Miso Lime Tofu

I've been watching some cooking shows on Netflix recently. A few of the guilty-pleasure "reality" format (anything featuring Gordon Ramsay from the UK) and a few of the actual cooking variety. What I've noticed is that people use a lot of spices. Heaping handfuls of the lighter herbs, pours of salt, multiple teaspoons of dry spices. Compare to the sprigs, pinches, and dashes I usually use, I can see a problem with my cooking. The other big difference was variety of ingredients; I tend towards one or two spices per dish (plus the onion/garlic/salt/pepper component). In an effort to improve, I made this.

It was heavily flavored, prepared somewhat properly, and quite good. My only failing was not fully committing to curry; I used no coconut milk and only though to add corn starch at the end when I noticed how thin everything was, disregarding the boil-simmer-reduce one seems to find in recipes for thick sauces. But everything else was spot-on; the tofu had a bit of flavor from the marinade. The lime and ginger were overpowering flavors, with miso close on their heels.

_______________o_______________

Miso Lime Tofu

Serves 2

Marinade
1 anaheim pepper, diced
1 Andre-the-giant thumb of ginger, peeled and minced
an amount of minced garlic equal to ginger
juice of a lime
2 tbsp miso
1 tbsp mirin
1 tsp soy sauce

Curry Sauce
The marinade from above
1 anaheim pepper, diced
1 tsp sesame oil (probably leave this out?)
1/2 cup water
thickening agent, volume unknown (corn starch or roux; roux probably a better idea)
salt

Everything Else
Rice
Handful of spinach leaves
Bunch of broccolini
12oz firm tofu

To make the marinade, combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix. Really simple. Chop the tofu into pieces that you want to eat and put it in a ziploc bag with the marinade. Give it at least 30 minutes. Once you think it is marinaded appropriately, start the rice. Take the tofu out of the bag and place in a heated frying pan with some oil to brown it.

Be lazy like myself and pour the marinade out of the bag into a bowl, then add the additional pepper, water, sesame oil, and salt to taste. Tofu should be getting sufficiently browned, so chop up the broccolini and add it into the frying pan. Cook for a few minutes, then add the curry. Bring to a kinda-boil, then reduce heat and simmer for a few minutes, until the broccolini and tofu are soft. Add the spinach on top and stir a few times.

Remove from heat and serve over rice.

Roasted Cauliflower & Grilled Rice Soup

Have you ever tasted an ingredient and thought to yourself "where have you been all my life"? Have you ever had mirin? Go ahead, Wikipedia it. I even gave you the link. It is sugar and booze, rice wine specifically. And, at least in the dish I made for dinner, delicious. The impetus for trying this was, of course, the Momofuku cookbook I received as a gift. I went to the store knowing I needed mirin and sushi rice, and had remembered something with fish sauce and cauliflower or brussels and silken tofu.

My memory failed me - there was something with fish sauce and cauliflower, and also something with silken tofu and sushi rice, but it was not the same recipe. So I improvised and ended up with what could only be described as a matzo ball soup that took a red eye from New York to Tokyo and dealt with its debilitating fear of flying by getting absolutely smashed and waking up in the seedy underbelly of Tokyo with no clue how it got there.

Or, as I called it in the title, Roasted Cauliflower & Grilled Rice Soup. You may or may not want to cook this; you could probably make a great meal out of it (instead of a delicious but incredibly mis-matched one) by removing the cauliflower/fish sauce and substituting some pickled carrots and more flavor in the tofu.

_______________o_______________

No formal recipe here, only an ingredient list and prep. Part of this (the cauliflower) is because it is mostly ripped from a cookbook and the other part (sauce for the rice) is that I didn't measure. But, yes, the meal.

The cauliflower was tossed in oil and salt then roasted until it started to brown. Afterwards, it was tossed in the fish sauce vinaigrette from Momofuku. The recipe was supposed to have other things, like toasted puffed rice, fried cilantro leaves, etc. I ignored all of that.

