Tofu Triangles

Let me start by saying, I don't like tofu.  I've tried it before - it tastes of nothing and the texture reminds me all too much of egg. Bleugh!

So, tofu seems like the perfect base for dinner right?

We visited Hoo Hing earlier in the day, which by the way is an excellent place to shop.  So many exciting ingredients that you just can't get elsewhere. Check it out here:  http://www.hoohing.com/

So, as usual we bought a few additional 'random' items to try out.  One being tofu, because you must be able to do something interesting with it right?

Having flicked through my books I decided to try some tofu triangles from one of the Chinese themed books.  This will only work with firm tofu!  Sugar, salt, 5 spice, ginger and garlic go in a tub, the tofu is then cut into triangles and coated.  The recipe called for this to then be left for an hour, but I didn't have time.  These then get deep fried for 10 minutes and come out looking something like this:

I have to say these were really good.  Crispy on the outside, soft in the middle and the flavouring actually made the tofu taste of something!  Result!

We had this with some miso soup, which is oh so simple.  Miso seasoning added to water with noodles, veg and of course the left over tofu for about 3 minutes.  This looked a little something like this:

We also have a tradition when we visit the Chinese supermarket.  Hubbie has to buy a drink, some have been good, some not so good.  This week's little gem was this:

Love the label placement!  It actually says Grass Jelly Drink and it is as disgusting as it sounds.

Easter cupcakes

You know a recipe for chocolate cake is going to be good if it contains chocolate, proper chocolate, and not just cocoa powder.

I wanted to make some cupcakes to take to work, I decided to try to make these look like nests with little eggs in... here's how it worked...

The recipe is from the Primrose Bakery book.  You all know how to make cake - ingredients go in, get mixed, and put into cases.  This recipe was a little different to those I have done before as it called for the egg yolks to  be added first with all the usual ingredients.  The egg whites are then whisked separately until they form soft peaks.  This is then added at the last minute and folded in to make the cupcakes light and airy.

The recipes in the book are for either large or small cupcakes. Large is muffin sized, I still haven't worked out what small is.  I put the mixture into standard cupcake cases and it made 24 - it was supposed to make 36 small cupcakes so I guess mine were somewhere in the middle.

I made the chocolate icing from the book again.  This was just butter, icing sugar and more melted chocolate.  It made quite a soft icing so as I wanted to pipe it I ended up adding more icing sugar.

This is the end result:

Apparently they were rather good.

30 minute Chicken Satay

Ok, so technically I didn't cook this... I helped, but Hubbie did most of the work.  This is another recipe from Jamie's 30 minute meals - Chicken Skewers, Satay Sauce, Fiery Noodle Salad and Fruit and Mint Sugar.

Made for our anniversary meal as I was working late.  I love chicken Satay, Hubbie loves pineapple, but neither of us like the other.  So, this is what we started with:

(Well aware the chilli looks odd, this is because we freeze them...works really well)

The food processor comes out again for this recipe and all the ingredients for the satay sauce go in and come out looking pretty tasty.  Some of this goes in a bowl for dipping later.  The rest is used to coat the chicken.

The chicken skewers are really easy to do - I have done skewers before, cut chicken up and threaded it on... Jamie makes it easier, you thread the skewers through the breasts then just cut through once done.  Simples.
These are then grilled, turning later and drizzling with some honey.

The sides for this dish are little gem lettuces, cut so you can use them to scoop up chicken and noodles later and noodles.

The noodles are put in hot water to soak.  Meanwhile, you hit some cashew nuts with a rolling pin, which is always good fun, and heat up the frying pan so you can toast them.

Red onion, chilli, and coriander stalks are chopped in the food processor then put in the serving bowl with soy sauce, olive oil, lime juice, sesame oil and fish sauce - I love what fish sauce does to food, but wow does it smell awful!  Once the noodles are ready and drained they are added to the bowl along with the cashews and coriander leaves.  You toss that together and serve.

Dessert was the pineapple.  I HATE pineapple, but apparently if you don't, this is pretty good... lay slices of pinapple on a plate with some blueberries, in a pestle and mortar pound some sugar and mint leaves and scatter this mixture over the fruit.  Serve with coconut yoghurt.

So this is what the meal looked like:

and this is what my plate looked like:

The boy did good... took him longer that 30 minutes - closer to 45, but he doesn't like having 6 things on the go at the same time and will normally cook by arranging everything in little pots to be added when required so this way of cooking is a little odd for him.

The meal was great, even Hubbie liked the satay and he would normally hate this.  Dessert was ok, but I wasn't really expecting to like it anyway.