Sugarcane and tofu pops

This is remotely like the cake pops I did last time but this was fabulous!!

This is originally a Vietnamese which uses chicken and a lot of Asian sauces but I used soy and vegetables and my own spice combination to flavor. Whats really cool about it is the use of sugarcane as sticks.. you are not supposed to eat them! it just adds flavor to the dish and also serves as a stick to hold I suppose you could call it a vegan variation of a chicken lollipop/wings/drumstick.

What you need:

¾ cup of tofu, mashed (store bought or homemade)
½ cup of mixed not too watery vegetables (peas, carrot, potato,corn etc; finely chopped)
1 onion finely chopped
1 green chili finely chopped
1 flake of garlic, chopped
1 tsp Coriander finely chopped
Salt as per taste
around 15 sticks of fresh sugarcane around 3 inches long each
2 tsp of corn flour
4 tbs of rice flour to coat
oil for deep frying

What to do:

1. Stir fry the vegetables for a minute and place in mixing bowl.
2. mash tofu and add to vegetables. Add cornflour and form into small balls.
3. Coat around each sugarcane stick dip in rice flour
4. Deep fry on medium till golden brown
5 Drain on paper towels, serve with ketchup




I know, I know.. its not the best picture.. but u get the idea.




Lets zoom in shall we?

Messing around with a chocolate cake

I got inspired by Bakerella's cake pops and tried my own variation.

Unfortunately I am not as artistic as she is and neither do I have the patience to cut shape and frost those tiny cupcakes I did something simpler.

I took some store bought chocolate cake and added the frosting to it. Mashed it about (eww, couldn't help but feel gross since there was just too much unavoidable cake touching and mashing)

I added some orange colored fondant in the center and sandwiched two equal sized cake portions and sealed the sides to form a ball.

When sliced it looked nice. But tasted kind of like a semi cooked cake even though I knew it was a cooked cake and the mushiness was on account of the frosting and mashing. Anyways I had fun.




Did not expect too much luck on Friday the 13th anyways

I love aniseed

I love aniseed.

Dry or fresh its just so wonderful. A mouth freshener, a recipe invigorating agent! and the lovely color. Green happens to be my favorite color and aniseed is without a doubt my favorite seed.

Aniseed is excellent to use in a marinate, I like using it with a little roasted cumin. You get a nice blend of a sharp mildly pungent flavor and a fresh zesty flavor.

When it comes to aniseed as a sweet, I love those little aniseed balls you get at candy stores but sugar coated aniseed happens to top my list, because unlike an aniseed ball you get to crunch and munch many aniseed not just one that is located inside the aniseed ball.



So I dedicate this blog post to the lovely green seed that brings freshness in my day and more importantly my breath. :P