Cucumber Pineapple Water Pickle

A simple and fast to prepare mixed fruits water pickle which is light and refreshing in taste. It is light in taste, as it does not have a pungent vinegar smell, only the sweet fragrance of citrus, pineapple and cucumber. Neither does it tasted too salty nor over-sweetened.

It went well with cloying foods like stir-fried radish cake and Chinese rice dumpling 😋

Ingredients

35g raw sugar

100g hot water

100g ice cubes

200g cucumber, cut into small chunks 

4g low sodium salt

2 green limes

1 slice of lemon

50g pineapple , cut into strips 

5g chili , cut into rings

1 clove garlic, cut into thick dice

3g coriander stems, break into 2cm lengths 

 

Directions

1. Add raw sugar and hot water to a clean mason jar. Swirl to dissolve the sugar and sterilize the jar simultaneously

2. Coat salt to cucumber chunks and set side in a bowl.

3. Add ice cubes to mason jar to lower the temperature before squeezing green lime juice and lemon juice. Leave the green lime and lemon in the syrup.

4. Add pineapple chunks, chilli, garlic, and coriander stems to the jar, and stir to mix well.

5. Pour the marinated cucumber chunks into the jar.

6. Cover the opening of the mason jar with cling wrap, and screw the lid to the jar. Shake the jar vigorously to mix the ingredients inside the jar.

7. Refrigerate for about 2 to 3 hours before serving 🥒🍍😋

Potato Salad

I love Japanese potato salad for its colourful appearance as well as its mixture of different texture of ingredients. The smooth and creamy soft russet potatoes and the hard-boiled egg, the crunchy cucumber slices and the steamed corn kernels, plus the sunny chips of steamed carrot. 

To make the salad free from animal meat like ham or bacon, I was happy to find Ayam brand plant-based luncheon meat. The plant-based luncheon meat, which has soy protein, canola oil, oats, wheat gluten, rice flour, konjac to its main ingredient list, has a texture and flavour close to real luncheon meat. If you are not a picky eater, you may not notice the luncheon meat was made from plant-based source, when mixed in the potato salad 😉

For the better health of our bodies as well as our Planet Earth, its time to switch our diet to a greener and more sustainable way 🌱🌲🌏

Ingredients

300g russet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks*

20g carrot, peeled and diced

50g Japanese cucumber, partially peeled, and slice thinly

20g steamed corn kernels

1 egg, about 55g

40g Yumeat luncheon meat

A few shake of pepper powder

1~2 tsp lemon juice

80~100g light sour cream +

Low-sodium salt to taste

1 tsp golden syrup, optional

* I collected about 260g of peeled potatoes.

+ you may use mayonnaise in place of sour cream.

Directions

1. Peel potatoes and cut into chunks. Soak in salt water for about 10 minutes.

2. Drain away the salt water and steam in a mini rice cooker for about 15 to 20 minutes with diced carrot till soften.

If a thin cake tester can penetrate through the center of the potato chunks easily, the potato chunks are fully cooked.

3. While the potato chunks are still hot, mash them into coarse paste. Leave some potato chunks in bigger portions for better texture.

4. While the mashed potato is still hot, sprinkle some pepper powder and add some lemon juice to it. Mix well and leave it to cool down.

5. Cut the Japanese cucumber into thin slices.

Apply a little low-sodium salt and raw sugar to the cucumber slices and wait for about 15 minutes.

Squeeze out the cucumber juice. Set aside.

6. Steam an egg for about 10 minutes in a mini rice cooker. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes till cooked through. Click the "steam an egg" to link to the procedure in detail.

You can also boil the egg in hot water, but I prefer to steam as less energy will be used to bring a small cup of water to boil as compare to a pot of water.

Peel and cut the hard-boiled egg into chunks. Set aside.

7. Dice the Yumeat plant-based luncheon meat into small cubes. Set aside.

8. Get all the ingredients ready, 

and mix them in a big mixing bowl.

Add light sour cream till it achieves your desired wetness of the salad.

Add salt to taste.

As I prefer the salad to carry a little sweetness, I added a small amount of golden syrup to it. You can keep the golden syrup out if you don't like sweetness 😅

9. Cover the salad with a cling wrap and refrigerate till serving. Enjoy 😋

Serving the cool potato salad with my meat-less lunch 😋

Crunchy Salad with Thai Dressing

A simple and light salad using ingredients which can be found in my daily kitchen fridge or cabinets. The mung bean sprouts and fresh black fungus were blanched and later dipped in ice water to retain their crunchiness. The sweet, savoury, tangy and spicy Thai dressing are definitely there to tickle your taste buds. The light and crispy dried fish fillet chips together with the ground peanuts not only added texture but also some seafood and nutty taste to the salad. Oh, this is so so so delicious 😋

I would consider this as a miniature 发财鱼生 if you want something simple to prepare and yet taste wonderful 👍👍😍

Servings: 2 persons

Ingredients

10g carront, julienned

40g Japanese cucumber, julienned

30g mung bean sprouts

20g fresh black fungus

3g coriander leaves

1 sheet DahFa Dried Fish Fillet, cut into squares

30g ground peanut

Thai Dressing

2g garlic, peeled and chopped finely

10g shallot, peeled and chopped finely

2g red chilli, de-seed and chopped finely

1g coriander stem, chopped finely

some ginger flower, chopped finely, optional

25g raw sugar

15g warm water

2g low-salt light soy sauce + low-salt fish sauce + vinegar

some salt and MSG*

* these 5 ingredients add up to 2g, so can adjust according to your preference

5g green lime juice

Directions

1. Cut DahFa dried fish fillet into small squares, and toast in a preheated toaster oven at 100℃ for 10 to 15 minutes, or till crispy and fragrant. Leave the fish fillet chips in the oven till needed.

2. Blanche mung bean sprouts and fresh black fungus in hot water for about 10 minutes.

Drain away the hot water and cool down with ice cubes. Set aside for about 15 minutes.

Cut the cold fresh black fungus into strips. Set aside.

3. Chop garlic, shallot, red chilli, coriander stems, and ginger flower.

Dissolve raw sugar in warm water. Mix in the light soy sauce, fish sauce, vinegar, salt and MSG.

Squeeze in the green lime juice, 

and the chopped garlic, shallot, red chilli, coriander stem, and ginger flower.

Stir and let it stands for about 10 minutes.

4. Arrange the julienned Japanese cucumber, julienned carrot, cold mung bean sprouts, cold black fungus, and coriander leaves in a serving plates or bowls.

Remove the fish fillet chips from the toaster oven, and pour the ground peanut in a small saucer.

5. If you prefer crispy dried fish fillet chips, keep them to the last item to be added to the salad bowl. 

Pour the Thai dressing over the salad ingredients in a bowl.

Sprinkle the crispy dried fish fillet chips above the ingredients.

Toss to coat the ingredients with the Thai dressing before serving 😋

DahFa Dried Fish Fillet