Archive for March, 2007
I have a tendency to let lunch sneak up on me. All of a sudden it’s 12:30 and I’m starving. This is a super quick lunch or side dish, even though it looks like it has a lot of ingredients. If you have these spices standing by, it takes all of a minute to measure everything out. Chopping the carrots doesn’t take that long either, but you could always just pulse them a few times in your food processor if you want.
If you want, feel free to used steamed cauliflower instead of tofu in this dish. I think it’d be great that way!
Indian Spiced Tofu
Serves two, but I almost at the whole thing!
1 Block Extra Firm Tofu, pressed*
2 Small Carrots, finely chopped
1/4 Cup Frozen Peas
2 tsp Lemon Juice
2 tsp Earth Balance
Spices
1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds (brown/black)
1/2 tsp Cumin Seeds
1/4 tsp Turmeric
1/4 tsp Paprika
1/2 tsp Coriander
1/2 tsp Pepper Flakes (scant)
1/2 tsp Salt
Heat vegetable oil (1-2 Tbs worth) in a skillet over medium heat. When oil is hot, add spices and stir. When mustard seeds begin to pop, add lemon juice. Let the juice bubble for a a few seconds, then add carrots and saute until just tender, 2-3 minutes. Add tofu and stir to coat, breaking up large pieces until you get a consistency you like. Taste and adjust seasonings (you might want more salt or lemon juice).
When mixture is hot again, add peas and mix gently until thawed. Add earth balance and stir until melted and evenly distributed. Serve immediately!
*You can press your tofu like a normal person (i.e. for a while with weights, letting it drain into a sink or a bowl) or you can do what I do when I’m just going to crumble the tofu anyway:
1. Drain off excess liquid from tofu.
2. Place tofu at the short end of a clean terry cloth rag
3. Roll up the tofu!
4. Squeeze the dickens out of it, allowing yourself to crush it a little.
5. Unroll into a bowl or directly into your pan.
Voila! And it already starts the crumbling process, which makes it a great way to press the tofu for this dish.
March 21st, 2007
I had made that lovely roasted pepper yesterday, and remembered I had some fresh broccoli in the fridge, so this is a little soup I threw together to use both ingredients. It’s not only fairly healthy, but very comforting. The sweetness of the pepper coulis goes well with the savory cumin and broccoli base. I also added lentils to give the soup some added body, flavor and nutrition. This was definitely a winner for us!
Broccoli Lentil Soup with Roasted Pepper Coulis
Serves two
2 Cups rough-chopped broccoli
1/2 Onion, finely chopped
1/2 Cup Green Lentils
1 tsp Cumin
1/4 tsp Chili Powder*
1 Veg Bullion Cube
2 Cups Water
3/4 - 1 Cup Soymilk
Roasted Pepper Coulis
1 Red or Orange Roasted Pepper
1 Tbs Tahini
1 Tbs Olive Oil
1 Tbs Maple Syrup
1/4 tsp Chili Powder
Fresh Black Pepper to taste
1/2 tsp Salt
*Chili powder is NOT simply crushed chilies! It’s a blend of mildly spicy chilies and other spices like oregano, cumin and garlic. It’s usually dark red and milder than, say, straight cayenne pepper.
Heat vegetable oil in a large heavy bottomed pot that has a tight lid. Add onions. When they start to brown, add lentils and cumin and stir for a minute or two. Add water, broccoli, and bullion, turn down heat a little and cover. Simmer for about 30 minutes until the lentils are tender but still firm.
Meanwhile, add all the coulis ingredients into the bowl of your food processor or blender. Blend well until smooth, and set aside while soup is cooking to give the flavors some time to meld.
When the soup is ready, it should be pretty thick - too thick for soup! Blend it CAREFULLY (it’s hot!) until smooth (I didn’t even bother to wash out my food processor after I blended the coulis since it was going in the soup anyway). Return the soup to your pot and add soymilk until the desired consistancy is reached. I wanted a thick soup, so I added 3/4 of a cup of soymilk, but if you want it a little thinner plan on a full cup or so.
