Tofu Steak

Being in a vegan home, tofu is one of the food you will regularly see in our fridge. It is one of the staple foods in this house. You may think it can get boring, but not really. It's just a matter of knowing ways to prepare it. In fact, it's very versatile. I made a number of yummy dishes from it such as a mock feta cheese, scrambled eggs, and a meat substitute for my favorite Filipino dishes (tinola, adobo, bistek tagalog and many more!). The easiest, simplest, and by far, my favorite is of course, fried.

We have enjoyed this Tofu Steak recipe a number of times. I first discovered the preparation from Youtube - runnyrunny999 channel, and its actually quite addicting. The only cooking involved is frying the tofu. The rest just involves chopping and mixing. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 firm tofu (extra firm if you may, good for frying)
2 white onions, finely chopped
1 ripe tomato, chopped OR
4 pcs cherry tomatoes, quartered
some fresh chopped parsley
some all purpose flour for tofu coating
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp Ketchap Manis (optional)

1. Pat the tofu dry. Remove water from tofu as much as you can by wrapping it in a paper towel and putting a small plate on top of it so that it presses the tofu. Set aside.

2. In a mixing bowl, pour extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, ketchap manis, and mix well. This step is actually going to depend on your taste. If you feel like adding more olive oil, or balsamic vinegar or soysauce, or maybe add a bit of salt and pepper, it's all up to you.

3. Add the chopped onions and tomatoes and coat well. Again, this is also according to your liking. If you want more tomatoes in the toppings, feel free to add more. On the other hand, I'm a fan of onions so I like to have the onions dominate the toppings ;).

4. Sprinkle some chopped parsley.

5. When the tofu is drained slice the tofu. You can either slice it in half, or make it thinner by slicing it horizontally. It's really up to you.

6. Dust the tofu with some all purpose flour. Now you are ready to fry.

7. Heat oil in pan. When it's hot enough, begin frying the tofu.

8. Fry the tofu on all sides, making sure it gives you that crunchy golden brown crust.

9. When done, blot it with paper towel to remove excess oil.

10. Top with the steak dressing and serve.

Check this Youtube link to get to the original recipe. The video is so easy to follow :).

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Today's Lekker - Visit to Yellow Sunshine

After visiting a flea market to scout for a lamp that would fit our bedroom, we ate a very late lunch - can actually be considered as an early dinner at Yellow Sunshine, a warm, laid back, vegetarian/vegan food joint. Their menu consists of a number of delicious vegetarian/vegan burgers and some classic menus such as vegetarian steak and schnitzel. I ordered vegetarian steak topped with caramelized onions, with overflowing french fries that also came with a bowl of packed garden fresh salad. Totally enjoyed. Price is just right, spent about EUR10 for a meal.

Some photos to share:

Yellow Sunshine ceiling.

Some markings on the wall i found interesting.

A bowl of packed garden fresh salad.

Vegetarian steak with yummy caramelized onions.

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The First Friday Of the Year

Been enjoying Mark's company since the 23rd since his boss gave them a holiday break until January 6. Isn't that awesome? In fact, I really appreciate having Mark around all the time to keep me company because I kinda need it. On December 24th, I lost a very close friend who I considered and loved as a family. He was very young and his death shook our world. 2013 was a weird year, we actually lost 2 friends before the end of 2013.  It was sort of a struggle for me to digest these events and I am having this secret anxiety of being alone. I'm just thankful that I have Mark available to me during these times. I think I'm doing better now.

Tonight, being the first Friday of the month, and being the last day of Mark's holiday, we decided to just take it easy and stay home with our 6 cats. I made sandwich burger and sweet potato fries we ate on the couch while watching a movie - laid back lekker night!

I failed to find burger buns so we settled with burger sandwiches.

Cold evening, warmed by our baby cats :).

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Sweet Potato-Ginger Soup

I know a lot of people who doesn't like the taste of ginger. I like to think of it as a taste/flavor you acquire. Definitely not something you will instantly like. I used to hate it as a kid, but as I grew up and explored the wonders of cooking, I kinda developed a taste bud for it.

