Tiny Batch Blueberry Compote

| San

Tiny Batch Blueberry Compote // Mono+CoTiny Batch Blueberry Compote // Mono+Co  Tiny Batch Blueberry Compote // Mono+Co

To make the best out of a $2 per punnet berry season, I cook a variety of recipes with them other than snacking straight out of the box.

Compotes have to be one of the easiest one to make.  And because there is a huge variety of fruits all year round for me to experiment with, there is very little reason for me to make a large batch.  Moreover, unlike jam and conserve recipes, I add too little sugar to my compotes as preservatives.  Might as well skip the calories from sugar and eat them up faster.

I like to make a tiny batch like this, simply grab one of the many boxes of berries out of the freezer (yes, on-sale-berries, I’ll gladly stock up to freeze), no need to thaw, wash and pat dry, and into the pot they go.  Once they start to break down and release juices, I add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of raw sugar, depending on how sweet I need them to be.  For compotes on pancakes or french toasts, I only add half teaspoon, as I prefer them on the sourish zone.

Compotes are great with ice cream, pancakes or french toasts.  Makes popsicles prettier too!

Tiny Batch Blueberry Compote // Mono+Co Tiny Batch Blueberry Compote // Mono+CoTiny Batch Blueberry Compote // Mono+Co

Tiny Batch Blueberry Compote
125g blueberries, fresh or frozen
1-2 teaspoons raw sugar
juice from 1/2 lemon

Cook blueberries in a non reactive pot over medium heat.  It is important to use a suitable pot so that it doesn’t get stained by the acidic ingredients.  In general, stay clear of aluminum and copper pots.  I use stainless steels. More about this here.

Once the berries start to break down and release their juices, add sugar.  Keep stirring while cooking to prevent the mixture from burning, you may add some of lemon juice if you find the mixture too dry to handle, it might be too runny at this stage but we are going to reduce the liquid later anyway, better than burning a pot of good berries.

At this point, I will usually start to squash the berries with the back of my wooden spoon to release more liquid into the pot to cook the berries.  Save a few berries intact, so that when you see whole berries in your compote, it gives a really nice handmade/homemade touch to the finished product.

Once you are happy with the consistency of the compote, taste test the compote if the sweet/sour level is to your liking, add sugar or lemon juice accordingly till you are happy with it.  Continue to cook after adjusting the taste to bring the compote back to a thicker consistency.  I do not add thickeners like arrowroot powder but rely merely on juices and sugar to thicken the compote.

Serve them immediately, or store in a clean jar, consume them as soon as possible.

Seaweed Salad Mix & something about my empty fridge habit

| San

Seaweed Salad // Mono+Co Seaweed Salad // Mono+Co Seaweed Salad // Mono+Co Seaweed Salad // Mono+Co

I have limited space in my fridge, so I try not to store it with too many unnecessary items such as leftovers, that only means I have cooked or bought too much.  Some simple planning is all I need to keep the fridge neat and tidy, filled with the likes of fresh ingredients, just enough till my next marketing trip.  Do you know that you are suppose to keep the chiller section of the fridge as ’empty’ as possible for keeping good air circulation within.  Therefore our fridge is not a storeroom to hoard ingredients that we use only once a year.

Seaweed is one of the most convenient item I use to add nourishment to a meatless meal.  Although dried seaweeds can be kept at room temperature, given my humid environment, I occasionally find them turning soft after a few weeks in the pantry, so I prefer to get them in small amount that I can finish up with a meal or two. Same goes for dried mushrooms and fungus.

Here are some simple single serving dishes that I have cooked with the 10g dried seaweed mix from Daiso.  To prep seaweed, simply reconstitute them by soaking in a bowl of water for 5 minutes, drain and squeeze out excess water with hands.  Proceed to cook them in various dishes.

Seaweed Salad // Mono+Co

Somen miso soup
1 serving of somen**
1 tablespoon vegetarian miso
1 slice of ginger
1 shitake mushroom
1 hardboil egg
wakame seaweed***
1 large sheet nori seaweed

** Udon or soba can also be used.

*** I picked out only the wakame seaweed from the assorted pack.

Cook somen according to package instructions, set aside and prepare miso broth.

Boil a small pot of water, enough to yield a bowl of soup for the somen, once the water starts to boil, add fresh shitake mushroom to cook.  Fresh shitake mushrooms cook very fast, once cooked, turn the heat down to low , and stir in the miso paste, ginger and wakame seaweed.  Taste to see if more miso paste is required since saltiness level of miso paste differs from brand to brand.

