Avi

Chinese glazed roast duck

2013-12-10T13:07:37Z

500g vegetarian duck
~30 mL sesame oil
~6 thin slices ginger, then dice it small
half a spring onion, sliced thinly
1 tbsp honey
~30 mL cooking rice wine
~15 mL rice vinegar
~15 mL soy sauce

Mix all ingredients other than duck in a bowl.
Place duck slabs on a baking tray, slabs should be 1-2 cm thick.
Coat duck slabs with mixture from (1).
Bake on 180 C for 10-15 minutes.

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The noodles are coming!

2010-03-03T08:54:46Z

Not nearly as seedy as it sounds.

Actually, there is a quick ramen recipe on the way. Proper Japanese-style ramen, not the crap they serve in the restaurants here. Feel free to nudge me if I forget for too long.

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Pesto sauce!

2010-03-02T12:30:52Z

Basil Pesto

Cooking time: ~5 minutes

Ingredients:

~12 stems fresh basil (i.e. roughly a full bunch from most Sydney fruit & veg shops)
20g pine nuts
2 tablespoons (heaped) margarine
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup soymilk
2 cloves garlic
3 slices soy cheese (I use Tofutti soy slices)
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast (a.k.a. savoury yeast flakes)

Instructions:

Pick the basil leaves from their stems, discard the stems.
Blend everything until creamy. Or, if you like your pesto a bit more chunky... blend everything until chunky :)

Serve on pasta or gnocchi, or use it as a sandwich spread ^_^

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Hostels are hilarious.

2010-01-28T07:46:36Z

[16:33] Avi: There is this mildly creepy guy at this hostel
[16:33] Maggie: lol
[16:33] Avi: Who claims to be ex-special forces
[16:33] Avi: Which is almost certainly bullshit
[16:33] Avi:
[16:33] Avi: And hits on everyone with tits
[16:33] Avi: He's middle aged and dresses like a douche -.-
[16:34] Maggie: :/
[16:34] Avi: And he just... floats around the hostel
[16:34] Avi: Doesn't go anywhere
[16:34] Avi: Cooks his meals in the kitchen
[16:34] Avi: Probably has a room, I guess
[16:34] Avi: Never seen him go to it
[16:35] Avi: There is also a slightly less creepy and more amusing Spanish goth girl who claims to be in Japan because she wanted to see her very famous Japanese boyfriend
[16:35] Maggie: haha oh dear
[16:35] Avi: But he works too much and never has time for her so she broke up with him.
[16:35] Avi: So she is living in this hostel, 2 months so far?
[16:35] Avi: And she sits on the couch and gives people cookies.
[16:36] Avi: (sits on the couch with her laptop)
[16:36] Maggie: XD
[16:36] Maggie: that's great
[16:36] Maggie: where does she get the cookies?
[16:37] Avi: From home?
[16:37] Avi: They're spanish cookies.
[16:37] Avi: Maybe she buys them at an imported foods shop.
[16:37] Avi: There are a few of them around.
[16:37] Avi:
[16:37] Maggie: nice
[16:38] Avi: Ooh, and I think my hangover's completely gone now
[16:38] Avi: I went to my room to go to bed last night
[16:38] Avi: And instead everyone staying in that dorm room decided we would split a bottle of shochu.
[16:39] Avi: So between the 5 of us we finish a $12 750mL bottle of spirits
[16:39] Avi: finished*
[16:39] Maggie: haha awesome
[16:39] Avi: Which meant mostly me and the French guy, 'cause the Turk was trying to stay somewhat sober and the Koreans have no tolerance.
[16:39] Avi: xD
[16:40] Avi: Hostels are hilarious.

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Tomato, Mushroom and Olive Pasta Sauce

2009-12-04T14:30:50Z

Tomato, Mushroom and Olive Pasta Sauce

Cooking time: ~15 minutes actual work, then another 30 minutes on the stove to cook.

Ingredients:

3 small tubs tomato paste concentrate (I'll update these quantities once I get my hands on the weights)
1 can crushed tomato
1 jar green olives, preferably Spanish and stuffed with pimento
2 tablespoons finely chopped basil
2 teaspoons finely chopped rosemary
2 teaspoons finely chopped oregano
30 mL red wine
350g hard tofu, chopped into 1cm cubes
300g cup mushroom, sliced just about any way you want
1/4 cup olive oil

Note: If you don't have access to small enough quantities of fresh herbs, you can use dried almost as well. You can also substitute the separate herbs for an equivalent amount of "Italian Herb Mix".

