Spicy Tofu

This is called spicy tofu for a reason, but the flavors of mushroom, celery, and garlic all come together perfectly. I hesitantly tried and modified this recipe from 'Simply Delicious Vegetarian' by Carla Bardi. This cookbook is not my favorite, but I bought it from the discount shelves of Barnes & Noble for $5 and figured I'd eventually give a few of these recipes a shot. Happy to have tried this one, though I reduced the liquids called for quite a bit and added mushroom soy sauce (which is thicker than regular soy sauce) for extra flavor.

1 floret of dried black flower mushroom, soaked for 15 minutes in hot water, drained, water reserved, and diced finely

1 block tofu, cubed

2 tbs peanut oil

2 stalks celery, finely diced

3 cloves garlic

2 red chilli peppers, sliced on the diagonal

1 vegetable bullion cube

1 tbs soy sauce

1 tbs mushroom soy sauce

1 tbs toasted sesame oil

1 tsp sugar

1 tbs water

1 tsp cornstarch

ground pepper

1.) Dry fry the cubes of tofu in an un-oiled skillet, tossing gently every few minutes, for about 10 minutes, until the tofu is golden on all sides. This removes a lot of moisture and firms up the tofu for better texture.

2.) Meanwhile, soak the black mushrooms in hot water.

3.) Heat peanut and sesame oil in a skillet. Add the peppers, garlic and celery and cook for several minutes to soften.

4.) Add the soy sauce, mushroom soy sauce, half cup of the drained mushroom soaking water, vegetable bullion cube and sugar to the skillet and continue to stir.

5.) Add the tofu and mix well, adding water if needed.

6.) Mix the cold water and cornstarch together in a cup and mix slowly into the skillet, stirring constantly. This will thicken the mixture and give it a nice glazed look.

7.) Season with pepper and sprinkle with diced black mushrooms.

Serve with rice, bok choy, or other grains and vegetables for a complete and completely delicious meal.

Dry Red Curry of Tofu, Green Beens and Baby Corn

If you've got the pre-made curry sauce, this recipe is a no brainer. If not, see the recipe on Penang Duck for the list of ingredients.

2 tbs vegetable oil

4 cloves garlic, diced

1 tbs ginger, diced

1 block of tofu, drained and cubed

large bunch of green beans, washed and trimmed

1 punnet of baby corn, quartered

2 tbs sugar

2 tbs fish sauce

handful of fresh basil leaves, torn

1.) Heat the vegetable oil in a skillet or wok on medium low temperature. Add the garlic and slowly fry until golden.
2.) Add the curry paste and stir until well combined. Add a few tbs of water if needed, as moisture will evaporate as it is cooked.
3.) Turn up the heat and add the tofu, and allow to cook for several minutes.
4.) Add the green beans, baby corn, fish sauce, and sugar, and stir fry for a few minutes longer.
5.) Add the basil right before serving.

Sweet Potato and Tofu Curry

I was excited about my new cookbook 'Travels with Thai Food' (Brierty & Fear, 2007) that it didn't matter that it was 11pm. I was hungry, I had ingredients in my fridge and inspiration. I was bored? No no, inspired, yes.  Anyway, cooking at night's always a problem for my photo taking, but too bad, because there wasn't going to be any leftovers to foto the next day. This was going straight in mah belleh! Mmmmmmm..... Spic-ay!

The recipes in 'Travels with Thai Food' include customized curries for each curry recipe, though I've found very little variation in many of the pastes that are used for the base of the curries. The basic ingredients for many of these pastes are (in varying proportions): chillies, galangal (have yet to find out what this really is), ginger, lemongrass, lime zest, coriander, onion, garlic, white pepper, cumin, and depending on the other ingredients, something like nutmet, basil, tamarind, keffir lime and so on.

So since using a pestle and mortar to grind up a paste, of which you end up using only a few table spoons for each curry, I bought a pre-made red Panang Thai curry from the Asian market and tweek it with a few of my own spices later if necessary. This saves me a lot of time. I know with the right technique, using a pestle and mortar isn't so laborious, but to me, it often feels like it.

