The first one is inspired by my Chinese friend, Sophie and demonstrates that not all Chinese style food has to be cooked in a wok! This is simplicity itself and requires virtually no effort to create a delicious, low fat meal which will get your tastebuds tingling
Slow braised tofu with aubergine
250ml stock ( I used vegetable stock to make a vegetarian meal, but beef would work too)
2 tblsp soy sauce
4 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 tsp Szechuan peppercorns
3 star anise
1 stick of cinnamon
1 aubergine, cut into cubes
400g tofu, cubed
Place all the ingredients in the slow cooker bowl and cover with the lid.
Place on the heater base and cook on KEEP WARM for 8 hours
Serve with noodles and beansprouts or boiled rice.
This quantity is enough for 6 people, but you can easily make double the amount in one go if you are entertaining a crowd.
And for afters.........
Ginger Apple Topsy
125g + 50g butter
100g golden syrup
25g black treacle
125g sugar
2 eggs
150ml milk
250g self raising flour
1 tblsp ground ginger
1tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp ground cinnamon
Stem ginger
5 apples, peeled, cored and cut into large chunks
Place the slow cooker bowl on the hob over a low heat. Melt 50 g butter. Place the bowl on the heater base and add the apples to the butter. Stir well to coat.
In a separate pan, melt the rest of the butter, syrup, treacle and sugar together over a low heat.
Add the flour, milk and eggs and beat well to create a batter. If you really like ginger, chop some stem ginger and add it to the batter.
Pour over the apples and put the lid on.
Cook on LOW for 3 hours.
Serve with whipped cream ( add some syrup from the stem ginger to make it even more special!)
Enough for 8 greedy pudding fans!