The grilled rice patties were formed by cooking some sushi rice and then beating it into a pulp - first with a spoon then, when I realized the futility of that, with my hand. Make sure you let the rice cool a bit (so you don't get burned) and keep your hand a little wet (so the sushi rice doesn't stick to you) if going this route.

After getting the rice pulpy, form it into a cylinder with wet hands and put it in the fridge for a few minutes to chill while you prep the sauce. I didn't measure anything, really, so these are my guesstimates: 5 parts mirin, 2 parts sesame oil, 1 part sriracha, a dash of soy sauce, and a clump of black sesame seeds. After mixing the sauce, heat a bit of oil in a pan over medium-high. Remove the rice cylinder from the fridge and cut into pucks.

Throw into the pan and sear/sautee until they have developed some golden-ness on one side, then flip over and repeat. Once both sides are looking a little browned, turn down the heat to medium-low, let the pan cool down a bit, and throw in the sauce, tossing to coat.

All of this was served in a bowl of silken tofu, vigorously stirred with a spoon then heated until it began to separate slightly, about five minutes.

Buckwheat Scallion Pancake and Miso Stir Fry

I've, roughly, made this exact meal before, but that won't stop me from making it again. I changed up some ratios a bit, and swapped out many of the ingredients in the stir fry. Still, a quick meal with a sauce that doesn't quite come together, ever. One of these days I may need to make a sauce all proper-like, with a boil and reduce with cornstarch by itself before tossing it onto the stir fry proper. However, due to the liquid nature of the sauce I made I did get a very nice texture to my tofu. I used high-protein firm tofu, browned on all sides in oil. It then sat it liquid and, roughly, steamed. The outside was very firm and tough, but the inside was almost spongy; I think there is promise in the fry-->steam/boil method.

_______________o_______________

Miso Tofu Stir Fry

Serves 2

12 oz high-protein firm tofu, cubed

enough bok choi for two

1 large heirloom tomato

1 red pepper, diced

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp red miso paste

1 tsp oil

6 tbsp hot water

1 sprig green onion, chopped

spicy seasoning of your choice

In a large frying pan over medium high, heat some oil. Toss in the cubed tofu and brown it on all sides. While browning, combine the oil, soy sauce, miso paste, hot water, green onion, and spicy thing in a bowl and mix until the miso has dissolved. Once the tofu has browned on all sides, add the pepper and bok choi to the pan, reduce heat to medium low, and cook for a minute or two before adding the sauce and the tomato, chopped into a few pieces. Cook for ten more minutes, stirring intermittently. The tomato should disintegrate somewhat in the sauce; you can try adding flour or corn starch to thicken it up.

_______________o_______________

Buckwheat Scallion Cakes

Serves 2

2 tbsp buckwheat flour

6 tbsp all-purpose flour

1/4 cup hot water (boiling if you want)

2 tsp ground ginger

3 springs green onion, diced

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix with a spoon for a few minutes. Knead gently a few times, then let rest, covered, for thirty minutes. After letting it rest, form into 2-3 cakes and cook each in a bit of oil over medium-high.

Sesame-Miso Tofu

At some point during the week, I saw a link to a recipe for scallion pancakes. They seemed delicious, I happened to have a bunch of green onion lying around, and I wanted something other than rice with my generic Asian tofu dinner that I was going to make. Seemed like the perfect accompaniment. Now, usually when I make bread, I follow the recipe precisely. I've learned my lesson in the past with baking; there is too much chemistry, too little room for experimentation. A very fine line to walk, and I've done my fair share of hiking it in clown shoes. Not a good idea.

Except this time, I think I came out ahead. Yes, I toyed with the recipe - but when your recipe has two ingredients (flour and water), you get a bit of lee-way. From past bread baking, I know that adding yogurt to a dough gives it a bit of acid tang (to substitute for lack of a starter) and a bit of fluff. I wasn't quite in the mood for a thin, fried thick - a doughier hunk, capable of soaking up the sauce, seemed in order. The sauce I prepared was very ad-hoc, and lightly measured. I'll do my best to recount it below, but there are omissions, guesses, and outright fabrication of ingredients as transcribed.

