om nom nom

Day 60 – Spicy Tofu Salad

/ Brienna / Leave a comment

This “salad” is a favorite of mine from Zanotto’s. I love it because it’s a great grab and go lunch, and it’s packed with protein, and super tasty with a nice mix of spicy, sweet, and tangy.

This is my attempt to recreate it, ymmv.

Ingredients —

  • extra firm or firm tofu
  • oil for cooking tofu (I prefer avocado oil for high heat cooking)
  • toppings
    • peanuts
    • green onions, chopped
    • garlic, minced
  • marinade/sauce
    • soy sauce
    • maple syrup
    • hot chili oil
    • rice vinegar

Directions —

  1. Press your tofu!
  2. While the tofu is pressing, chop your green onions and mince your garlic. For 8-10oz of tofu, I used 2-3 green onions and about 3 cloves of garlic.
  3. Cut tofu into bite size pieces, I like mine small, but you can do bigger, it’s your choice.
  4. Pan fry the tofu with a touch of oil until brown (on all sides as much as possible)
  5. Add tofu and toppings to bowl/container. You may have noticed by now that there’s no quantities listed next to the ingredients. This is a totally customizable recipe, so I’ve left it very open. Add a few peanuts or a lot. I like peanuts, and I put about a ratio of 3:1 (tofu:peanuts).
  6. Make the marinade. If you’re nervous, make it in a separate bowl. If you’re adventurous, put it directly in with the tofu. You’ll want enough total volume to coat with some left over.

Here are some tips on how I make the marinade. I start with the soy sauce, this is my primary ingredient. Then a splash of maple syrup for sweetness. Hot chili oil — add to your tolerance. I don’t like it to overpower the other flavors, so I used just a dash or two. For the rice vinegar, again, just a dash or two. I add very small amounts of everything and then add more to adjust the spicy, sweetness, tangy as desired.

Other tips — I completely forgot about lime juice, but usually I use lime juice and not rice vinegar. You can also add fresh diced or sliced chili peppers, like jalapeño or serrano peppers. For sweetness, if you don’t like maple syrup, you can use brown sugar or agave. I actually think brown sugar works best flavor-wise but maple syrup is easier. Other options to add would include ginger (grated) and rice noodles.

I usually eat this as-is or chilled, but you can throw it on top of rice, noodles, or on some greens to make an actual salad.

Day 46 – quarantine takeout

/ Brienna / Leave a comment

If you’ve ever eaten at a restaurant with me, you may have noticed that I have a weird inability to order just one thing. I’m always ordering appetizers or sides or multiple main dishes. I like to sample!

It’s weird because when I cook at home, it’s almost always one thing. A quesadilla, a stir fry w/ rice (that hardly counts as a second dish), pizza…

So, now that we have this lockdown, I feel compelled to over order even more than usual. Like since I’m taking this risk and tipping well I should maximize what I’m getting.

Last weekend I ordered two dishes from the Thai place. About what I would normally order. Tonight I somehow ended up with 5 dishes and two sides.

At first, I was just going to get Indo-Chinese fried rice and Gobi Manchurian. But then I realized they had South Indian selections. Finally, after deciding I was ordering too much, I discarded the samosas and the dosa. And yet… 5 dishes and two sides!

The good news it is all delicious and I won’t have to worry about cooking for at least 2 more days. That’s good because it’s hard to cook and whatnot with my hand.

Anyone else find themselves unable to order just one thing? Why is it so hard to choose?

Day 16 – adventures in cooking

/ Brienna / 1 Comment

Yesterday, a co-worker mentioned watching youtube videos of this famous Korean chef to keep occupied. He later sent me a link to a video of her making a veggie pancake, which looked pretty cool. (video is at the bottom of this post, fyi)

Anyway, I did not anticipate actually making the veggie pancake. Then I realized today that my green onions were about to go bad, and that I had enough flour to make the pancake (but not enough to really make anything else), and some other veggies to put in it. What the hell right? Let’s try new things!

I’ve never really had a non-stick pan that was actually non-stick, so of course it stuck. And my pan is maybe 9″ (she used a 12″ pan in the video), so it was definitely too thick. I gave up trying to cook it evenly, keep it together, and flip, and just turned it into a scramble.

With no jalapeño or serrano peppers to be found in my fridge, I had to make do with chili powder, which wasn’t very strong. However, all in all it turned out tasty, even if it doesn’t look correct.

This is the video! See how pretty hers looks??!

So cooking fail? Or worthwhile experiment and learning experience? I got a decent meal out of it, so I’m happy with the outcome!

Monday, Day 8

/ Brienna / 1 Comment

I made green curry!

Here are some photos…

I’m not much of a recipe person, so I didn’t really measure anything except where noted below.

Here’s a rough recipe:

  • Press tofu then fry with a small amount of oil (I used avocado oil)
  • Toss the tofu with the dry spices (this is the only thing I measured — 1 tsp turmeric and 1 tsp curry power) and some coconut aminos after frying and then set aside
  • Sauté the chili pepper, garlic, shallots, and ginger until soft
  • Add broccoli, potatoes, coconut milk (I used two cans, use less if you like it less saucy), salt and pepper, green curry paste (I used the whole jar) and a dash or two of coconut aminos
  • Simmer for 10 minutes
  • Add tofu and bell peppers and a squeeze or two of lime juice to taste
  • Simmer another 10 minutes or until veggies are tender
  • Adjust salt, lime, coconut aminos, and spiciness (you can add cayenne or sriracha if needed) to taste
  • Top with cashews and serve with rice!