Black Pepper Tofu

A few weeks ago, a friend and I were having what could only be described as a riveting conversation about tofu.

What?  You don't find conversations about tofu riveting?  Pssshhh......

Anyway, during this riveting conversation, she mentioned that she no longer buys the widely available, pre-packaged processed stuff and that I should stop too... And I'm all like, 'and buy what instead? are you suggesting i make tofu now?  please...'

But no...  It turns out, you can buy fresh tofu... and apparently its better... so on my next coop visit, i looked into this fresh tofu thing and when i found some, i bought it. right away.

Now, the truth is, despite having eaten said tofu last night, i have no idea if it was actually any better... because isnt the point of tofu that it doesnt taste like anything?  but i digress...

So, we have this block of life-altering tofu in our fridge but no plans... I considered making my standby but, really, wanted something different... so, to really shake things up, we pulled out a real-life cookbook.  not a pinterest recipe... not a google search... a real life, hard cover cookbook... and that cookbook was Plenty. We've had Plenty for over a year now, (it was a birthday - or was it christmas? - present to me from Jordan), but we'd never made anything from it...

But this was our time... We found Black Pepper Tofu... Looked good, sounded interesting... contained ingredients we'd never heard of... so why not? And while it did take us over a week to getting around to finally making it, we did it. we finally used the cookbook! (there are even oil splatters all over the pages to prove it, too...)

related: do you have any idea how hard it is to find kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)? turns out, it's about a week's worth of hard... I suspect you could leave it out or just use a little molasses instead but we're nothing if not perfectionists... or ingredient-hoarders... eh, let's stick with perfectionists - it makes me feel better...

 

I'm thankful to all those who came before us - all of the reviews, etc we found online allowed us to tweak this recipe a bit and turn it into something we really, really enjoyed...

Oh, and a bonus? We FINALLY used our rice cooker... we've only had the silly thing for a year and 10 months now... Banner day in our household, huh?

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Black Pepper Tofu
adapted by us from Plenty - Yotam Ottolenghi
Click here to import directly into Pepperplate

3 to 4 tbsp canola oil

15 oz. firm tofu, cut into 1″ cubes
cornstarch

4 tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1.5 tbsp finely chopped ginger
4 shallots, thinly sliced
6 to 7 cloves garlic, smashed
1 poblano pepper, stemmed, deseeded and thinly sliced

2 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper
1.5 tbsp kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)
1.5 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar

6 to 8 small scallions, cut into 1″ pieces

2 c cooked brown basmati rice

***

Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium to medium-high heat. (no need to use non-stick, this doesn't stick anyway)

Toss tofu cubes in a bowl with cornstarch to coat.
Pan-fry tofu all over, until golden on all sides. (This will require turning frequently and you'll want to use a tong to avoid burns).
Place fried tofu on a paper towel to drain, cover with another paper towel and set aside.

Pour out excess oil and carefully wipe skillet with a paper towel.
Return skillet to medium heat and add butter. Allow butter to melt and then add ginger, shallots, garlic, and poblano. Cook until soft and shallots are beginning to caramelize, about 15-20 minutes.

Stir in black pepper, soy sauces, and sugar.
Return tofu to skillet and toss to coat.
Cook, stirring, until fully combined and warmed, 2 - 3 minutes.

Stir in scallions & serve over brown basmati rice.

Tofu and Orzo with Kale, Carrots and Leeks

oh kale...  how i've mocked you so.
publicly declared my hatred, time and time again.

but i was nothing if not determined to conquer that hatred.  figure out what the redeeming factor was.  how other people could actually love this awful stuff.

(Yes, i am pretty sure that's a pig you see flying by your window, why do you ask?)

kale - consider yourself pwned.

We've had this twice in 1 week - the equivalent number of times that i'd eaten kale the rest of my entire life.  I dont know what was wrong with those first two batches i tried to make because i totally do not hate kale!  not even a little bit!

While i'm sad to give up my identity as the kale-hater, i am totally intrigued by all the doors this opens up...

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Tofu and Orzo with Kale, Carrots and Leeks
courtesy of On a Lobster Placemat with modifications by me

3/4 cup dry orzo

1/2 package of extra firm tofu, pressed to remove water
1/2 tbsp hot sesame oil
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1.5 tbsp tamari (or soy sauce)
1 tsp siracha sauce (optional)
Salt
Pepper

1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp siracha sauce (optional)
3 cloves minced garlic
3 medium carrots, sliced into disks
1 leek, sliced into disks
1 bunch fresh kale, destemmed and torn into small pieces
1 tsp sesame seeds (optional)
1 - 2 tbsp tamari
hot sesame oil

***

Prepare orzo according to package directions (for al dente pasta)

Heat 1/2 tbsp sesame oil, 1/2 tbsp olive oil & 1 tsp siracha in a non-stick pan over medium-low heat.

Add 1.5 tbsp tamari and swish around to mix

Place sliced tofu in pan, adding salt & pepper to taste. (we went for a little salt and a lot of pepper)

While that is cooking, heat remaining olive oil and garlic in another frying pan over medium-low heat..

Let garlic brown a bit and then add the carrots.