To assemble, place a large sheet of nori seaweed inside the serving bowl, leaving a corner of it jutting out of the brim of the bowl for ornamental purpose.  Add the cooked somen.  Transfer the miso broth to the serving bowl, and top with hardboil egg sliced into half.  Serve immediately.

Seaweed Salad // Mono+Co

Seaweed Salad
1 tomato, cut into wedges
1/2 Japanese cucumber, sliced
assorted seaweed
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
white sesame seeds

To make salad dressing, combine rice vinegar, sesame oil and honey in a small bowl.

To assemble, arrange cucumber slices and tomato wedges in a serving bowl, top with reconstituted assorted seaweed, sesame seeds and drizzle dressing over the ingredients.  Toss to mix well before eating.

Seaweed Salad // Mono+Co

Cold Somen
1 serving somen
2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoons honey or date syrup
juice from 1 teaspoon grated ginger
5 ice cubes**
scallions and kelp powder, optional

** Instead of waiting for the dipping sauce to cool, I omitted water during cooking and cool it down faster with ice cubes instead.

Cook somen according to packaging instructions.  Drain and rinse in a bowl of filtered water to wash away excess starch.  In a another bowl fill with ice water, put in the somen and leave to stand.

To make dipping sauce, put soy sauce, syrup, ginger juice in a small pot and boil.  Once the mixture starts to boil, remove from heat, add in the ice cubes to cool down and dilute the sauce.  Taste test the sauce, if it is too salty, add more ice cubes or water.

To assemble, drain somen thoroughly and place on serving plate, top with reconstituted seaweeds.  Transfer sauce to a dipping bowl, add chopped scallions and sea lettuce/kelp powder if using.  Serve immediately.

Housekeeping : Removing Rust Stain On Glass

| San

Housekeeping : Removing Rust Stain On Glass // Mono+Co

Glass is one of my favorite material.  Plastic is on the other end of the spectrum.  Where possible, I will choose a glass container over Tupperware.  They look prettier and last really long if you don’t have butter fingers.  They are also really fairly easy to clean; most of the glass items in my house still look brand new.

All in mint condition, until I got this rust looking stain on the bathroom shelf.  Seems like someone left a wet metal cap overnight on it and the unsightly ring rust stain formed right in the middle of the shelf, a very eye catching spot.  When I run my finger over the stain, I couldn’t feel anything, just smooth glass, as if the rust color has be absorbed.

I have tried baking soda, in vain, hoping that it will gently scrub off the stain.  Seems like stains on glass are a lot difficult to remove than I thought.  Then I recall this “rust dissolving jelly”from Daiso sitting in the tool box.

Housekeeping : Removing Rust Stain On Glass // Mono+CoHousekeeping : Removing Rust Stain On Glass // Mono+Co

After leaving the jelly for a few minutes, the stain came off easily when I rubbed it off with cotton bud.

Gosh, lucky me,  no more eye sore on the shelf now.  Shelf is looking brand new again.

Black Sesame Potato Loaf

| San

Black Sesame Potato Bread Loaf // MonoandCoBlack Sesame Potato Bread Loaf // MonoandCo

Bread yoga time!

I like doing such strange things to my bread when they turn out this soft.  A reminder to myself that this proportion of ingredients works very well.  The crust also browned nicely, largely due to the higher amount of butter.

I have read from somewhere that black sesame seeds are better eaten grounded than as seeds, just like the flaxseeds.  So a white bread recipe incorporating black sesame powder sounds like a good idea given its medicinal benefits.

Although toasting and grounding the seeds wouldn’t take up much time given that this recipe only needs 3 tablespoons of it, I had some ready black sesame powder that I like to eat with my muah chee, so I used that instead.

Black Sesame Potato Bread Loaf // MonoandCoBlack Sesame Potato Bread Loaf // MonoandCo Black Sesame Potato Bread Loaf // MonoandCoBlack Sesame Potato Bread Loaf // MonoandCoBlack Sesame Potato Bread Loaf // MonoandCo Black Sesame Potato Bread Loaf // MonoandCoBlack Sesame Potato Bread Loaf // MonoandCoBlack Sesame Potato Bread Loaf // MonoandCoBlack Sesame Potato Bread Loaf // MonoandCo

BLACK SESAME POTATO BREAD LOAF
200g bread flour
20g top flour
100g potatoes, cooked + mashed
2 tablespoons raw sugar
3 tablespoons ground black sesame seeds
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast
40g unsweetened soy milk
1 small egg (50g)
40g cold butter, cubed

Combine all dry ingredients : bread flour, top flour, sugar, ground black sesame seeds, salt and yeast in a mixer bowl, stir with hand whisk to mix them evenly.  Add cooled mashed potatoes, beaten egg, and soy milk and knead the ingredients with a dough hook into a ball dough on the lowest speed (KA 1).  Stop the mixture and let the dough rest for 15 minutes to let flour absorb the liquid well.