Place soup in bowls. Add 1/2 of the coulis on top of each bowl of soup - you can create a design if you want - partially swirling it in, or whatever. Add pita chips on top and serve with extra chips on the side!
I’m sure this would be delightful with coconut milk or soy creamer instead, but plain soymilk does the job beautifully and isn’t quite so heavy.
March 19th, 2007
I did this to my unsuspecting pepper on purpose. You should do it too.
Roasting a pepper is easy-peasy if you have a gas stove like me. You can also do it in an oven if you don’t, and instructions for that will be at the bottom of this entry. If you do have a gas stove, the instructions are pretty much “burn the crap out of the pepper, scrape the gross stuff off, eat.” Want a few more details?
1. Put the pepper directly over a high flame. Have some tongs ready.
2. Watch as it starts to char a little. This is good! And fun.
3. Turn the pepper with the tongs as the skin blackens. Don’t grab the pepper by its stem, tempting as it is, because it may break off as the pepper gets tender.
4. Don’t forget the bottom.
5. Make sure every part is charred, but don’t go too crazy. This is as roasted as you can get before actually burning the flesh inside.
6. Wrap in foil and let sit for 15 minutes until cool enough to handle. The steam created in the foil helps the skin slip off easier, so don’t skip this step! You can also put it in a ziplock
7. Use a knife to cut a circle around the the stem. Pull on the stem to remove the seeds. If the pepper is still piping hot at this point, steam will shoot out and burn you!
8. Pour out water that has settled inside the pepper. Use your fingers to slip the skin off. Resist the urge to run it under water. I know it’s messy this way, but it’ll taste better if you simply rub the pepper with your fingers or a paper towel to remove the skin - you want to keep the juices and even a few flecks of char for flavor!
9. Slice the pepper into four slabs.
If you’re doing this in an oven, turn your oven on broil. Brush peppers lightly with a high-heat oil and place under the broiler, watching for the skin to blacken. Turn peppers until fully roasted and then follow instructions from step 6 on.
So what now? Eat it! Roasted peppers are delicious on sandwiches, blended into hummus, tossed onto pizzas, added to soups, mixed into salads, stirred into pasta sauce… I usually roast sweet bell peppers but the spicy ones can also be prepared this way. Go nuts. Eat peppers.
March 18th, 2007
Tomorrow is the second PPK potluck, and this time the theme is orange - flavor or color. I decided to make mini samosas with mango chutney. If a little chutney is good, certainly a lot of chutney is better. I’ve been reading up on home canning recently and decided a high-acid food like mango chutney would be a great introduction to preserving food.
I now have 8 half-pint jars of homemade chutney ready to go, but I fear the samosas will need to be prepared by my husband Stewart. When canning, you should really use the proper equipment. Jar lifters are indispensable. I decided that tongs and a oven mit would be just fine until I got a jar lifter. Oh, how wrong I was! The jar slipped from the tongs and splashed boiling water inside my heat-proof water-proof mit, burning me thoroughly. If you’re going to try home canning, please spend the $5 for a jar lifter. Please.
Despite the whole painful injury thing, home canning is fun. I’ll post a full write up on it once I’m able to complete the process with properly fuctioning limbs. The photo to the left shows my chutney processing in a boiling water bath, which does double duty killing any unwatned bacteria and forming a vacuum seal. Tomorrow I’ll be able to check to make sure my seals are tight, but until then they sit undisturbed in the kitchen.
This chutney, as long as the seals test okay, will keep for at least a year. How exciting! I can’t wait to try more home caning (after my hand heals, of course.)
Tomorrow night I’ll have a full update on the Boston Orange themed potluck, pictures and all. I hear there will be cake and pies galore, root beer floats and even orange pizza. I’m very excited. If my hand is up to it, I might even make some donuts.
