DIY vegetarian dishes

Decided to cook my own vegetarian dishes for dinner.

This is one of my favourite vegetables - cauliflower. I usually stir-fry cauliflower mixed with other ingredients like carrots, young corn, shitake mushroom, and green capsicum.  I added vegetarian mushroom sauce and a pinch of salt for seasoning. So simple, so crunchy, so delicious, all ready in 5 minutes.

Tried cooking one of my family's favourite (as well as extended family's favourite) again - my Grandma's braised fried bean curd, which we called Lou Tow Kwa in Teochew.  No one has achieved my Grandma's standard yet. First I lightly fry the 4 bean curd pieces which have been cut into rectangular cubes. Then I fry the chinese mushrooms for a few seconds, before adding about 2 cups of water. Add light soya sauce and dark soya sauce as well as the spice - Star Aniseed (this is the crucial ingredient). After that add in the fried bean curd pieces into the pot with mushrooms and braised for about an hour. The longer it takes to braise, the sauce would permeate into the bean curd and make it taste nicer. In fact, leftover Lou Tow Kwa or those that were reheated the second time is most delicious and juicy and has the best aromatic taste.

I fried some leftover rice with chopped garlic before adding the rice into the cooker pot of freshly cooked plain rice. Mixing the old and the new rice together, it smelled fantastic (everyone thought it was chicken rice!). We usually mixed some brown rice with white rice for our meals at home. Healthy, right?

BTW, besides these 2 vegetarian dishes, my family had other dishes like steamed fish and lotus root soup. I am quite happy with my vegetarian meals today!