Black Pepper Tofu

There are probably as many versions of black pepper tofu as there are people who cook it so my version is just one of many. Unlike many versions I've seen though, I've added green veggies in mine. Can never miss an opportunity to get your green vegetables in your meals. This version I made with green beans but I have made this with broccoli and it tasted just as great. I'm sure even a more Asian choice (like bok choy?) would be great as well. 

Black Pepper Tofu

Ingredients:
1/2 Block of frozen extra firm tofu, thawed
about 3 tbsp. crushed black peppercorns (or coarse-ground black pepper)
cornstarch or all purpose flour
about 1/2 cup of soy sauce
about 1/4 cup of sugar
about 2 teaspoons of ground ginger
1/2 small onion chopped fine
2 cloves of garlic, minced
a splash of balsamic vinegar*
a splash of chili oil (purely optional)
green beans, rinsed and chopped in thirds
oil for frying

Freezing tofu changes the texture making it more spongy.

Directions:
Cover the bottom of a shallow pan with oil and place over medium high heat.
Combine the cornstarch and black pepper.
Cut the tofu in 1/2" cubes. Dredge the tofu in the cornstarch mixture and fry in the heated oil.
Do not crowd the pan with the tofu (but even I don't follow this rule in a rush so don't take it as gospel).
Cook the tofu until golden brown. Drain and set aside.
Combine the soy sauce, sugar, ground ginger, and balsamic vinegar in a bowl and mix thoroughly.
Heat a small amount of oil over high heat in a non-stick or cast iron skillet.
Combine the garlic and onions and fry in the pan. Cook for 2 minutes or until the onions just begin to caramelize.
Add green beans and cook for about 5 minutes.
Add the chili oil and cook for 30 more seconds
Add the soy sauce mixture. When the soy sauce mixture reduces a little (shouldn't take more than 2 minutes), turn off the heat.
Combine the cooled tofu and serve with rice.

*Foodie Trick #2930: If ever you over-salt your food, adding a little vinegar will trick your taste buds and your food will taste less salty (though your sodium content will still be high. Too much salt is still a bad thing). Because the sauce for this recipe is made majorly of soy sauce, I thought adding a splash of balsamic would add depth of flavor and take some of the saltiness of the soy sauce away as well. If you'd like, you could use less soy sauce and add water but then your sauce might be a little runny and thin. And runny sauce is just tragic.









 

How I Cook Okra [for Cajun Rice]

I tend to get a little overzealous when I go to the store sometimes.

I saw prepackaged fresh okra for $2.12 at this great international market and I couldn't not buy it.

But it sat in my fridge for about a week before I put it to good use.

Now okra isn't for everyone. And cooking it isn't necessarily hard particularly if you're using it in a stew (a la gumbo). However, if you're particular about the amount of slime that may secrete from your okra in your dish then I say follow my simple method of cooking it.

Now I'm sure someone with a more sciencey background will refute my method but this has worked for me for years so I'll just stick to my method if you don't mind.

The key to reducing okra to minimal slimeyness is to keep it as dry as possible the whole time you handle it.

After washing okra, allow it to dry on a paper towel before cutting into it.

When you are cutting it, make sure your knife and your cutting board is as dry as you can get it. When cutting your okra, slice the tops off and discard them. That's the slime source. You don't want that.

Even with all the precautions there's still a little slime on the knife.

Finally, cook all of your other vegetables before you are ready to cook your okra. This is important because the vegetables you cook will release their moisture and if the okra's in there those veggies will trigger its need to secrete. Trust me on this one.

If you follow all of this you should have relatively slime-free okra for dishes such as the one I will talk about now!


Cajun Rice

Ingredients
Rice, cooked and allowed to cool
Okra, sliced (follow directions above on how to prepare the okra)
1/2 Red bell pepper, diced
Frozen corn kernels
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Cajun seasoning and/or Old Bay (I used a little bit of both)
Oil

Directions
Cook the rice (How to cook rice tutorial will come soon. I have gotten lazy at the ripe old age of 26 so I just use a rice cooker) and set aside to cool.