After the dough has rested, turn the mixer on low speed for about 1 minute.  Add the butter cubes one by one with the mixer running.  Knead the dough till window pane stage, then let the dough rest covered in the bowl for 1 hour to expand to twice its size.

After an hour, punch the dough down to deflate it and transfer the slightly sticky dough to a clean and slightly floured worktop.  Flatten dough to push out air bubbles inside the dough. Shape dough and place it inside the bread tin, seam side downwards. Let it proof for another 45 minutes to 1 hour, covered and placed in a draft free place.

Once the dough has rise over and above the brim, bake the bread in a preheated oven at 170C for 30 minutes.  After baking, remove the bread from the tin immediately and allow it to cool completely on a rack before slicing or serving.

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Sesame Mayonnaise Buckwheat Noodles

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sesame mayo buckwheat noodles 006 sesame mayo buckwheat noodles 005sesame mayo buckwheat noodles 003   sesame mayo buckwheat noodles 002sesame mayo buckwheat noodles 004

The sesame mayonnaise dressing I made earlier went into this buckwheat noodle as tossing sauce.  This pan fried tofu coated with potato starch before cooking was equally nice, so I made the tofu cubes even smaller and added them to the vegetables for this fast one pot meal.

Sesame Mayonnaise Buckwheat Noodles
1/2 carrot julienne
1/3 zucchini, cubed
1 firm tofu, cubed
1 serving buckwheat nooodles
Japanese sesame dressing, here
kelp powder, optional

Cook the buckwheat noodles according to package instructions.  When the noodles are cooked, place them in a sieve and rinse them under cool running water to wash away the excess starch so that the noodles will have a springy bite.  Leave the noodles in the sieve to let excess water drain, if you like the noodles cold, run a final rinse with ice water, and set this aside and the rest of the ingredients.

Cooked the firm tofu this way, minus the kelp powder and Japanese Shichimi Togarashi.  We will use the kelp powder later as a seasoning and garnish for the noodles.

To assemble, place the drained noodles and julienne carrots in a big mixing bowl/salad bowl.  Toss with the sesame sauce to your taste liking.  Top noodles with zucchini, fried tofu cubes and garnish with kelp powder.  Serve immediately.

Gruyere Cheese Chia Seed Loaf

| San

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This super soft bread loaf filled with Gruyere cheese cubes are really fluffy, I almost tore the dome top apart from the bread when I was removing the very fragile, steaming hot bread from the tin for cooling. Some part of the cheese melted and got stuck to the sides of the tin.  But luckily, even with a slight tear, exposing the interior of the steaming bread while cooling down did not do too much damage to the texture of the bread.  So the next time when I am adding cheese into the bread dough, I’ll make sure that the cheese are placed towards the center of the bread, where there are ample “cushioning” areas, so that after proofing, the cheese will not end up anywhere near the inner sides of the cake tin.

You might have also noticed that I have used a smaller cake tin instead of the usual bread tin that are taller.  I was thinking of a popover bread design, where the bread has a disproportionately huge crown, hoping that it might look interesting.  Before it went into the oven for baking, I made sure that the bread had risen above the brim, by at least half the height of the cake tin.  After a light misting with water and 30 minutes in the 170C oven, the bread rose further quickly.  As  you can see from the first photo, the crown was indeed bigger than the bread’s lower body.  But alas, the bread was too soft to stand upright for a nice shot.  Even when placed back into its baking tin, the whole loaf simply sank in, not that great a sight on photo too.

But all these doesn’t matter, because the bread was delicious.  The vegetarian Gruyere cheese I added really gave the bread a lovely savory flavor, I am so glad that I cut down on sugar to let the saltiness of the cheese gets through nicely.  I wish I had put in more, not every bite is cheesy though, but not before I figure out how to shape the bread with cheese inside without giving me a ‘meltdown’ incident like this loaf again.