Here I'll list the Red Curry Paste ingredients for anyone interested, but I do admit I took a rather big, and recommendable shortcut:
10 dried chillies, deseeded and soaked in water until soft
salt
1 tbs chopped galangal
2 tbs chopped lemongrass
1 tsp lime zest
2 coriander roots scraped
2 tbs chopped onion
4 tbs chopped garlic
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Curry
1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
2 tbs vegetable oil
salt and pepper
1 cup coconut milk
1 tbs sugar (palm sugar if you have it)
1 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs finely diced ginger
half block of tofu, cubed (I dry mine out in a dry non stick skillet on low heat for 10 minutes before using)
basil
4 keffir lime leaves (I buy mine semi-dried and keep them in the fridge for weeks)
half red chilli, in slivers for garnish
1/4 cup cashews crushed for garnish

1.) Preheat the oven to 200C. Prepare the paste if you are making yourself.
2.) Toss the sweet potato in the salt pepper and olive oil and spread evenly on a lined baking sheet. Bake the sweet potato for abotu 45 minutes or until goldenbrown and soft.
3.) Combine the coconut milk and 3 tbs red paste in a hot skillet or wok and mix well. Add the sugar, soy sauce, ginger and tofu and begin to cook about 5 minutes.
4.) Bring the mixture to a boil and add the basil and lime leaves. Then add the sweet potato, toss and remove from heat.

5.) Serve garnished with the fresh chilli and cashews.

Tofu and Carrots in Peanut Sauce

This is just another easy recipe to make. This and the fact that I love peanut butter in almost anything just meant that I had to make this recipe. There aren't so many ingredients and it doesn't take too much time, so if you're stocked up on tofu and you don't wanna make the same old stir-fry, here ya go:

Stir Fry

5 carrots, peeled and chopped coarsely

2 tsp peanut oil

1'' of ginger, diced

soy sauce

4 scallions, including the greens, chopped coarsely

salt

1 package of firm tofu (sliced into 1'' thick triangles and drained the water by pressing or slowly sauteeing)

1.) Cook the carrots in the hot oil with the ginger for a few minutes, and then add the soy sauce.

2.) Add about 1/2 cup of water to the pan and cover to cook until the carrots are tender.

3.) Add the scallions and cook to reduce the liquid into a light glaze.

4.) Seperately, stir fry the tofu in some oil and soy sauce.

Peanut Sauce

1 tsp peanut oil

1/4 cup cilantro paste or chopped cilantro

1 tbs mint leaves

1/4 cup of lime juice

3 cloves garlic

1/4 tsp chilli powder

1 red chilli, sliced on the horizontal (optional if you can't stand the heat)

salt

1 tsp soy sauce

Whisk all ingredients together while heating through to soften the peanut butter and infuse the flavors. This will take only a few minutes.

Toss all the ingredients together and drizzle with the peanut sauce.

Tofu with Sugar Snap Peas

To my 'many' blog followers out there (at the time of writing this I have a whopping 5), I apologize for the long delay in posts. A long full time work week, followed by a week of amazing weather and relaxing with friends, followed by 10 days of having my mom and aunt in Helsinki, it has taken me this long to sort through pictures and have the patience to sit inside and update my blog. It doesn't mean I haven't been cooking- or enjoying some fabulous meals in Stockholm or Tallinn for that matter (which I'll post later about) :)

This is another great light summer meal that uses snap peas, which are in season now. I modified this recipe from another great cookbook 'Vegetarian Suppers' by Deborah Madison. Since the tofu is simmered in the broth, even less oil is needed. A couple days after I made this, I made it again. And now that it's been about a month since I made it that I'm finally posting it, I'm getting another craving. See, the thing is- it's just simple, delicious and it doesn't leave you feeling heavy afterwards.

With tofu, normally, I start by slicing the pieces into 1'' thick slices and then cutting them on the diagonal to make medium sized triangles. Then, I lay the pieces flat on a non-stick skillet without any oil and cook them for about 10 minutes on each side at really low heat, maybe on my electric oven, I use a mark 2 or 3. That evaporates a lot of the moisture and makes the tofu more firm so that it doesn't fall apart when added to the broth with the other ingredients. But I do this with tofu in most recipes these days.

Start with the broth, which is a flavoring most akin to some Thai foods. (I just received a Thai cookbook from my awesome neighbor back in the States and I can't wait to go to the Asian grocer and get cooking again) The broth can simmer for a long time if you want a good flavor infusion, but I would say that about 15 minutes is enough, otherwise a lot evaporates and then you have more of a reduction sauce than a broth.

Serves 2-3

Prep time: 10 minutes

Ready in: 30 minutes

Broth

3 tbs chopped fresh or frozen lemon grass (I buy mine fresh, but freeze what I don't use)

2 slices of ginger (this can stay good in the 'fridge for months)

1 tbs lime juice (or zest of one lime)

2 tbs fresh cilantro (I use a cilantro pesto that I buy in the jar, because I can't seem to keep fresh cilantro growing very long)

pinch of good salt

1 tbs soy sauce

couple drops of Thai fish sauce (optional)

1 tbs brown sugar

1.) With 1 1/2 cups water (about 4dl) in a skillet, add the lemon grass, lime, ginger, cilantro and salt and bring to a boil.