_______________o_______________

Seasame-Miso Tofu

Serves 2

12 oz extra firm tofu, cubed

3-4 carrots, sliced

handful of snap peas, winter peas, etc

1 small white onion, sliced into strips

1/4 cup + 1 tbsp water (5 tbsp)

3-4 sprigs green onion, diced

loose handful of thai basil

2 tbsp red miso paste

2 tsp sesame oil

2 tsp Sriracha (optional)

1 tsp olive oil

pinch of poppy seeds

pinch of cumin

pinch of corn starch

In a large frying pan, with a bit of oil, start cooking the onion over medium. After a few minutes, throw in the tofu. Let cook without stirring for up to 5 minutes, until the tofu has begun to brown on a side. Throw in the carrots and let cook for 5 more minutes, then throw in the peas.

In a small bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients and stir thoroughly. The consistency should be somewhat watery. Add to the frying pan, and continue stirring and cooking until you want to call it done.

_______________o_______________

Doughy Scallion Cake

Makes 1 pancake (serves 2?)

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3 tbsp water

1 tbsp yogurt

squeeze of honey

3-4 sprigs green onion, diced

loose handful of thai basil, shredded

In a kettle, boil some water. Put the 1/2 cup of flour in a mixing bowl that can hove boiling water poured into it. Once the water is boiling, add approximately 3 tbsp of it (fill a 1/4 cup somewhat short of the rim), the squeeze of honey, and the yogurt. Mix thoroughly for a minute with a spoon. It should be cohesive and not sticky; if sticky, add more flour in small quantities. If it doesn't form a ball, add a tiny bit more water.

Flour your hands, a work surface, and the dough, and knead it a few times. Put back in the bowl, cover, and let it rest for at least 30 minutes. While its resting, feel free to prepare the above recipe. After thirty minutes, roll it out very flat on a floured work surface. Sprinkle the onion and basil on top, then roll up, spiral, and roll into a thicker pancake again.

In a frying pan over medium-high, add just enough oil to coat the bottom. When the oil shimmers, put in the cake and constantly swirl the pan above the flame. Flip after 2 minutes or less, and cook the same way on the other side for 2 minutes or less. Place on paper towel, dab off excess oil, and serve immediately.

Something like nigiri, only not at all

Exactly as described, this dish was an experiment (I swear I cook things that aren't experiments but I usually don't post them unless they are new and delicious). I wanted something cold for dinner, so I went on my way to get salad ingredients. Somewhere on the 3-block walk, I decided I'd rather have tofu and kale (a common craving). And, somewhere on the walk home, I came up with an odd idea - wrap the tofu in kale and bake it at a high heat, quickly, to give it a crunch, then let it cool.

And while I was at it, why not add some more crunchy things - sliced apple (instead of the saltiness of soy sauce, the sweetness of fruit) and red onion (to provide bite like wasabi). I also, of course, still made the salad. Do I recommend you make these? Maybe, they were quite good. But they aren't exactly perfected, half of them fell apart, and the flavors need some work.

_______________o_______________

Hippie Nigiri (Kaleifornia Rolls)

Serves 1 adventurous person

1 single-serving block of baked tofu (~8 ounces) cut into 8 pieces

8 leaves of lacinato (dinosaur) kale (plus more if you just want to eat it)

16 fingernail-sized slices of red onion

8 thin apple slices

olive oil

sea salt

crushed red pepper

Prepare a few things: an oven heating to 475 degrees, a pot of boiling water, a bowl of ice water, and a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Once the water is at a boil, blanch the kale leaves by dropping them in the water, letting them cook for 10-20 seconds, and transferring them to the ice water. Make sure they cool, and press out all of the liquid.

Take each piece of tofu and place an apple slice on it and two pieces of red onion, then wrap it in a piece of kale, leaving the loose ends under the tofu slice. Place on the pan and brush with a bit of olive oil. Sprinkle on a bit of salt and a dash of crushed red pepper.