Heat a non-stick or cast-iron skillet to medium high heat and add a little oil in the pan. Once heated, add onion, pepper, and garlic to the pan.

Once the  vegetables caramelize,  add the frozen corn kernels and cook for 3 minutes or until the corn is thawed.

Add the okra and cook for 7-10 minutes stirring frequently to prevent burning. Add the cajun seasoning and Old Bay.

Turn off the heat and fold the rice gently into the vegetable mix.

Broccoli Fritters

It was a blah Saturday morning.

I didn't want to get out of bed. So for the past few hours I've been lying in bed watching Wild China on Netflix (add it to your queue if you like NatGeo anything).

Then the inevitable happened.

Grumbles from my stomach would not allow me to stay in bed for the next 6 hours learning about rubber plantations and pandas. Had to get up and forage for food.

I haven't gone shopping yet so my protein stash is depleted but I remembered looking at a Smitten Kitchen entry on broccoli fritters and I knew I had some broccoli left so I decided to give it a shot (Smitten Kitchen is a pretty amazing blog definitely worth checking out).

Of course the recipe is adjusted to fit my insane flavor requirements ("Just one clove of garlic?? No I need at least three to make this work!!") so I would suggest tweaking certain things to make it fit your flavor buds as always.

I would've added the whole thing, but at some point I have to interact with people and not smell like I just came back from a vampire hunt.

Broccoli Fritters

Ingredients:
-1 head of broccoli
-3 cloves of garlic finely minced
-1/4 cup of sharp cheddar cheese
-about 1/4 cup of flour
-egg (optional for those into that sort of thing)
-salt
-a pinch of cayenne pepper
-oil (I used vegetable but olive oil would work well too)


Directions

Cut the broccoli in small pieces and boil in a very small amount of water for about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly. Broccoli, like many other vegetables makes its own water when it's cooking. It just needs a boost at the beginning.

While the broccoli cooks combine all of the other ingredients in a bowl. If you're using the egg, put this i the bowl first and whisk it. Then combine the other ingredients.

Mash the broccoli lightly with a fork (or a potato masher if you have one) and fold the broccoli in with the other ingredients.

Heat the oil in a non-stick or cast iron skillet over medium heat. There should be just enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan.

Test the oil by putting a pea-sized amount of the batter in the pan. If it begins to bubble the oil is ready.

Scoop a spoon of the mixture and drop it in the pan. You may need to flatten it slightly with the back of the spoon for an even cooking. Also, try to cook only 2-3 at a time in the skillet to not crowd the pan. 

Brown the fritters on both sides and drain on a few paper towels.

Serve by themselves or with a yogurt sauce or sour cream.

Beans, Beans, Good For Your Heart

Break out the Bean-O ladies and gents because boy, do I have a great bean dish for you!


I have been making some severe budget cuts recently and I had to cut down a little bit on my food budget. So to get me started I thought "Hm. What can I make for less than 7 bucks that would feed me for a few days?" And I thought of this.

Behold, the most budget-friendly, healthy yet satisfying meal that won't put a hurting on your pocket.


White Beans with Spinach and Tomatoes

Ingredients:
1 can of cannelini beans, drained and rinsed
1 can of crushed tomatoes (I used the Italian-seasoned variety)
about 2 spoons of tomato paste
1 pack of frozen chopped spinach, slightly thawed
2 Tofurky Italian Sausages, chopped

1/2 a small onion, finely chopped
about a cup of Water or vegetable stock (Let's keep it with water. Water's free and this recipe will be plentiful flavorful believe me)
Garlic powder
a pinch of cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper to taste


Directions:
Saute the onion until caramelized and add the chopped sausages and cook until brown. Then add all the other ingredients (no real order to this).

Simmer for 25 minutes. Serve with either crusty bread or rice. Or eat it as it is.

Garlicky Green Beans and Potatoes

 I love green beans.


I also love potatoes.


