Corny Chowder & Colorful Cole Slaw

I know, I know. I've had another small blog hiatus, but I promise it's for a good cause this time. I've been focusing on two things lately: teaching vegan cooking classes in my apartment once a month and starting my own vegan food business. To give you a gist of what my business is, I am planning to start with two services: in-home vegan cooking classes and personal chef. I will reveal more about my business on my blog as the structure matures. I'm super excited about this chapter of my life! Although I will be starting small, it will be a great opportunity for me to venture into making vegan food for a living! Oh, what a wonderful thought... I am staying optimistic, and I believe it's a dream that's reachable in the near future! Of course, I wouldn't be able to do this without all of your supports, my readers. Whatever drives you to read my blog definitely gives me the confidence to continue this path. So here's a BIG THANKS in advance!!

Now to the food. What I'm posting this time is another homework assignment from my cooking school at the Natural Kitchen Cooking School. Since these dishes were small, I decided to make both in one night to give you readers double the eye candy, to make up for the small hiatus. Both of these dishes have made it to my repeating menu list. The Corny Chowder is definitely a bowl of sunshine. It is so bright that it makes you smile as you're eating it. The secret to the chowder-y texture is polenta, and it works perfectly! With this recipe, there's no need for cream in a satisfying corn chowder ever again! The toasted pumpkin seed and the parsley harmoniously pull the dish together in terms of flavor and texture. They're so essential that I don't even call them garnish in this dish.

The second dish is a Colorful Cole Slaw, and the beauty of this dish is its simplicity. This is what you call a pressed salad. All you do is put all the raw ingredients in a bowl, sprinkle salt and let it sit for at least an hour as it "ferments." Then, you press the water out of the salad by squeezing it dry. Finally, you just season it with whatever flavors you want. In this case, it was just some umeboshi vinegar, topped with some toasted sesame, and, voila!, a refreshing salad. It's a great complement to a soup like the Corny Chowder to complete a meal.

So simple yet pretty and delicious

A great meal anytime

Sweet Beans??? What???

If you grew up in an Asian culture, you're most likely not shocked to find beans in desserts, but as I try to recall, I don't remember ever seeing beans pop up in Western desserts. I've got to say that my Westerner friends are missing out because beans can be exceptionally delicious as desserts.

The most commonly used bean in Asian desserts is probably hands down adzuki beans, especially in the Japanese culture. Adzuki beans tend to be cooked, then mashed into a paste and mixed with sugar to be used as topping or filling in Japanese desserts. If anyone thinks green tea (matcha) ice cream (vegan ice cream, of course) is good, get your hands on some adzuki ice cream. You'd be pleasantly surprised. In the Chinese culture, we use adzuki in mainly our warm liquidy desserts such as this one that I'm featuring today.

Last week as winter is still stubbornly lingering, I started to feel homesick. Yes, I admit it, I miss the beautiful sunshine of California (but I'm still not coming back until LA has a well-built public transportation system). Daydreaming about the winters I had in LA, I started craving the Chinese adzuki bean "soup" that my mom always made during these cold times to warm up our bodies. Determined to bring some Cherng tradition to Amherst, I called my mom and asked for her secret adzuki bean soup recipe.

Luckily, there is a mini Chinese grocery store within walking distance from my apartment, which surprisingly carries EVERYTHING you will need to make any Chinese dish, vegetarian ones included. I had no problem getting the 3 ingredients I needed: dried adzuki beans, lotus seeds and sugar ice. The end result was exactly as the ones that my mom used to make, and it definitely satisfied my homesickness. Oh yeah, and it was also quite nice to have it for breakfast and dessert for the following week. Dessert for breakfast??? What??? What can I say, we Chinese peeps are just rebels like that.

There you go, Connie. Ask, and you shall receive.

Nice chewy red beans and lotus seeds in a sweet broth