Kimchi and Tofu Stir fry

Now because I cook for only my self, ingredients tend to last more than one cooking meal, so you will notice this is basically a reshuffle of the ingredients i used in my last dish. I do this to add some variety in my life. It would be a shame to it the same thing over and over.. and while this uses the same ingredients, the texture and taste is different too, its a completely different meal. What i like about this meal is it takes about 30 minutes in total. you can eat it with rice or noodles. I put on 1/4 of a cup of rice in the rice cooker before i started chopping the vegetables and it was done by the time i finished cooking.

Ingredients:
the beauty of stirfry is you can use any vegetables you have lying around if you wanted, not just these. Usually i would add things like bokchoy, capsicum, eggplant or even thinly sliced pumpkin if i had them.

a cup of Cabbage cut into shreds (i forgot to mention the cutting last time. XD)
1 carrot cut in to similar size pieces
1/2 a green onion
1 clove of garlic and the same amount of Ginger both thinly diced, crushed or grated.
the left over broccoli from yesterday.
The remaining fried or Firm Tofu.
about a cup of Kimchi*
a teaspoon of sweet chili sauce (you can use more, depending. especially if you don't have kimchi)
a teaspoon of Soy sauce (salt reduced)
a few drops of sesame seed oil
and a few drops of vegetable oil
some sesame seeds

* I have two notes on kimchi for this dish. The first is, the taste of kimchi is far less diluted in this dish, and for those not used to it, it can be a bit too much in the chunk sizes you get in the pre-made kimchi. I found while i loved the taste it added too the dish a giant piece at first was just more than i could handle. I would suggest for beginners to this ingredient that you slice it up finely first before putting it in with the rest of the vegetables, it allows the taste to mix more consistently with the other ingredients. (also if you don't like one brand of kimchi try another, i found they have quite different tastes)
Right now though, because i eat kimchi so much, i just chuck a whole lot in.
If you don't use kimchi, add more other veges, a tiny bit more chili sauce and some more garlic.

Directions:

First, slice the onion and put in a wok or frying pan with the oils, ginger and garlic, keep stirring and cook until they start to brown.

Add the other veges.. all should be similar sizes so they cook at the same time. add in the chili sauce, soy sauce and Kimchi. stir until near cooked then add the tofu*, cut into biggish cubes . allow to warm through. and for everything to be cooked and serve.

*if you have firm tofu and want to brown it a bit. i would suggest cooking it separately with a little oil and possibly a bit of soy, and chili sauce let it cook until brown, then put it aside, cook the vegetables as mentioned above then add the tofu. I'm still getting used to using it as an ingredient, but it can break down too easily if cooked too long.

Week Day Vegetarian

I already kind of do this. most days i eat Vegetarian, fish or poultry.. once in a while i will splash out for pork or beef (or occasionally lamb but not a huge fan of the taste) I love vegetarian food...

Anyway this Video:



Gave me the idea of putting more structure to my eating habits so i would not be able to get away with the lunch time burger with friends (sometimes happens and its easily over looked in my eating plan, if I'm a week day vege it means i CANT eat that burger with them.. and we will choose the healthier option)

I might still eat a bit of fish and poultry on week days, at least for a while.. but cut out the rest.

I will tell you how it goes.

Kimchi, Tofu and Vege soup

I'm experimenting with making, and changing my own recipes so i thought i would post what I've done and you can suggest changes or try it out for yourself. portions of veges are rough estimates.

this is one of my newer experiments, using kimchi, an ingredient which i love which comes from Korea, its pickled, spicy vegetables, most commonly cabbage. I get mine from the korean grocery story, but you can make your own or just skip it out completely.


Kimchi, Tofu and Vegetable Soup

Ingredients:

Kimchi  1/4 of a cup or less (i have no idea how much i used.. i just threw some in there XD)
Chinese Cabbage   1 1/2 cups (or regular cabbage)
1 carrot
1/2 green onion
1 kumara (Sweet potato)
some amount of Fried Tofu/ or Firm Tofu*
1 garlic clove and an equal amount of diced ginger
Some Broccoli


1 Tbsp of Soy sauce  (salt reduced) (rough estimate)
1-2Tbsp of Sweet chili sauce
1 teaspoon of Sesame seed oil
1 teaspoon of Extra virgin olive oil.
1/2 teaspoon of Mirin (optional)
Chicken or Vegetable stock

* i used fried tofu and kimchi together because the sweetness of the fried tofu compliments the tartness of the Kimchi. The Type of Kimchi i got is also very garlicky. if you do it without kimchi i suggest a little more garlic and a little bit of vinegar and more of some of the other veges. Also healthier recipe would be to use Firm Tofu for the soup instead of fried.

First using the Olive oil, stirfry the onions, garlic, ginger and Kumara, (and cabbage if you want) this strengthens the taste and caramelises them a bit. don't cook them too much just brown them a bit.

Boil water in a pot. I go by feel when it comes to water, add stock (1 tspn?) i don't like my soups too watery. but water boils off so be a bit generous.. Put in all the veges and garlic and such into the boiling water, add broccoli and other sauces, soy, sweet chili, sesame seed and possibly mirin though i think the mirin might be unnecessary., Bring to boil for a few minutes then simmer until the vegetables go soft.

Slice the tofu up and add it. if fried thin slices, if firm, then slice into cubes (will break less easily) simmer for a few more minutes. Taste broth and add seasoning to taste.

If you want to make it more fulling you could put in some rice or udon noodles.  either put them into the soup, timing it so that they are done as the soup finishes, or if you make more than enough for one meal so you can freeze some like i do. cook noodles separately and add them to the soup as you serve. (storing cooked noodles in soup leads to very very mushy noodles)

I'm still working things out so there are no exact times or measurements yet. I probably should use less of the sauces next time as not that healthy, and the sesame seed oil may not be needed, but i a deep rich broth since the contents is quite bland. probably will use more ginger and boil the ginger in the broth for longer.. but not sure what this will do.but feel free to have fun.

meat version
since i know some people cant go without their meat, you could add bacon, pork or Chicken to this. dice the meat up into smallish bits and brown the meat with the garlic and onions, and let the rest of it cook when you boil the soup. Pork goes really well with kimchi,

Enjoy,

Introductions

This is going,, hopefully to be a cooking/eating/food blog.