Vegetable Curry- Hai's Instant Lontong Paste

Bought a packet of instant lontong paste and cook a nice big pot of vegetable curry. It was a great dish to go with rice as our dinner when we went vegetarian on Monday. Well, strictly speaking, it's not really vegetarian as dried shrimps were used in the production of the paste.

Anyway, I've added cabbage, long beans, turnip, tou pok, tou kee, eggs and used evaporated milk instead of coconut milk. We've enjoy the vegetable curry very much just that it could be a little more spicy. Next time, I'll add more chilli paste to it.

Po Piah & Spring Rolls

Last Monday, we had Po Piah & Spring rolls for dinner and lunch respectively. This was in line with our plan to be vegetarians on Mondays. It was the first time I tried to prepare this. Another experiment. Was quite satisfied but Jerome was saying he will not eat another Po piah for the rest of the year. We had too much in a day :P All food in moderation!

A few days later, as I still had some turnip left over, I tried to make the deep fried version, the spring rolls, for teabreak.  This time, I added cabbage and dried mushrooms. Jerome prefers this version. He said it was better than old chang kee :) He demanded more. So I promised him that I'll make them again the following Monday.

And on Monday, I made them again. This time, I also added beansprouts to the turnip. So there's turnip, carrots, cabbage, mushrooms and beansprouts. It was the best I've made so far. But in the end, Jerome also said he'll not have another spring roll for the rest of the year. It's hard to cook for 2. When you put a little of everything, you really get a huge pot in the end! Who wants to join us for lunch or dinner next time?

All the ingredients for po piah making...

 Putting all the ingredients nicely on a po piah skin to be rolled up...

 There you go, 2 po piahs done!

I'm glad they tasted better than they looked :)

Deep fried Spring rolls served with sweet sauce and Thai sweet Chilli Sauce.

Black & White Fried Carrot Cake

Jerome & I decided to go vegetarian every Monday. This was after we watched "Food Inc" the documentary that showed us the reality of the food we eat. It kinda shocked us and scared us about the food we eat. One thing for sure,  I know we won't be eating any beef from US and we'll try to eat less meat.

Anyway, I tried to prepare fried carrot cake for lunch. A common hawker dish- carrot cake fried with preserved radish and eggs. Jerome prefers it black and I prefer mine white so I prepared both. It's definitely not the best fried carrot cakes that we've eaten. I was kinda disappointed as I couldn't get the eggs to be crispy like my favourite crispy fried carrot cake. Anyone knows how to make the eggs crispy?

Recipe for fried carrot cake

Ingredients:

200g carrot cake, cut into cubes

2 eggs, beaten

2 cloves garlic, chopped

3 tbsp preserved radish, rinsed and dry on kitchen napkins

2 tbsp sweet sauce (for black) or 1 tbsp fish sauce (for white)

3 tbsp oil

Method:

1) Heat up the oil in the wok. Saute chopped garlic till fragrant.

2) Add the preserved radish and stir fry for a while. 

3) Add the carrot cake and stir fry. 

4) Pour in the beaten egg. 

5) Add seasoning. 

6) Fry well, dish up & garnish with chopped spring onion. 

The best fried carrot cake I've eaten is from Lim Hai Sheng located at the hawker centre at Ang Mo Kio Central. The egg was fried till crispy just the way I liked it. Jerome also gave his approval. Sometimes we would travel to Ang Mo Kio just for the carrot cake :P