This recipe was inspired by potato ginger soup I tried at Casa Matti, an Italian resto we visited a month ago. It's the first time I tried ginger in a soup and I really enjoyed the flavor. So here's my take.

 
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp olive oil
600g sweet potato, peeled and cut in chunks
1 medium sized white onion, sliced
1 large clove of garlic, sliced
1 Tbsp. grated ginger
1 cup vegetable broth
2 cups water
1 1/2 cup soy milk
salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat olive oil in a pot.
2. Saute garlic and onion for a minute.
3. Add ginger and saute for a minute.
4. Add sweet potato cubes and saute, stirring often so that the vegetables don't burn. Saute for about 5 minutes.
5. Lower the heat. Add vegetable broth and water. Simmer until sweet potatoes are soft. If potatoes aren't soft yet and it's getting dry, just add more water.
6. When potatoes are soft, use a blender or food processor to puree. Depending on the size of your food processor, divide the mixture in portions. Transfer the chunks of sweet potatoes and the broth in the blender/food processor and puree.
7. When done, return it back to the pot and continue to simmer.
8. Add the soy milk and stir. The consistency should be nice and thick and not runny. If it gets too thick, adjust by adding water gradually until you get the consistency you prefer.
9. Add salt and pepper according to your taste.

You can serve it with crouton toppings. In this particular recipe, I garnished it with roasted shiitake mushrooms.

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Kale Chips

One of the many produce I have been wanting to get my hands on is kale. I've always searched for this back in Manila, and although I heard from friends that they have seen kale sold in some major supermarkets, I always fail to find them. Now that I'm here, I've been enjoying kale since the beginning of winter. I made numerous dishes with kale that I failed to blog about. But then again, it will still be winter for the next couple of months so kale will not be so hard to get, I might be able to recreate and document those that I already cooked.

Today's lekker is kale chips. So easy and simple to make. So healthy and so yummy at the same time.

Ingredients:
A bunch of kale
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Chili flakes (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 200 C.
2. Rinse the kale. Remove the hard stems.
3. The key to a crispy kale chips is to completely dry them. The kale sold here is pre-washed so it's not a problem, but I still used paper towels to completely dry the leaves.
4. Sprinkle some olive oil on the kale leaves. Use your fingers to massage the oil completely on the leaves.
5. Lay them flat on a baking pan, sprinkle some salt and pepper and some chili flakes.
6. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until it's done. Check on it from time to time so to make sure they don't burn.

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Another Year, Another Beginning

My 2013 was such a dynamic year. It was the  year of big changes that came with great challenges. The greatest highlight would be moving my entire life to Berlin, with my husband, and my 6 cats - all in one trip. I won't bore you with the details, but I must say this is by far my biggest accomplishment for 2013.  All those months spent in saving up and other preparations so that we can start a new chapter of our lives in Berlin has finally came to reality and succeeded.

But was it really successful for me?

It has only been three months since we moved and it might be too early to expect myself to completely adjust. But most of the 3 months has been quite difficult for me. My cats adjusted way better than I did. In a week they were already settled and adjusted to the Berlin weather. Even Nishi, my hostile epileptic cat, has changed for the better. I, however, have underestimated the impact of the move to my personal life. I think I spent more time than needed focusing on how I will move my 6 cats with no hassle than thinking about how I will rebuild my life in Berlin. There were only 2 most important things in my head - move my 6 cats; be with my husband - and everything will be fine. Unfortunately, that's not all it takes.

For someone who has never lived abroad long term, I did a pretty bad job planning for myself. The language, the weather, the transportation system, and our 3rd floor apartment which I strongly insist a 4th floor unit, with no lift - all a shock to me. I've got no friends, and I have no chance to make friends since I work from home. I also don't care so much about making friends. And although Berlin is a very beautiful city, I don't have the desire to explore places around me. I don't get out of the house unless I really need to (grocery, or mark dragging me to go out). I have this inexplicable fear and hesitation to plant myself in Berlin. No matter how hard I try, I can't feel the comfort I'm used to.  Mark is my home, but Berlin isn't. Countless petty fights, cryings, dramatic moments, all because I couldn't (and probably resisting) adjust. It's emotionally exhausting, specially that I get this constant pressure from my husband to get a life.