Instructions:

Mix everything in a pot.
Add water equal to 2/3 the volume of tomato paste- the easiest way to do this is to just fill two of the empty tomato paste tubs with water and add it to the mix.
Stir.
Heat until the sauce starts bubbling, stirring slowly while you do. If you don't stir, it might build up pressure below the surface of mushrooms and spew hot sauce everywhere.
Turn down the heat to low, cover with a lid, and cook for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.
Serve liberally on pasta or gnocchi. Serves as few as 6, or as many as 10 in a pinch.

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avi @ 2009-09-29T16:17:00

2009-09-29T06:20:54Z

This is the most brilliant performance I've seen in a while. See how long it takes you to figure out what's wrong... XD

( spoiler under the cut )

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Cost you to keep me quiet

2009-09-14T11:28:48Z

Imogen Heap's new album, Ellipse, has been running on repeat for 3 days now. One song, Aha!, spent most of last evening on repeat by itself. I never listen to songs on repeat for that long! Whole albums at least, usually...

I love this album :D

I read a really scathing review this morning that showed no understanding of the music, which made me feel sad about the state of humanity. Reading the comments made me feel even worse... especially the idiot pretending to be Spider Jerusalem. If you're going to use that name, you'd damn better live up to it Q(-.-Q) Should sic some Warren Ellis fans on the bastard.

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I crave communication like a starving child craves food

2009-08-18T13:58:58Z

This song makes me want to learn Spanish. I should really work on my Japanese before I think about moving to more languages, though >_>

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Mushroom Noodle Soup

2009-08-16T05:33:24Z

Mushroom Noodle Soup

Cooking time: ~5 minutes, plus 20 minutes beforehand to let the stock develop

Ingredients:

~6 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 dried noodle cake
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon cooking rice wine or mirin
1 teaspoon sesame oil
optional: a few drops (to taste) hot sauce
optional: ~4 wantons

Instructions:

Place the shiitake in a bowl, cover with hot water. Since they float, you can use a second bowl to push them down under the water level. Let them stand for at least 20 minutes.
Separate the shiitake from the stock. Put the stock in a soup bowl, and top up with water until the bowl is about half full.
Optional: prepare wantons.
Put stock, soy sauce, cooking wine, sesame oil and hot sauce in a small pot. Heat to boiling, add noodles.
While the noodles are cooking, slice the shiitake into thin strips. Add the shiitake (and wontons if you're using them) to the pot.
Cook until the noodles are soft.
Serve! Serves 1 as a meal, or 2 as entrees.

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Breakfast Noodles (udon + tofu)

2009-08-09T04:18:55Z

This is what I eat for breakfast most mornings :D Sometimes I only finish half, so I'll save the other half for lunch. I usually just measure the sauces by shakes (number of times I shake the bottle over the wok), but since stella8h8chang requested it, I did the shakes over a measuring cup this time ^_^

Breakfast Noodles (udon + tofu)

Ingredients:

400 g udon
350 g hard tofu
1 tbsp pure sesame oil
1/6 cup soy sauce (I use LKK Premium Soy Sauce)
1/4 cup mirin
1/4 cup water

Instructions:

Add sesame oil to wok, turn on high to preheat oil.
Cut tofu into 1 cm cubes.
Once oil is ready (moves freely around the wok when turned), add tofu. Stir-fry until the tofu is yellow-brown.
Add udon, water, soy sauce and mirin (in that order). Stir-fry until all the liquid is gone.
Serve! Feeds 2.

Optional variations:

Add some lemon juice to the sauce for a tangier flavour.
Swap out a few tablespoons of soy sauce for dark soy sauce, for more of an indochinese feel to the final product.

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avi @ 2009-06-16T18:05:00

2009-06-16T08:46:07Z

On the bus home today, I was thinking about a recently completed programming assignment in Java. We were writing a command-line application for a simple board game, and we designed the input poorly. Note to self: don't do this again. Our mistake was to have several input control methods, rather than just having one method that could take command lines and pass them to the relevant objects.

Today! I fell off my bicycle. Now my palms are scraped and typing is slightly difficult >_>

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I fixed the cake! (improved maccha cake recipe)

2009-06-14T10:51:14Z

So for this recipe, I have fixed it! If making the maccha variety:

replace the apple sauce with coconut cream
replace the olive oil with sunflower seed oil

And it comes out much more tea-like :D

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The important thing to remember about American history, wrote Mr. Ibis, is that is is fictional

2009-06-12T16:11:30Z

I had forgotten the joy of reading. I had also forgotten its tendency to keep one up at unholy hours when one really needs to sleep, but the world created by the author's words just keeps calling...

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Addicted to the voices

2009-06-12T06:40:33Z

I've been stuck listening to nothing but KOTOKO lately, occasionally sprinkled with some Covenant, ルルティア or 子坂りゆ. KOTOKO in particular is brilliant... I caught myself this morning sitting and listening in bed, not even eating breakfast until a couple hours after I woke up because I was enjoying listening too much.

