Japanese Egg Tofu with Minced Turkey

This here is my long overdue HELLO! It's hard to believe that my last post was in 2013. A lot of things have changed, but then again, not at all. It's funny how quickly we adapt to situations, and before we realize it, it's completed enmeshed into the fabric of our lives and becomes normative. Sorry for that mumble jumble.

To be honest, since 2015 began, I have not been doing too much cooking. The cooking that I did do was focused on making something that required minimal effort and time. You better believe that presentation was not great, definitely not photo-worthy. With the advent of food photographers everywhere, my skills are embarrassing in comparison.  Plating has never been my focus as taste was a priority and eating everything while it's still piping hot, but maybe it's time I look into making some changes. I mean, I am a total sucker for esthetically pleasing images of food. Anyways, here is my first recipe of 2015!

Japanese Egg Tofu with Minced Turkey

1 Tube of Egg Tofu (found at any Asian grocer)
1 Table Spoon of Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons of Chinese All Purpose Marinade
2 Tablespoons of Unsalted Chicken Broth or  Water
2 Table Spoon of Water
1/4 Pound of Ground Turkey
Green Onions 
S&P to taste.

Slice the tofu into 1/2 inch medallions. Pan fry the tofu in a nonstick pan until lightly brown and crispy on both sides. Remove from pan and place on plate. Satay ground turkey in olive oil until fully cooked, add marinade, water and chicken broth into the pan. Cook until liquids come to a boil. Toss green onions into pan and pour sauce/meat onto tofu medallions.

There you have it! Simple and tasty. Serve this over rice to sop up the saucy goodness.

Easy Peasy Egg Salad

Ingredients:

5 Hardboiled eggs
1 Small finely diced onion (red or white)
2-3 Tablespoon of mayonnaise
2-3 Tablespoon of white vinegar
Pinch of salt, black pepper, red chili pepper

Add everything to a bowl and start rough chopping the hardboiled eggs in the bowl. Once it is in small chunks, mash with a potato masher or fork. Give it a few stirs to ensure everything is thoroughly mixed. Serve on bread or melba toast crackers.

I served mine on tiasted miniature ciabatta buns.

*I did not have any at this time but I usually like to add finely diced red peppers for a nice pop of colour.

Lemon Squares

I was looking for a summer appropriate dessert and found this  recipe from the Allrecipes website. I decided to use it for my lemon squares based on the high percentage of positive reviews and its relative simplicity.I have added asterisks besides the points that I have modified to the original recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour*
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 lemons, juiced**

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, blend together softened butter, 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup sugar. Press into the bottom of an ungreased 9x13 inch pan.
3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until firm and golden. In another bowl, whisk together the remaining 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1/4 cup flour. Whisk in the eggs and lemon juice. Pour over the baked crust.
5. Bake for an additional 20 minutes in the preheated oven. The bars will firm up as they cool.*** For a festive tray, make another pan using limes instead of lemons and adding a drop of green food coloring to give a very pale green. After both pans have cooled, cut into uniform 2 inch squares and arrange in a checker board fashion.
                                                                  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/the-best-lemon-bars/
   
   *I used an 8x8 baking pan and found it to be too much crust so if you plan on using any pans smaller than the recommended 9x11inch pan then make sure to cut down the flour by 1/2-3/4cups if you want to avoid the dense crust layer.
   **It will be just as effective if you use lemon juice concentrate, you would need about 3/4cups worth. I used about 1/2cup of concentrate and a freshly squeezed lemon as well. It produced a little over 3/4 cups of juice - I did this to ensure that the tartness would be preserved. (Tip: Microwave the lemon for about 20 secs to extract the maximum amount of juice from it)
   ***I added icing sugar to dust the tops of the squares for presentation - make sure to cut the squares first then ice it, otherwise, it will be very messy and there may be smudged prints on the lemon squares.
   
   I hope you all will enjoy this recipe. It was my first time making lemon squares and I was pretty pleased with the final results. A fairly simple recipe for novice bakers and a great dessert to share with others. ENJOY