Mark has been supportive. He's doing everything he can to make me feel at home. It must be terrible for him that after all his hard work, he doesn't feel that I want to give this new city a chance. The truth is, I'm just slow to adjust. I do want to give myself a chance to be part of the society of this wonderful city. It just took a while to sink in that I will be stuck here for a while. It just took a while for me to digest that I have already given up the comfort of my life in Manila, and that Berlin is now my new home.

And because I'm really tired of always struggling and being unhappy of a lot of things, I decided to get this project up. I know the 365 project is so yesterday, but this is a perfect time and use for it. I figured, if I want to be happy, I should work on it. I should keep my eyes open and appreciate what's life is offering me. So at this moment, I really feel the drive of working on my happiness, and at the same time document it. Welcome to the 365 days of lekker!


Oh, and Happy new year!

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Cherry Tomatoes and Mushroom Salad

There was a sudden kick of inspiration to cook and to take photos today. I was really feeling good. On Saturday I finished all my cleanup tasks and had an 8 hour sleep, so I woke up well rested, and with a clean house. The feeling is just great and positive (and it lasted for a day, hurray!).

I love fresh salads, especially easy to prepare ones. So here's my quick cherry tomatoes salad with bits of mushroom.

Ingredients:
- a bunch of fresh greens. This one looks like alfalfa (but I'm not sure). I love flavourful leaves.
- 5-10 pcs cherry tomatoes, depending how much you want to consume.
- slices of fresh or preserved mushrooms. (White button or baby portabello)
- a dash of extra virgin olive oil.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- Vinaigrette (optional)

1. Toss them together and give it a dash of olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. That's pretty much it. You can also use vinaigrette to dress it. In my case, I used my own favorite dressing - mixture of olive oil, white wine vinegar + a teaspoon of honey. Then drizzle dizzle!

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My Weekend in the Weekend Markets

Hello 2013!

This is my post for 2013! I'm really glad that I finally snatched some time to do blogging. I know I have mentioned this a thousand times that I'm not feeling inspired to cook nor to even take photos. But I'm happy to say that this weekend I got in the mood to take photos.

First things first. I love farmers organic markets that opens only on weekends. I get to find hard to find produce, plus they are all organic. I go there almost every week, to either to shop or just look around for something interesting and then eat with friends. But I never took photos in all the years I've spent going there. So I did some last Saturday:

 L: My "must buy" in the market. I love jackfruit! R: A young girl looking at the cotton candies.

Fruit stall that sells tropical fruits.

The same fruit stall also sell freshly roasted chestnuts.

This vegetable stall  I think is the biggest stall of vegetables in the market. They got almost all of the veggies I'm always on the look out for. However, I recently lost my fondness of buying my stuff here because they are too pricey in my opinion, after buying I felt like robbed :P;  they are always crowded; they sometimes say different prices for their produce, I guess because they get confused and can't focus due to a lot of buyers; and this weekend, they forgot to put my cherry tomatoes in my grocery bag, and unfortunately realized it when I was already home - i had to buy it again today. Long story how it happened and not exactly their fault because I could have checked, but I was absent minded. I guess the bottom line is they are just quite a bit unorganized when they get crowded.

This is the first stall you'll see in the entrance. These kiat-kiat shrubs(?) look adorable. Kiat-kiat is also known as mandarin.

So this was my Saturday. On Sunday I went to Legaspi farmer's market, which basically the same as this, but only more options in the produce, and more diverse food selection, arts and crafts. In summary, I ended up with a lot of fresh produce that's resting now in my fridge. I went crazy with cherry tomatoes though:

The left most is the most common tomato size. The second one was the cherry tomatoes I'm used to. However, the last one was just super cute I can't resist, I must buy! It reminds me of alatires.

Cherry "alatires" tomatoes up close.   (segeway : I used Fuji finepix X10 in this photograph, not bad for a compact camera, eh?)

So since I have so much cherry tomatoes, it has to go first in the menu.

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