Bake for no more than 10 minutes, until the kale is crispy. Either eat hot (delicious) or let cool a bit (also delicious). Wonder what the fuck you just ate and how it tasted good.

Cold Vinegar/Sesame Noodle and Tofu Toss

Looking for a simple, not-heavy dinner, we decided on something involving a green pepper because we had one. Stumbling our way through ideas, soba sounded really good. We didn't exactly find soba, and it wasn't quite udon - the package called it "Japanese style noodles". Definitely not soba because it was not buckwhet based and it was far too small to be udon. It was also flat; my guess is the package had a ethnic confusion or wikipedia is not-all knowing.

We made a few mistakes in the prep. The noodles were very gluteny - after a short boil, we gave them a quick rinse to cool and then tried to toss them with the sliced ingredients. It was more of a ball of noodles sloshing around in a pile of tofu, peas, and green pepper with various seasonings. The proportions of seasoning was also off, but I've fixed that below in the recipe. I recommend eating this with a cold, unfiltered sake.

Vinegar + Sesame Noodle Toss (20 minutes to make, serves 2)

• 1 small package fresh, ethnically challenged noodles.
• 1 green pepper
• 1 small block pre-seasoned/cooked tofu (we chose a salt and pepper one)
• 1 handful snow peas
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp vinegar (rice or white wine, maybe balsamic if you are feeling adventurous)
• (Optional) furikake
• (Optional) Sriracha

Cook the ethnically challenged noodles as described on the packaging - this probably means bringing water to a boil, adding noodles, bringing back to a boil, and cooking for a few minutes after that. Drain noodles and rinse very thoroughly with cold water until they are less sticky and have chilled. Chop pepper, peas, and tofu into thumb-sized pieces. Place all ingredients in a large bowl and toss. If desired, top with some furikake or add Sriracha during the tossing process for a nice kick.

Tofu Bake Bruschetta and Artichoke

I declared this a night for trying something new - namely, baking tofu. But that sounded pretty disgusting by itself as I didn't want to marinate it. I had the grandiose idea of baking tofu into something you could put on a pizza, but I quickly pared this down to simply making bruschetta.

With baked tofu.

Yes, it turned out fine. No, I don't have much of a recipe, simply an ingredient list and how I prepped everything. No, you probably don't want to cook this (but I might be wrong).

The baked tofu bruchetta

Tofu Bruschetta:

• Small block of tofu
• Bread
• Tomato (I used grape, leftover from a past dish)
• Poblano pepper
• Grated cheese that melts (I forgot that important qualifier)
• Spices

I thinly sliced the tofu into strips that were about the same size as my bread, seasoned them with some random spices, and threw them in the oven with a little olive oil at 400 for 20 minutes. I let them cool a bit, assembled the bruschetta (the order is, bottom-to-top: some cheese, dry things, things with juices, some cheese), and cooked until they looked done. Again, you can probably guess the recipe but it wasn't exactly a normal dish and came out quite dry, so you may want to hold off on making these.

Boiled-then-baked artichoke

Artichoke using leftover ingredients:

• 1 pile of leftover poblano/tomato slices from above recipe
• 1 medium artichoke

In a big pan, bring water to boil. Slice off the very tip of the artichoke. Once at a boil, place the artichoke in and cover with a lid, letting cook in the boiling water for 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat and strip off the outer leaves. Every few layers, try eating one of them - stop when the flesh doesn't really come off the leaf. Take all the removed leaves, lay them out on a baking sheet, and cover with the leftovers pile from previous recipe. Bake for 15 minutes in the 400 degree oven from previous recipe.

LazyDinner (Teriyaki Tofu)

I had plans, big plans, for dinner last night. I was going to pick a recipe out of my comfort zone, I was going to cook that shit up, and it was going to be good. Except it was raining so I took MUNI home. Not the wisest idea, that. After getting stuck for 30-ish minutes, I arrived home much later and much hungrier than anticipated.

Scrap my adventurous plans, its time for some stir-fry. Lazy stir fry. With beer.