2.) Simmer for about 15 minutes and then strain so that only the liquid remains.

3.) Add soy sauce, fish sauce, and sugar. Adjust the seasoning to your likings.

Stir Fry

1 package of firm tofu

1 tsp peanut oil

2 cloves garlic, sliced

1/2 red onion, sliced

2 scallions, including the greens, sliced

sugar snap peas (a good generous handful)

1 tsp tumeric

jalopeno or red chilli, sliced on the diagonal (optional)

1.) Heat the oil in a skillet. Add the garlic, onion, scallions and chilli. Stir fry on high heat for about 1 minute.

2.) Add the peas, turmeric, and tofu and stir fry for another minute.

3.) Add the broth and simmer until the peas look a vibrant green color and the tofu is cooked through (if you used my preparation method for the tofu this should not take more than a couple minutes).

4.) Season with salt and pepper and serve over jasmine or sticky rice, or somen noodles.

Tofu in Spicy Chile Sauce with Coconut Rice

This recipe has it all, salty, sweet, sour, spicy. Very spicy in fact. I love the aesthetics of shapes with both rice cakes and tofu, and the green and red peppers contrasting the yellow color from the tumeric. It all comes together really well and is really easy to make. What can I say, I just love this. It reminds me of this Thai restaurant that I ate at with my friend W in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, and they served their coconut fish soup with star fruit and it was lovely.

Start with the rice the day before or in the morning. That way the rice has time to cool and set so that it's easier to cut into shapes.

Coconut Rice Cakes

1 1/2 cups basmati rice

1 cup coconut milk

1 tsp tumeric

black and/or white sesame seeds

peanut oil for frying

salt and pepper

1. Rinse the rice. Boil 2 cups of water with the coconut milk and add salt, pepper, and tumeric.

2. Add the rice, turn down the heat to a simmer, cook covered for about 20 minutes or until the rice is ready. Allow the rice to cool.

3. Lay a piece of plastic wrap on a cookie sheet. Spread the rice evenly about 1 1/2 inches thick over the cookie sheet. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Cover the top with another piece of plastic wrap, so the rice doesn't dry out.

4. Place in the refridgerator over night or until well chilled.

5. When ready to make the tofu, cut into squares or triangles and fry lightly on either side. Enough to give a crisp to the edges and heat through.

Spicy Tofu
1 package firm tofu sliced into 1 1/2 inch thick triangles
1 cup coconut milk
3 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs brown sugar
2 limes
3 shallots, diced
1 red jalopeno chile, sliced on the diagonal (seeds removed if you want to minimize the heat)
1 green jalopeno chile, sliced on the diagonal (''   '')
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp tumeric
1 tbs fresh or dried mint leaves
1 tbs fresh or dried basil leaves (Thai basil works best here, but isn't easy to find)
salt and pepper

1. Cook the tofu on low heat on a dry non-stick skillet for about 10 minutes on each side. This evaporates a lot of the excess liquid and makes the tofu a bit firmer. Since we'll be adding more liquid later, you don't want soggy tofu.
2. Remove the tofu, sprinkle with the juice of half of one lime.
3. Return the skillet to heat, add peanut oil, shallots, garlic, and chiles and saute until golden.
4. Add cocounut milk, soy sauce, sugar, mint and basil, salt and pepper. Continue to cook until everything is well heated through.
5. Squeeze the juice of half a lemon over the sauce.
6. Assemble the rice cakes on a plate and dish the tofu and sauce on top. Drizzle with excess sauce, serve with lime slices.

Tofu with Bok Choy and Orange Ginger Carrots

Marinating tofu for a whole day before cooking this recipe makes a big difference. Marinating is simple when you know how to do it and it's well worth the prep time.

My first line of order is to slice the tofu into sizeable chunks and slow cook it on a non-stick skillet without any oil, on low heat, to allow all the excess water to cook off. Some people suggest putting a towel on the tofu and putting some weight to 'press' the tofu, but I think this works better.