Saute for a minute, then add the leeks.

Saute for another minute and then add the kale..

Saute all vegetables until the kale is wilted, tossing often.

Add sesame seeds in and toss some more.

Add orzo in with the vegetables.

Add a 1 - 2 tbsp tamari & a drop more hot sesame oil, if desired, and toss.

Once well combined, remove from heat.

Plate orzo and vegetables and top with tofu.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds, if desired.

Serves 2.

even the best vegetarians dream of bacon

if you say you dont, i'll call you a liar...

it smells good. it looks good (except for when there's too much undercooked fat on it - ick!) and the fake stuff doesnt even begin to come close - which is surprising, given that bacos are meat-free...

anyway, given my bad experience with fake-bacon (save for the bacos), i dont have a lot of faith in bacon-flavored stuff... so when the meat-eater (his blog name forever now...) ordered two kinds of bacon salt off of woot not too long ago, i had my doubts...

However, last night I decided to be good and eat some salad for dinner - using some lettuce & cheese from last week's CSA pickup (score! on the not-wasting-food front) - and wanted to add a little healthy protein. So i decided to experiment and make the tofu crispies that i'd seen on nutritionista... however, much like that bacon salt, my expectations were not high...

at the last minute, i thought i'd throw some of the bacon salt on some of the tofu... (because as a result of my laziness, i didnt realize that the tofu should have olive oil & seasoning with it and that just sounded BLAH. oh, and was really fun to clean off of the cookie sheet, as you may expect) what the hell? i expected that i'd be throwing away most of the tofu anyway - so might as well use the bacon salt so that i could tell the meat-eater that i was right and it was gross...

imagine my surprise when not only was bacon salted tofu good, but when the meat-eater and i ended up snacking on, like, half of it, before the salad was even made...

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Simple Salad with Bacon-Tofu Crispies
courtesy of me w/ Bacon-Tofu Crispies inspiried by nutritionista


Salad:

1/2 head romaine or similar lettuce, washed and torn
1/2 cucumber, sliced
1/3 red pepper, diced
2 oz horseradish cheddar, cut into small squares
1/2 c bacon tofu crispies (below)
2 tbsp balsamic vinaigrette
salt & pepper to taste

Mix all together and serve


Bacon-Tofu Crispies

1 block firm tofu, pressed to remove excess water and cut into pieces the size of dice
olive oil (i forgot that part...)
bacon salt

Preheat oven to 400°
lightly grease cookie sheet with olive oil
spread tofu cubes all over sheet
sprinkle liberally with bacon salt

bake 40 mins at 400, turning once or twice if desired

susan's revenge

last winter, i called my friend susan to get her chili recipe and had to suffer my usually-cynical friend gushing on about some guy...

fastforward a couple months and we are reminded why we are cynical and jaded...
yeah, you guessed it, he broke her heart...

to make matters worse, she was perusing my blog and ran across the entry dedicated to her gushy rants which served to only further depress... when she mentioned it, i asked her if she wanted me to take the post down, change the name, whatever... she said no, but we did need to come up with the anti-susan's-in-love recipe...

and what better comfort-breakup food than easymac with cut up hotdogs (you can decide if there's some symbolism going on there or not.)

susan's a vegetarian, so you will have to suffer thru tofu dogs, but i'm sure it would work just the same with regular hot dogs... hell, it was always good when i was a little kid!

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Susan's Revenge
courtesy of me & susan

1 container easy mac
1 tofu dog


Prepare easy mac according to directions on the container

cook tofu dog in microwave for 45 seconds

while cheese sause is thickening, hack veggie dog into a million little pieces

combine all in the easy mac cup

enjoy while watching High Fidelity - our choice for ultimate breakup movie...

Cut, Paste & Assemble

when i'm not posting scintillating meals up here, i go to this big office where they pay me to do work. work that truly can be broken down into Cutting, Pasting & Assembling... so i figured that maybe i'd take that approach to this latest stolen recipe...

Cutting: Extra-Firm Tofu, brussel sprouts, garlic, pecans and cilantro

Pasting: (we'll get to that in a minute)

Assembling: all of the ingredients once they are prepared...

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and now for the pasting...


Caramelized Tofu Recipe
courtesy of 101cookbooks.com


7 - 8 ounces extra-firm tofu cut into thin 1-inch segments
a couple pinches of fine-grain sea salt
a couple splashes of olive or peanut oil
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 lb. brussels sprouts, washed and cut into 1/8-inch wide ribbons


Cook the tofu strips in large hot skillet (or pot) with a bit of salt and a splash of oil.
Saute until slightly golden, about 4 minutes.
Add the garlic and pecans, and cook for another minute.
Stir in sugar. Cook for another couple of minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in cilantro.
Scrape the tofu out onto a plate and set aside while you cook the brussels sprouts.

In the same pan (no need to wash), add a touch more oil, another pinch of salt, and dial the heat up to medium-high.
When the pan is nice and hot stir in the shredded brussels sprouts.
Cook for 2 - 3 minutes, stirring a couple times (but not too often) until you get some golden bits, and the rest of the sprouts are bright and delicious.

Serves 2 - 3 as a main, 4 as a side