish to do so).
  4. Put the papaya into the pot and cook with the ribs until the papaya has softened. Season the soup with salt and white pepper powder. Once the papaya is soft this dish is ready to serve.

 

Swensens Taipei Restaurant Review

by | May 19, 2011

There are many things I really like about the UK but some things that really annoy me. The first things that really annoys me is the NHS, it’s useless! The second is eating out. Most shops are open until around 6pm, some 8pm, and the same goes for restaurants. Restaurants close at 11pm and reopen for lunchtime the next time.

One of the best things about Taipei is that there is always something to do / somewhere to eat 24 hours a day and the quality of the food is always really good. When I was younger I used to enjoy clubbing and when we would leave clubs at 4am we would go to a restaurant and grab some food.

One of my favourite 24 hour restaurants is Swensens. Swensens is located at 106 Taiwan Taipei City Daan District Section 4, RénÀi Road 109號 and they serve delicious American food 24 hours a day.

The first time Chris and I visited Taipei together I took him to Swensens for breakfast. Swensens is a chain of American restaurants serving the usual array of American food; burgers, steaks, ribs etc. He ordered an English breakfast, which he really enjoyed but he was bemused when my father ordered a burger. He said “burger? for breakfast?” expecting a tiny little burger but the burger was the size of a plate. It was huge. He had a couple bites and vowed next time we came to Taipei together he would order a burger for breakfast.

Two years later we returned to Taipei and went to Swensens at 5am where he ordered a burger and I ordered a steak. I also ordered soup and a smoothie. Chris ordered a cookies and cream ice cream drink.

Everything was really good. The burger was delicious, the cheese was tasty, the bacon crispy and the burger was cooked perfectly. Same with my steak, it was cooked exactly how I like it and was covered with garlic butter and came with the usual assortment of chips/salad.

Chris absolutely loved his drink and I really enjoyed my smoothie. Everything cost about £30.

This is the thing that annoys me. Yes you can buy food at the UK from 6am/7am but it’s always the same assortment of bacon and egg sandwiches or greasy spoon food. Don’t get me wrong, I love greasy spoon food sometimes but Taipei has so many places like Swensens, where you can walk in 24 hours a day and eat really delicious food.

Pumpkin soup

Cookies and cream milkshake and smoothie at Swensons

5am burger at Swensons. This was really delicious

5am steak covered in garlic butter at Swensens. Awesome!

Close up of that delicious steak

Swensens Taipei menu

Swensens Taipei menu

Swensens Taipei menu

Swensens Taipei menu

Swensens Taipei menu

 

Kao Chi Taipei Restaurant Review

by | May 6, 2011

Kao Chi Taipei Restaurant Review. The first time I brought Chris to Taiwan we didn’t go to any Taiwanese restaurants. Sure, we went to quite a few night markets which of course sell Taiwanese food but night market food is different to restaurant food.

Kao Chi Restaurant Taipei

Kao Chi Restaurant Taipei

For example, in a night market, you might buy a bowl of rice covered with slow cooked mince or you might buy a bowl of beef noodle soup. The night markets have a huge variety of food but it’s not restaurant food.

This time when we went back I wanted to take him to some more restaurants. We first of all went to a Shanghainese restaurant where we ate delicious dumplings amongst other things (this restaurant is mentioned elsewhere on this blog). I also wanted to take him to a famous restaurant called Din Tai Fung but it’s always really busy and it’s not necessarily any better than some other Taiwanese restaurants.

So, a couple days before we came home I took him to Kao Chi. Kao Chi’s website can be found here: http://kao-chi.com/ but as a warning it’s entirely in Chinese. Kao Chi is one of my very favourite restaurants and if you eat there you’ll know why.

We went with my parents and my grandmother and ordered quite a lot of dishes. We started off with sweet and sour pork ribs, which Chris quickly devoured, and then in usual Eastern fashion they brought most of our dishes to the table at once. We had a delicious cooked rice dish which I made on 28th April (this recipe can be found here: https://eggwansfoododyssey.com/2011/04/28/cooked-rice-with-bak-choy-and-gammon/). We also had Wuxi Ribs, which if you follow this site you’ll remember I cooked before.