GRUYERE CHEESE CHIA SEED LOAF

200g bread flour
30g oat flour
100g potato, cooked and mashed
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon raw sugar
1 small egg 50g
40g water
40g cold butter, cubed
2 tablespoons chia seeds
30g Gruyere Cheese**, cubed

** I got my vegetarian Gruyere cheese cultured with non animal rennet from the brand Mainland. I am always looking for yummy vegetarian hard cheese, if you have come across any nice ones, let me know!

In a mixer bowl, combine bread flour, oat flour, yeast, salt and sugar and mix the dry ingredients evenly with a hand whisk.  Add cooled mashed potatoes, beaten egg, and water into the mixture and start the mixer on low speed (KA 1) with a dough hook to start kneading.  Once the ingredients come into a ball dough, stop the mixer and let the dough rest for 15 minutes.

After the dough has rested and the flour has absorb the liquid properly, turn the mixer on again on low speed for about 1 minute, before adding the butter cubes one by one with the mixer running. Knead the dough till window pane stage.  To incorporate chia seeds into the dough using the electric mixer, pour in the chia seeds in a steady stream from a spoon, alternating between speed 1 and 2 till the chia seeds are being mixed uniformly into the dough.  Alternatively, kneading the chia seeds into the dough manually on a clean worktop.  When done, let the dough rest covered in the bowl for 1 hour to expand twice its size.

After an hour, punch the dough down to deflate it and transfer dough to a clean slightly floured worktop.  The dough will be sticky, do not add too much, just enough to prevent hands from sticking to it, deflate dough to squeeze out air bubbles trapped inside.  Roll dough into a ball and flatten it to an oblong dough, arrange chopped cheese on the dough towards the center and roll up the dough to wrap the cheese within and place the rugby shaped dough inside the bread tin, seam side downwards. Let it proof for another 45 minutes to 1 hour, covered and placed in a draft free place.

I baked this in a 8″ x 3.5″ x 3″ rectangular cake tin to create a popover /muffin top proportion bread.  Grease the inner surface well with butter.  The dough rose to the brim within 35 minutes, and higher by 1 hour. Baked at 170C for 30 minutes.  If this is baked in a regular pull man pan, it will take 45 minutes to reach the brim and can be baked in the oven by 1 hour too.  After baking, remove the bread from the tin immediately and allow it to cool completely on a rack before slicing or serving.

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Easy Mochi With Kinako

| San

mochi 001  mochi 004vegan chia seed loaf soy flour mochi 005 mochi 006mochi 002

How easy is easy?

Mixing flour, sugar and water takes a minute.

Cooking? 15 minutes of steaming.

Cool down.  Coat with kinako, chop up into bite size with pastry scraper and serve . Done.

Easy right?

I like this recipe that uses brown sugar instead of white sugar.  The amount of sugar used in making mochi is quite a lot,  this recipe doesn’t yield much.  My family of 4 can chow down the entire bowl under 5 minutes.  That is 4 tablespoons of sugar consumed in total.  I had to resist the temptation to make more after we are done with one batch.

And resisting the urge to make more is the hardest part when this recipe is so easy.

EASY MOCHI WITH KINAKO
adapted from here

100g glutinous rice flour
60g dark brown sugar **
180g water
2 tablespoons kinako ***

** I use the kind of brown sugar (actually it is black sugar 黑糖 in mandarin, but the label never says black in English, always brown) that I always use for making ginger tea (黑糖姜母茶) , not those for coffee or cakes.  Get those in granulated form, not the rock version.

*** If kinako is not available, potato starch can also be used as mochi coating.

In a bowl, mix flour, sugar and water with a small hand whisk till sugar complete melted.

Place in a steamer with boiling water and steam for 15 minutes.  Cover the bowl with a clean cloth to prevent condensation forming on the top of the cover from dripping down on the mochi.

While the mochi is cooking, sieve the kinako, spread them over a large plate or tray.  Once the mochi is cooked, remove it from the steamer, and let it cool slightly.  When the mochi has cooled down enough for you to handle, scrap out the sticky mochi as one big piece onto the tray of sieved kinako.  Dusting the top of mochi with kinako will make the mochi now manageable with bare hands since they won’t stick anymore.  You can shape the mochi into balls, or keep things simple like me, just flatten them up a bit, and chop them into bite sized pieces with a pastry scraper.  Move them around to coat with more kinako, before transferring them to a serving dish.

Best eaten fresh, though I have read that they keep well in fridge, covered, to prevent drying out.