Block of tofu

2/3 cup orange juice

2 cloves garlic, crushed 

2'' fresh ginger, grated

handful of coriander, torn

2 tbs soy sauce

2tbs brown sugar

4 heads of bok choy, lightly steamed

3 large carrots, peeled and chopped

2/3 cups orange juice

2'' fresh ginger, grated

1/2 cup vegetable broth

1. Marinate the seared tofu in the first 6 ingredients. Let sit over night.

2. Boil carrots in orange juice, ginger and broth. Mash with a potato masher if possible, or use an emersion blender, or just keep carrot slices whole if you're like me.

3. Lightly steam the bok choy, don't over do it- mushy bok choy is not delicious.

4. Assemble and serve :)

Gado Gado

This Indonesian dish is strangely like comfort food for me. It's a combination of raw and cooked vegetables and tofu with a spicy coconut peanut sauce, garnished with bean sprouts and boiled eggs. Sounds strange enough, but if you like tofu, fresh vegetables, and peanut butter as much as I do, you'll understand why this is both extremely nutritional and really satisfies a craving.

It may sound weird to cover vegetables of varying consistency with a peanut butter based sauce, but trust me, when it all comes together you'll understand.

5 small-medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 carrots, peeled and julliened
1 red bell pepper, julliened
100 grams string beans
1 block fresh firm tofu, cubed
2 boiled eggs
a handful of mung bean sprouts
other optional vegetables include fresh spinach, strips of cucumber, cauliflower florets, and shredded cabbage
Peanut sauce (recipe follows)

1. Boil the potatoes, green beans and carrots separately. The carrots and green beans may be boiled a bit aldente.
2. In a non-stick skillet, dry cook the tofu cubes on low heat, flipping often, to extract as much of the water moisture as possible. This takes about 10 minutes and can be done while boiling the other vegetables.
3. Toss all the vegetables, potatoes and tofu together in a large bowl.
4. Quarter the boiled eggs.
5. Serve the gado gado with peanut sauce and boiled eggs on the side.

Peanut Sauce
1 tbs peanut oil
1 onion, diced finely
1/2 cup peanut butter (unsweetened)
3 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs sugar
2/3 cup coconut milk
2 tbs ground coriander
2 tbs lemon juice
2 tsp chilli paste

1. Fry the onion in the oil until golden brown.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and whisk until smooth, tasting and adjusting to your preference. I like to add a little extra chilli paste for some heat and soy sauce for a bit of salt to balance the other sugars.

Tofu Soup

This soup can be made with several different broth bases so it's very easy to modify to your own arsenal of ingredients. You can also add veggie dumplings or other vegetables to this soup!

I started out with a mushroom stock base leftover from my mushroom spring rolls. I added another 2 cups of water, and a vegetable bullion cube.

• 1/3 block firm tofu, cubed
• tbs ginger, fresh or 1/2 tbs ginger powder
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 carrot, julliened
• 1 bunch scallions, diced
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tbs balsalmic vinegar
• 1 tsp roasted sesame oil
• coriander, salt, pepper, chilli paste or flakes, to taste

1. Fry tofu cubes dry in a non-stick pan on low heat for half an hour, using a spatula to turn them around and firm them on all sides. This dries out the extra moisture, giving a golden color to the outside. Be sure to stir every 5 minutes or so to avoid tofu cubes sticking.
2. While the tofu is frying, cut all other vegetables, garlic and ginger and add them to the broth.
3. Add all other ingredients, season to taste. When the carrots are soft, the soup is read.

Bok Choy Tofu Stir Fry

A little inspired from my recent trip to Aseanic Trading, near Hakaniemi on Kolmaslinja 3, I decided to whip up this quick and easy dinner for one.

Although the ingredients could be modified, I simply used these:

1 onion, diced

3 heads of bok choy, quartered

2 cloves garlic, diced

2 tbs peanut oil

1/3 block of firm tofu, cubed

3 tbs soy sauce

bunch of fresh basil leaves

1 tbs oyster sauce (optional)

1. I first sauteed onion and garlic in the peanut oil until softened and aromatic.
2. I then added the tofu and let it brown, 5 minutes.
3. Next, add the bottoms of the bok choy, soy sauce and oyster sauce and let soften, 5 minutes.
4. Lastly, I added the tops of the bok choy, since these are more leafy and take less time to soften, and the basil and left on the skillet still just long enough to warm through.

All together the result is a heaping pile of warm, tasty tofu for one. This is an extremely good, fast, and low-carb but filling dinner if you just want to chow down without feeling guilty afterwards. Also consider adding sliced or diced carrots, bamboo shoots, watercress, or any other vegetable you have on hand. Can be served over rice, udon, raman or other noodles, or plain, as I have eaten it.

Enjoy!