Comfort Food

From what I can glean from the Internet, many typical American comfort foods include mac and cheese, spaghetti, and chicken soup...

If I were to pick, I think I would chose banh canh. It's a Vietnamese-style udon soup that I used to make with my godmother when I was little. We even made the noodles ourselves! Why would I chose this particular dish? I think thinking of having it for lunch when I was sick may be a strong factor. When sick, I usually long certain easy to make and warm meals of my childhood. With a package of instant udon, all I needed to do was make a soup (chop carrots, celery, broccoli, tofu, mushrooms, and a bit of ginger, cook in lightly salted water), add in udon, cook some more, then season. Nothing beats it when I feel down.

Sweet and Sour

A sweet and sour tomato sauce I made today to eat with fresh white bread from the bakery. I looked up a couple of things online, then went by instinct ^^.

Sorry for the bad quality. iPad camera
just doesn't work as well as a Canon.

Ingredients:
- Sugar
- Water
- 1 can peeled tomatoes
- rice vinegar (I find it less strong than regular vinegar, and it matches the flavor better as well)
- Snap beans (I had to use it up, so... traditionally, green bell-peppers and pineapples are used)
- Cornstarch or potato starch (I used potato starch)
- Salt, to taste

Procedure:
1. Boil/steam the snap beans.
2. Mix sugar and water and heat until dissolved.
3. Add in the tomatoes. For better results, squeeze the tomatoes or crush them so there aren't too many "lumps."
4. Add a little vinegar.
5. Mix the starch with a little water. Add in and stir. If using potato starch don't let it boil.
6. Taste test and add flavor as needed (I went for a bit more sweet)
7. Add in the veggies.
8. Enjoy with rice, or like me, on bread ^^

Random onigiri

Filled with vegetarian soy fluff. Topped with roasted white sesame. Too bad I couldn't get my hands on some nori (seaweed), it looks a little bare. Otherwise, the best shaped onigiri I've made so far. And the first (or second) in which I actually mixed the rice vinegar stuff into the rice.

Onigiri = rice ball.

Soup and Tofu

I made lunch today, for a bunch of people (we were 7 around the table).

Potato Soup:
This was based on a soup one of my teachers used to make which was delicious. However, I didn't have the recipe, and tried making it from memory... there wasn't enough potato, and there was too much spices.

Since it wasn't quite there yet, I won't post up the recipe.

Sweet and Sour Tofu:

I tried imitating my aunt's tofu. Again, not quite there yet. My cousin helped me a lot.

Asian poached tofu

Note: Serving sizes may vary. I cook with what I have, for those who need food at the time.

This is a typical dish that my parents or aunts make often.

Recipe~ (5-6 servings)

Ingredients:

- 2 pieces of soft tofu (not silky, just soft)

- Soy sauce

- Ginger

- Mushroom seasoning (as explained here)
- Salt, sugar, pepper to taste

Procedure:
1. Dice the tofu.
2. Put the tofu in a pot along with all the seasoning.
3. Add minced ginger.
4. Cover the pot, then cook on low heat for a long time, occasionally stirring so the tofu is cooked evenly.

Fried rice

Note: Serving sizes may vary. I cook with what I have, for those who need food at the time.


I always felt that traditional Asian fried rice was too dry. In High School, I used to put some mild ketchup in it to eat it. Then I read Cooking Master Boy and I saw Mao putting tomato sauce on his fried rice. So I got inspired.

Recipe~ (4 servings)
Ingredients:
- 2 servings of cooked white rice
- 2 servings of cooked sarrasin
- 1 can peeled tomatoes
- 1 can pineapple rings (the cans I use have 4 rings in one can)
- 4 leaves basil
- 1 tofu
- 1 eggplant
- some ginger
- 2 potatoes

Procedure:
1. Dice the tofu, potatoes and the eggplants. Cook the eggplants until tender. Boil the potatoes, then mash them with a potato masher.
2. Crush the peeled tomatoes, then heat them up. Season it until it tastes good. I added, chopped in, 2 rings of pineapple. Then add in the mashed potatoes. Chop some ginger up and put it in as well.
3. Mix the rice, sarrasin, tofu, and eggplants together, and fry them in a wok. I used some olive oil for fragrance, and sunflower oil. Keep on stirring to keep it from sticking to the pot.
4. Plate the fried rice as an oval dome. Pour the sauce over half of that. Cut the remaining pineapple, and decorate the sauce part with it. Finally put a leaf of basil in the middle. Enjoy~