Music :D

Also, I've created a few new characters for the first time in a while, applying for new play-by-post RP's. I particularly like this guy- hopefully he'll be accepted!

This is extra! lol-worthy. The things people do with their free time... XD

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avi @ 2009-06-10T15:07:00

2009-06-10T05:54:42Z

Sooo the guys I usually order my tea from had a clearance sale recently, so I ordered 100g organic sencha (煎茶) and 100g ryokucha (緑茶). I'll mostly use the ryokucha to make cakes, and the sencha will replace my usual fukamushi sencha (which is a particularly delicate flavour, since the leaves are steamed for longer during production) for my ~3L daily green tea intake.

Since I buy tea from Aya every month or two, they've taken to sending me small gifts with most orders. Usually it's just a sample of a different type of tea, but this time they sent me an adorable teatowel :D

All you small specialty shops out there: this is how you keep customers! ^_^

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Microwave Maccha (or Mocha!) Cake

2009-06-05T07:52:49Z

First off, this microwave chocolate cake is incredible, with my simplest variation being to use wholemeal flour, rum instead of vanilla essence, and I tend to crumble a block of dark chocolate rather than buying overpriced chocolate chips.

I have, however, two more drastic variations to share with the world. Both are caffeinated, both are full of AWESOME.

( Microwave Maccha (or Mocha) Cake )

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Instant Tomato Tachina Wondersauce

2009-05-19T01:52:06Z

This is just about the simplest pasta sauce I will ever be seen to use. It's also good as a dipping sauce, sandwich spread, barbeque sauce... you name it :D Now I just need to figure out if my virus-ridden throat is up to trying pasta, yet x_x

Tomato Tachina Wondersauce

Cooking time: ~2 minutes

Ingredients:

2 tbsp organic tachina/tahini (pure sesame seed paste; non-organice can be used but it just doesn't taste the same)
2 tbsp tomato sauce (American: ketchup)
a few drops of lemon juice
1 clove garlic, crushed
optional: zaatar

Instructions:

Mix the tachina with about an equal amount of water, preferably near-boiling. Cold water will work, but you'll be stirring for a while and cursing as you do. It should come to the consistency of a creamy sauce. Too thin? Add more tachina. Too thick? Add more water! Remember to increase the other ingredients to match the rough final amount of tachina.
Add the tomato sauce, lemon juice, and garlic. Mix vigorously.
Optional: If you're feeling zesty, throw in a few pinches of zaatar, or just use it as a dusting over the top.

And that's it! Done! I tend to mix mine in with freshly cooked pasta for a simple meal when I can't be bothered with any elaborate cooking procedures. Boil pasta, mix tachina, eat ^_^

Leftover sauce can be stored in the fridge in a sealed container for a few days.

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Thai-style sauce for satay stir-fry

2009-05-19T00:23:42Z

So, assuming you know how to make a stir-fry (use this post as an example or ask google if you don't!), here's an alternate recipe of my satay sauce for a more Thai-style flavour.

Man. This is just going to become my recipe dump, at this rate XD

Thai-style satay sauce

Cooking time: About 5 minutes

Ingredients:

250mL coconut cream
250mL peanut butter
2 tsp dark soy sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp tamarind paste
2 tbsp vegan fish sauce
1 tsp hotsauce (vary depending on how spicy you like it! Indonesian hotsauce works just as well as Thai for this)
1 tbsp brown sugar OR palm sugar

Instructions

Put the coconut cream and peanut butter in a bowl. Microwave on high for a minute or so to melt the peanut butter, then stir until mixed. Note: The peanut butter does not have to be completely melted straight out of the microwave, mixing will finish the job if it's warm enough.
Add all other ingredients. Mix.
Use! Recommended for use as a stir-fry sauce, but you could use it as a dipping sauce if you simmered it in a saucepan for about 10-15 minutes beforehand. It's okay uncooked, but it's just not worth it when you could experience the full flavour with some minimal cooking time!

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Old: satay stir-fry with hokkien noodles

2009-05-18T12:05:22Z

Okay so. I posted this up quiiiiiiiiiiite a while ago on the vegancooking community on lj. The recipe has evolved a bit since then, but I thought I'd put it up here anyway so I can keep track of it. I've also come up with a more Thai-style variation of the sauce, so I'll post that up soon :D

( Satay stir-fry )

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A vegan's guide to eating red-curry duck

2009-05-18T06:42:34Z

I've been craving curry lately. This sucks, since I won't be able to eat any until my throat is healed- that is, until the acute phase of my glandular fever is up. Hopefully, that will be within the week. In the meantime, I'm going to semi-satisfy my craving by actually writing down my favourite home recipes for red and green curry for once! First, off, the red...

( Red duck curry with rice )

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