Cooked Rice Kao Chi Restaurant Taipei

Wuxi Ribs Kao Chi Restaurant Taipei

The Wuxi Ribs were phenomenal. In terms of seasoning they’re quite similar to how I cooked them but the meat was very different. Ribs in the UK tend to be mostly bone with a little bit of meat but the ribs in Taiwan are some bone and mostly meat.

We also had one dish with a kind of jellyfish wrapped in pork belly. Incredibly tasty. Chris actually thought the pork belly was bacon but they cut the pork belly so fine it does look like bacon but tastes a lot better. I’m hoping to have a go at making this dish, minus the jellyfish as they can’t be bought in the UK, providing I can find a butcher that can slice pork belly thin enough.

Sliced Boiled Pork with Garlic Sauce Kao Chi Restaurant Taipei

We also ate really delicious shenjingbao, a large fish dish and a pork dish which came with garlic soy sauce. Below are the photos from the food we have but trust me everything is really delicious.

Shenjiangbao Kao Chi Restaurant Taipei

Fish Dish Kao Chi Restaurant Taipei

Tzung Tzu Kao Chi Restaurant Taipei

Deep Fried Pork Chop Kao Chi Restaurant

Rice Eel Kao Chi Restaurant Taipei

Drunken Chicken Kao Chi Restaurant Taipei

Steamed Crab Meat and Pork Dumplings Kao Chi Restaurant Taipei

Cooked Rice with Bak Choy and Gammon

by | Apr 28, 2011

Cooked Rice with Bak Choy and Gammon

When we were in Taipei one of my favourite restaurants is Kao Chi. Kao Chi serves really delicious Shanghai cuisine and one of the dishes we ordered was this really delicious Cooked Rice with Bak Choy, Chinese ham and mushroom.

So for this recipe I decided to make something very similar. The main difference between the dish at Kao Chi and my recipe is I had to use smoked gammon instead of Chinese ham as I can’t find Chinese ham here in the UK. I also used chestnut mushroom instead of the tinned mushroom that they used (I prefer the taste of chestnut mushroom).

Normally Chris really dislikes bak choy, in fact he hates it usually, but he ate all of the bak choy in this dish which was a really big success for me. Finally, I can eat bak choy (one of my favourite vegetables).

Credit: All photos were taken by Chris at: http://www.chrisradleyphotography.com

cooked rice with bak choy and gammon

 

cooked-rice-with-bak-choy-and-gammon
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Cooked Rice with Bak Choy and Gammon

Course Main Dish
Prep Time 30 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 4 people

Ingredients

  • 2.5 cups rice
  • 200 g gammon steak
  • 300 g bak choy
  • 100 g chestnut mushrooms
  • 1 clove garlic finely chopped

Instructions

  1. Chop bak choy finely and remove the skin from the gammon steak. Cut the gammon steak into really small dices.
  2. Cut the mushroom into small dices as well.
  3. Heat up a wok with 1 tablespoon of oil. Saute the bak choy with garlic until the bak choy is cooked. Leave aside once it is cooked.
  4. Put the rice into a rice cooker with the gammon steak, mushrooms and 1 tablespoon of oil. Also use the juice that came out of the bak choy. Add a little more than 2 cups of water to cook everything.
  5. After the rice has cooked add the bak choy into the rice and mix evenly. Cover the rice cooker with the lid and leave to stand for 5 minutes.
  6. The dish is now ready to serve.

Recipe Notes

Tip for cooking Eastern food: Buy a rice cooker. Most of my friends and colleagues in the UK assume we boil rice in the East but most people use rice cookers. They can be bought as cheaply as £15, last ages and cook rice perfectly every time. Rice cookers can be used from cooking food, steaming food, making soup, steaming meat and many other things, all for £15 upwards!