Thursday, January 29, 2009

(Recipe) Tofu with Chili Glaze

I like tofu - but only certain ways.

Friends in California, I bet you're nodding with me. Sis-in-law in Utah, I bet you're laughing and thinking, "She thinks I'll get this bunch to eat tofu!" And I wouldn't blame any longtime meat-eaters for rejecting it the first time they tried cooking with it themselves. Tofu can be awful.

Specifically, I cannot abide by slimy crumbs of tofu lolling around my stirfry, looking less like food and more like fallen drywall from the ceiling on my plate. The first hundred or so times I made stirfry with tofu, when I was a young midwestern vegetarian wanna be whose one Chinese restaurant experience didn't include exposure to tofu, I kinda thought that crumbly and sorta bland was just how it was meant to be, and decided I didn't like it - for years.

Since then I've indeed learned that tofu doesn't have to be slimy and crumbly. In fact, in addition to its highly adaptable mild flavor, it turns out it can be chewy and firm and have a "skin" on it that provides the same kind of tooth that meat lovers enjoy on a browned piece of meat. Glory be: tofu doesn't suck!

The trick is to press tofu between paper towels to remove the water content, which helps with its structural integrity in the pan. Browning the tofu in oil (olive works fine, but your final dish happens to be, say, a Thai or Chinese one that would welcome it, peanut oil is also nice) firms it further, and a chili or honeyed glaze seals the deal - the tofu is now firm and toothsome, and holds up to the other ingredients in a stirfry. You can also keep the tofu in slices (below I've cubed it) and cook it in slabs to serve like a tofu steak, but for beginning tofu-eaters, that can be intimidating -- a larger slab-o-tofu's center can still be a little too, well, too much like tofu for some. These smaller cubes add the protein and the tooth but also cook through enough that the slime factor is nil.

I've been playing with this tofu thing this week and monkeying with different sauces, so I'd love to hear your favorites. This Chili glaze, last night's experiment, gave a spicy but nuanced kick to its vegetable friends in the pan.

CHILI GLAZED TOFU

2 t oil
1 package Extra Firm tofu, sliced 1/2" thin

sauce:
4 T vegetable broth or water
1 T cider, balsamic, or rice vinegar (I've experimented with all of these, and always like the result)
2 T honey or syrup
2 T ground fresh chili paste (future post: I'll share a recipe for making your own)
pinch salt

Press the tofu between paper towels for 10 minutes.

Stir all sauce ingredients together in a small bowl.

Cut tofu into 1/2" cubes.

Heat 2 t oil in wok or fry pan until shimmering. Cook tofu until golden brown on bottom, about 6 minutes; turn gently once, and brown next side. Turn again gently to brown each side (this is why you cut the cubes larger, but I really don't worry about being patient enough to cook every single piece on every single side - they stay firm so long as you turn them three times, I've found). Don't turn more than necessary - pieces crumble easily until they're browned.

Turn heat down and slip your sauce ingredients into the pan. Stir gently to coat and let cook until sauce firms to glaze (your tofu will be covered with the sticky, syrupy sauce). Remove from pan and reserve; make your desired stir fry or other dish, and toss tofu in at the end.

Niman Ranch and the high cost of meat

When I was a full time meat eater, I was a big fan of Niman Ranch meats. They promised "unsurpassed animal care" and animals raised on the largest network of sustainable U.S. family farms and ranches. Their animals are never given antibiotics or hormones, and are vegetarian-fed. And the meat they raise is, in fact, delicious.

So it's a bummer to learn that Niman Ranch will soon merge with Chicago Natural Food Holdings LLC, its main investor, because the company "never turned a profit." I've remained a proponent of sustainably farmed meat for those that feel they can't do without a good steak (or heaven forfend, bacon) once in a while - but always agreed with Michael Pollan that maybe meat isn't supposed to be as cheap as factory farming makes it, and would pay a little more for the reassurances that are offered by the ranchers in a small independent collective like Niman.

I don't know how other so-called sustainable meat companies are doing, nor do I know the businesspeople behind the company -- but one would think that Niman, which has long been the label of choice at every eco/health-conscious Bay Area market and restaurant I ever visit, ought to have been able to make it work as an independent company.

Or maybe it's just that that the cost of mass-produced meat is too high, period.

Vegan Winter Vegetable Soup

(RECIPE) Vegan Winter Vegetable Soup

1 T Earth Balance
1 pack "Good Deli by Yves" imitation Canadian bacon, cubed

4 T (1/2 stick) Earth Balance
1 c onion, finely diced
2 c leeks, finely diced
1 c carrots, finely diced
1 1/2 t dried tarragon (if using fresh, double amount - for soups, dried herbs can work fine, as long as your bottle isn't terribly old)
1 t dried thyme (ditto)

6 c vegetable stock
2 c potatoes, finely diced
1 c spinach, cut into 1/8" ribbons
salt (to taste - i use about 1/8-/4 t for a large batch - potato absorbs salty taste, so if you're cutting sodium, try a season-all blend instead)
pepper (to taste)

1/2 c Silk brand soy creamer (make sure you don't get Vanilla by accident!)

melt 1 T Earth Balance (EB) in large saucepan over medium-low heat. Add Canadian Bacon and cook until it begins to brown (it burns pretty easily, so only cook for about 5 minutes, less than you would real bacon). Remove "bacon" with slotted spoon and reserve it, leaving bacon-flavored buttery bits behind.

Add the 4 T EB to the pan and bacon "drippings"; melt on medium heat and add onions and leeks. Saute for 7-9 minutes, stirring occasionally, until your kitchen smells like savory heaven and onions are translucent. Stir, add carrots and cook for another 2 minutes.

Add vegetable stock and potatoes; bring to a simmer for 15-20 minutes until potatoes are mostly cooked, but not soggy. Add spinach and spices; stir in.

One cup at a time, process HALF the soup in your blender and add back to the rest in the pan. (This gives it an awesome half-creamy, half-chunky texture.) Add back the Canadian bacon bites, and the salt, pepper, and creamer. Simmer for 4-5 more minutes, but never let it boil. Serve with warm crusty wheat bread.

Alternatives: replace spices with any you'd use with mashed potatoes: dill, rosemary, parsley, paprika.