The grocery store sells these pre-packaged, freshly-prepared "stir fry" mixes. Mostly bell pepper, but also some zucchini and squash. That, a block of tofu, and some Soy Vay, and we've got ourselves a meal. Adding a recipe wouldn't be too useful - I think it was equal parts teriyaki sauce and beer, plus the tofu and veggies, served on rice.

Buckwheat Fuckup

I mean, the name kinda says it all and I was none-too-careful when measuring the ingredients. It went something like: start sauteing some garlic; when it browns, throw in the firm tofu. Spray with Sriracha an amount you think you can handle. When things start looking done, add in soba noodles and sliced zucchini, plus some additional oil and some vinegar. Let it cook on medium-ish for five minutes, stirring constantly. Consider adding additional Sriracha; actually add in additional Sriracha; regret it immediately. Try to rectify it by adding a dash of sugar and salt. Call it tasty enough and decide you can't fuck it up anymore than you already have.

Oh, maybe I forgot to mention the first fuckup? I wanted to give it a little something to cook in besides oil. So I surveyed the kitchen and it went something like this: Vanilla soy milk? No, too sweet. Coconut milk? No, did that a few days ago. Olive oil? No, too much oil? Mustard? See that Sriracha? Ketchup? Too easy? Balsamic vinegar? I think I read that vinegar goes in Asian cooking, what the hell why not... oh whoops that smells not like what I'm trying to cook at all. Oh well, add some sesame seeds, turn off the heat, mix one more time, and serve.

It actually tasted great - I think the vinegar mostly cooked off because the heat was up a bit. Should you cook it? Probably not. You aren't me.

Call it "The Peanut Butter Suffusion"

Using my newfound Copious Amounts of Free Time™, I used a weeknight to try creating a recipe based on things I enjoy. For reference, here are some things I enjoy: peanut butter, ginger, sesame seeds, puppies, and programming languages. You can't cook with the last no matter how delicious a Haskell Curry sounds, and cooking with the penultimate isn't something I'm quite prepared for. So how did it turn out? Tasty, but could use a bit of refining. See for yourself:

(There is rice under the tofu)

How to recreate it, assuming you want one meal and not quite enough leftovers for lunch the next day (I haven't tested this yet but it looks like a small meal).

Tofu and Sauce:

• 12 oz firm tofu, cubed and pressed
• 1/3 cup peanut butter (salted)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk (although any milk will do here)
• 1 tsp sesame seeds
• 1 tsp freshly ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp honey
• 1/2 tsp chili flakes (adjust to spice level, this is "basically nothing")
• olive oil

Broccolini and rice:

• 1/2 cup uncooked rice
• 8-10 pieces of broccolini
• olive oil
• sea salt

Cooking instructions:

Assuming your rice will take 40-ish minutes, start cooking the rice. Mix the peanut butter, almond milk, and honey together until it blends into a consistent texture. Stir in the rest of the seasonings (sesame seeds, ginger, chili flakes). Put aside.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. In a frying pan, add some olive oil and brown the tofu over medium-high. The goal is to give it a slight crispness on each side, but not to deep fry it. As it is browning, . Once happy with texture, reduce heat to medium-low and stir in the peanut butter solution. You can let this sit for a bit while you do the next step.

On a baking sheet, lay down the broccolini so it isn't touching. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle salt on the tops; flip over and repeat on the other side. Cook on the top shelf of your oven for about five minutes, then shut off the oven and let it sit for five more minutes inside the oven. The goal is to lightly scorch the heads and cook the rest of it thoroughly, giving it a crunch on top.

Serve the tofu over rice with the broccolini on the side.

Thoughts:

This will create a delicious meal, although the sauce did not quite work as intended - I envisioned something with more liquid, but I created something a little firm. It did brown nicely with the tofu leading me to believe I didn't make a mistake. So, the rating is "delicious, would cook again". However, you could always add more milk or some water to the recipe. You could also up the amount of sauce created, as this was only enough to coat the tofu and not the rice.

Tofu/Squash/Pea Stir Fry