Moping is officially over. Time to get to what I did in response to my sadness. I cooked!
First up?! Dry Fried Tofu! I had a block of tofu in my fridge for a few weeks and was dying to cook it up. I haven't really ever done anything with it before so I did a little searching around online for some ideas. The idea of "dry fried" seemed particularly interesting.
Dry Frying Basics:
-1 brick of extra firm tofu
-Cloth napkin or dish towel
-non stick pan
Most tofu comes in a water-packed container. Drain the tofu and cut into small triangles or strips. Wrap the tofu in the towel and place the pan on top to lightly press the water out. Don't press too much out or it will get all kinds of crumbly.
Place tofu in a pan on medium heat. Lightly press the tofu to release some more of the liquid. This is what will be used to "fry" the tofu. No oil is needed! Take it nice and easy with the cooking. It will take a few minutes on each side for these to be a nice and golden color.
While they are cooking, mix up a little marinade. I decided to go down a Chinese route.
My marinade:
-a few dashes of low-sodium soy sauce
-a few dashes of sherry
-1-2 cloves of minced garlic
-1 tsp brown sugar
-1/2 tbsp of grated ginger
*TIP for grating ginger. FREEZE IT! I keep all of my ginger root in the freezer. When I need it, I just pull it out of the plastic bag and grate it. It keeps for about a year and it can be grated while still frozen.
Once the tofu is nice and golden, place pieces in the marinade and let sit for a few minutes. I prefer just a hint of the flavor so I don't leave my tofu in the marinade for as long as you might like too.
While the tofu is soaking, I steamed up some broccoli and once I was ready, threw everything back in the pan to just heat it up.
For my dinner tonight I heated up a cup of brown rice and then threw my tofu and broccoli mixture over top. Drizzle just a bit of the liquid over the top for a little umpf to the rice.
Dinner is served!
No dinner is complete in this house without a salad. A few weeks ago I saw this great post for a Carrot-Ginger Salad dressing on Smitten Kitchen. I made a few minor changes, but nothing major.
The Cast of Characters:
1 large carrot, 1/2 onion, 2 tbsp chopped ginger, 2 tbsp miso, 2 tbsp rice vinegar, 2 tbsp toasted sesame seed oil, 1/4 c. canola oil, 2 tbsp water
Drop the carrot, onion and ginger into a food processor and go to town
until its finely chopped up. Add the miso, sesame oil, and vinegar in. After a
few seconds add in the canola oil and water.
This recipe says that it makes enough for "4 servings" but I've
managed to get about 6 out of it. A little goes a LONG way for this great
dressing!
I chopped up a few cherry tomatoes and 1/4 avocado to put over a head of
romaine lettuce.
Add some of the yummy dressing and something miraculous happens. Seriously!
The perfect combo!
Question of the day: Do you eat tofu? What is your favorite way to cook it? Pass a great recipe along through my comments!