March 16th, 2007
Grasshopper Restaurant’s most popular dish seems to be the No Name, and for good reason. The seitan is crunchy-crispy and coated with a delicious sweet and sour sauce. I was really craving it today, so I decided to try my hand at making it. I was pretty surprised how close I got to the real deal. This definitely satisfies my cravings for the No Name, and it’s not hard to make either!
Crispy Sweet and Sour Seitan
Serves two
8 oz Seitan, chopped into strips (a loose 2 cups after chopping)
1 tsp Ener-g Egg Replacer
1/4 Cup Cornstarch
1/4 Cup Peanut Oil
Steamed Broccoli
Sesame Seeds for garnish
Sauce***
3 1/2 Tbs Seasoned Rice Vinegar (you can eyeball the 1/2 Tbs)
1/4 Cup Water
2 Tbs + 2 tsp Sugar
1 Tbs Tamari
1 Tbs Ketchup
1 tsp Molasses
1/4 tsp Ginger Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/2 Tbs Cornstarch + 2 Tbs water
This recipe is not nearly as complicated as it seems. I’m just feeling verbose tonight!
Add all the sauce ingredients except for the cornstarch and water into a small saucepan and heat on low until sugar dissolves. Mix cornstarch with 2 Tbs water and add to sauce. Turn up heat to medium-high and whisk until sauce thickens. Sauce should be moderately thick, but not so thick it’s gel like. If you scrape a spoon down the middle of the pan, it should take a second for it to fill in the groove you made, but it should fill back in. Does that makes sense? Add more cornstarch to make it thicker if needed, or add water (or seitan juice) to thin it out if it gets too thick. Take off heat and set aside.
Heat 1/4 cup of peanut oil on HIGH in a large skillet, non-stick if you have it. Place chopped seitan in a large bowl. Sprinkle with egg replacer powder and mix well. It should dissolve from the moisture of the seitan. Add cornstartch and toss seitan until it’s completely coated.
Test oil with a piece of seitan. If the oil bubbles up immediately when you drop a piece in, you’re good to go. Add seitan to oil in one layer - you might need to do batches depening on how big your pan is. Fry on high for 5-7 minutes, stirring and turning the pieces often, until crispy and golden. Drain oil out of pan (it’s safer to remove the seitan with a slotted spoon and pour the oil out of the pan, but I take the whole thing over to the sink and use the pan lid as a barrier. This way the seitan stays in while I pour the oil out. If you get severe burns doing this, don’t blame me. I shouldn’t do it, but I do.)
Put the pan back on the stove with the seitan in it, but NOT over heat. Wait a sec for the pan to cool down, then add sauce. Use a rubber spatual to get out every last bit, as the recipe makes just enough to coat. Toss to coat seitan and serve immediately.
If your pan is too hot when you do this, your sauce might get CRAZY thick CRAZY fast, as cornstarch is wont to do around heat. It’s not a big deal, but you’ll be happier waiting for the pan to cool a bit.
Serve with steamed broccoli and top with sesame seeds.
Additional (Untested) Ideas:
Lemon Ginger: Omit ketchup and add 1 tsp more vinegar and 1 tsp more sugar. Add more ginger to sauce, fresh if you got it, and stir in 1 Tbs of organic lemon zest to the sauce.
Orange Sesame: Add 1 Tbs of organic orange zest while dissolving sugar. Stir in 2 tsp of toasted sesame oil before tossing with the seitan.
Spicy Garlic: Add 1-2 cloves of minced garlic to the sauce along with 1/4 tsp of red pepper flakes. Alternatively, mix ground cayenne pepper with the cornstarch before tossing the seitan in it.
***This is the updated sauce recipe. If you want to use the old recipe, click the link below!
Old Sweet and Sour SauceÂ
1/3 Cup Seasoned Rice Vinegar
4 Tbs Sugar
1 Tbs Tamari
1 Tbs Ketchup
1 tsp Non-Blackstrap Molasses
1/4 tsp Ginger Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1 1/2 Tbs Cornstarch + 2 Tbs water
March 15th, 2007
Next Posts
Previous Posts