Put them both together and you have a love fest on a plate.

So I stir-fried some green beans with these small potatoes for lunch and it really made my day.

I present garlicky green beans and potatoes:

Ingredients:

Green beans snapped and washed
Fingerling potatoes or any small white potato
5 cloves of garlic minced
Olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Green beans and potatoes after their shock treatment.

Boil the potatoes for 15 minutes or until they are soft.  Set aside.

Steam the green beans for 5 minutes.

Shock the green beans in ice cold water. Drain and set aside


Heat a skillet with olive oil on medium high. Saute your minced garlic.

After garlic is browned, throw in your potatoes and green beans and heat through. Add salt and pepper and turn off the heat and serve.

Beet and Carrot "Latkes"

 I like rich foods. There's rarely a meal I eat that I don't have tofu or seitan in it. But sometimes it's good to indulge in the lighter vegetarian fare. Tonight was one of those sometimes.

I paired the cakes with a salad and crumbled some queso fresco on top (On one of my grocery whims I bought this cheese with big plans of cooking some deluxe Mexican fare. Now I'm just trying to use it before it goes bad).


Here is the recipe for beet and carrot latkes:

a piece of a beet (the piece goes a long way believe me)
2 small carrots
one half a small onion
one small clove of garlic
a small amount of flour
paprika
nutritional yeast
salt and pepper to taste

Grate the veggies and mix all the ingredients together. Make small patties with your hand and place on a well-oiled sheet pan.

Bake at 350° until slightly blackened** on each side. That should be about 15 minutes tops but check frequently. 


**NOTE: It doesn't take long for this to happen because of the high sugar content in both the beets and the carrots. You know how after sugar turns to caramel it then turns into black crunchy crap? Same principles.

Taco Time

After work, I had a hankering for some tacos and for the life of me I didn't know why. Maybe one too many listens to the merengue mixes on YouTube? Or was it the Latin food trucks within a block from my job sending me subliminal messages? I don't know what it was but whatever it was worked. So I decided to go to the store and pick up some ingredients.


Then I got to the store and realized I never made soft tacos in my life. At least I don't remember. Go figure.

So I went searching for some taco recipes and found a few that got my juices flowing (this is one of the many I looked at. Really it's one of two I looked at before my attention went elsewhere) and decided to try a fish taco recipe.

Naturally I don't eat fish so I substituted the fish for some tofu and baked it instead of fried it (look at me being healthy). Tofu, like fish, is one of those ingredients that soaks up whatever flavor you want it to have so it's very versatile.

Then I threw a lot of veggies that seemed to go together in a slaw, added some chili sauce and voila. My rendition of a veg-friendly "fish" taco.

"Fish" Tacos

For the Tofu:
Tofu
Soy Sauce
Equal parts flour and white cornmeal
Chili powder
salt and pepper
Oil for baking


For Slaw:
Cabbage
Onions
1 clove of Garlic
Radishes
Corn
Cilantro (I used dried because that's all I had but I' sure fresh would've been so much better)
salt and pepper
The juice of 1/2 lime

For Sauce
Mayo (or Vegenaise)
Chili powder
A small amount of red pepper flakes
Juice of 1/2 lime
salt and pepper

Slice the tofu in strips (about 1/4" thick) and soak it in equal parts soy sauce and water while you make the slaw.

Grate all vegetables (including the onion and garlic) with the small grate size. Mix the other ingredients and set aside

Preheat the oven to 400°.

Drain the tofu and dredge each slice in the cornmeal/flour batter. In a shallow baking dish add a shallow layer of oil and place the tofu in the pan. The strips should not touch each other.

After about ten minutes, flip the tofu strips and allow to cook on the other side. Allow to cook another 5 minutes and remove and drain the excess oil.

Combine all the ingredients for the sauce. Taste it. I felt like I should say that.


Warm your tortillas and get to building your tacos. I warm my tortillas like so:

It gives it that nice charred look on the edges. I'll probably have hell to pay when I'm cleaning the eyes of my stove but whatever.