Vegan Chia Seed Loaf

| San

vegan chia seed loaf // MonoandCovegan chia seed loaf // MonoandCovegan chia seed loaf // MonoandCo    vegan chia seed loaf vegan chia seed loaf // MonoandCo

Here’s another adaption of the potato bread recipe that I have been baking and modifying along the way.  This time I made it vegan without the usual butter, milk or eggs.  Olive oil and soy milk were used instead.

I also added a tablespoon of kinako, a kind Japanese roasted soy bean flour that you see on their mochi desserts.  I wanted to see if they add soy flavor to the bread since I am using soy milk, which I am sure is too bland to be tasted in breads.  However, the roasted bean smell was only apparent in the initial mixing stage, after proofing and baking, it was all gone.  So add it if you have it in your pantry.  If not available, omit it completely.

I am using this one from Daiso.

vegan chia seed loaf // MonoandCo

VEGAN CHIA SEED LOAF
210g bread flour
1 tablespoon kinako, optional
2 tablespoon raw sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon instant yeast
80g potato, cooked+mashed
80g unsweentened soy milk
15g olive oil
2 tablespoons chia seeds

Place flour, soy bean flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a large mixing bowl, stir with a hand whisk to mix well these dry ingredients together.

Add soy milk, olive oil, and mashed potato, turn on the electric mixer on lowest speed (KA 1) and knead till the ingredients comes together into a dough ball.  If it is too dry to come together, add more soy milk, teaspoon by teaspoon, till the consistency is right.  Switch of the electric mixer and let the dough rest for 15 minutes.

After the dough has rested, knead till the dough reach window pane stage.  To incorporate chia seeds into the dough using the electric mixer, pour in the chia seeds in a steady stream from a spoon while the mixer is running, alternating between speed 1 and 2 till you see the chia seeds being mixed uniformly into the dough.  Alternatively, you can also do it the manual way, kneading the chia seeds into the dough on a clean worktop.  After adding the chia seeds, let the dough sit covered with a clean towel to expand double its size for an hour.

Punch dough down to deflate the expanded dough and transfer to a clean worktop.  With a rolling pin, or bare hands, deflate dough to squeeze out air bubbles trapped inside the dough.  Roll dough into a rugby ball shape to fit your bread tin. Let it proof for another 45 minutes to 1 hour, covered and placed in a draft free place.

After its final proof, mist the top of the bread slight with water, bake bread in a preheated oven at 170C for 30 minutes, till golden brown.

Remove bread from its tin immediately after baking and let it cool completely on a rack before slicing/ serving it.  Store in airtight container.

Pan Fried Firm Tofu With Kelp Powder

| San

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This is hardly a recipe post due to its simplicity.  Just mixing two of my favorite ingredients together : firm tofu and sea lettuce powder, also known as kelp powder.  Pan fried firm tofu is commonly sighted on our dining table due to my meatless diet.  The fresh ones from the wet markets are the most delicious.  I always get myself 5 pieces of the smaller size ones and finish them up withing 2-3 days in stirfries and stews.  The easiest one is to simply pan fry them till golden brown, and serve with the most humble dip made with only dark soy sauce and chilli padi slices.  Consuming healthy plant based proteins can’t get easier than this.  This one with kelp is the second easiest.

I added a dash of Japanese Shichimi Togarashi (also known as 7 spice mix) while eating and like it very much, so I added this as an optional seasoning in the recipe below.  As it was added after shooting, that’s why you don’t see the pretty red specks appearing in the photos.

PAN FRIED FIRM TOFU WITH KELP POWDER
2 pieces of firm tofu **
2 tablespoons tapioca starch
3 tablespoons cooking oil
1 tablespoon kelp powder
Optional:Japanese Shichimi Togarashi

** I get the smallest ones that weighs about 150g each.

Pat the tofu dry and dice the tofu into even size cubes. I cut mine into 8 pieces.  In a large bowl, add in the tapioca starch and toss in the tofu cubes.  With hands, gently coat every sides of the tofu evenly with the starch.

Heat up the oil in a frying pan over medium fire.  Pan fry the tofu pieces in a single layer on the pan till all sides turn golden brown.  Transfer the cooked tofu pieces into a clean, large bowl, add a tablespoon of kelp powder and toss again, gently with a spoon, this time to coat the fried tofu pieces with kelp.  Add more kelp powder if it is to your liking.  Season with Japanese Shichimi Togarashi to taste.

Served immediately when the starch coating remains crispy on the surface.