Tofu Stif-Fry with Peanut Sauce and Mixed Vegetables

I have been cooking for years and I have yet to find a proper method to cook tofu. Like how many people have a mental block with boiling an egg I have a very similar thing with frying tofu so that it ends up as firm, nicely browned cubes instead of a half-assed mess. That is the reason that I have been staying away from a stir-fry recipe with tofu since I have a tendency to mess it up. That is until this recipe.

Here’s the thing. I looked at myself in the mirror and I realised that months and months of being at home depressed and unemployed really took its toll on my waistline so I am seriously moderating my snacking behaviours and caloric count. The Thin Cooking ethos is still to not refuse myself something but to just be sensible in terms of when and how much I eat.

Anyway, this is a long-winded explanation that I made this stir-fry because I really fancied Chinese takeaway and could not justify it… even writing about this I really fancy some dim sum… rats.

Ingredients: (serves 4)

• 400g firm tofu, drained and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 2 tsps rapeseed oil
• 350g mangetout
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced into strips
• 1/2 cup spring onions, sliced
• 2 tsps ginger, peeled and minced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 150g shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• 2 tbsps tamari
• 2 tbsps smooth peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon cornflour
• 2 teaspoons chilli sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Firstly sandwich the tofu between sheets of kitchen towel and leave it to absorb the excess water for 5 minutes.

Whilst this happens make the sauce from the tamari, peanut butter, cornflour, chilli sauce, salt and ½ cup water.

Heat the oil in a non-stick pan on a medium heat and cook the tofu for 7-8 minutes so that it has browned on all sides and is warmed through. Stick the tofu in the oven at the lowest heat so it remains warm.

Add ¼ cup of water to the pan with the mangetout, spring onions, ginger, garlic and red pepper. Stif-fry this for 3 minutes and then add in the mushrooms. Stir-fry for a further 2 minutes then add the tofu and peanut sauce. Stir this in for a minute so it heats through and thickens before serving over steamed rice.

Adapted from here

Verdict: I finally cooked tofu properly! The key realty appears to use a proper non-stick pan and to drain the tofu as much as possible. In terms of the recipe the sauce was lovely and, as I said I really enjoyed the tofu… but there needs to be more sauce. There was enough for the stir-fry but not for the rice so next time I will be making more sauce.

Also, I used less mushrooms than the original because there was only one pa ck left, so next time there will be double the mushroomy goodness. Also I think that next time it would be better to half the amount of mangetout and substitute in either babycorn or broccoli. Then again, that’s just me.

Calorie Count: 218 per serving

Day 288: Saag Tofu

I think it has been well established in the canon of Thin Cooking that I am very much a fan of tofu. The fact that you can get a decent pack of tofu at Asda for a quid caused a strangely measured amount of joy… remember that I am a blogger who would happily take on a similar challenge to the Julie/Julia project with an incredible amount of relish. In fact if it was not for the huge amount of calories that I would have to consume to complete such an endeavour I would cook my way through the latest Nigella Lawson cookbook. After all, it does contain some of the most mouth-watering recipes I have seen on the television.

Today’s recipe is a quick one. It takes the Indian classic saag paneer and exchanges the cheese for tofu and uses low-fat yogurt to help maintain the dairy taste one would have come to expect.

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 14oz water-packed firm tofu, drained
• 4 tsps groundnut oil
• 1 onion, sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 tsp ginger, grated
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1lb spinach
• 1 cup non-fat plain yogurt
• 1 1/2 tsps curry powder
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin

Cut the tofu three times along its length and then eight times across. Heat half the oil in a large pan and add the tofu as well as a pinch of salt. Cook this for 8-10 minutes, turning it every 2-3 minutes, so it firms up. Remove from the pan and then set aside.

Add the remaining oil to the pan and then cook the onion, mustard seed and garlic for 4-6 minutes. Add the spinach (you may need to add it in batches) and cook it until it has wilted. To this stir in the curry powder, cumin and yogurt as well as the tofu and then heat for 2-3 minutes then serve.

Adapted from here

Verdict: As much as I love tofu I did find this to be a tad bland as a main course. I do not know whether it was because it needed more spices or whether this would have been better as a side dish to a delicious curry but this was not that satisfactory as a dinner. I made this with steamed long-grain rice and the entire meal… well you can guess the rest.

Calorie Count: 225 per serving

Day 280: Thai Red Vegetable Curry

Yes it is curry time once again, but this is the first real attempt of mine at a Thai curry that has not been fully prepared in the jar (unlike the monkfish I made months ago). Whilst there is always something rather satisfying about making your own curry paste it is fine to use some from a jar. I may have said this before when talking about korma paste but I feel that after over 190 recipes I feel that some repetition when it comes to my cookery thoughts is somewhat excusable.

Since I have been able to find more affordable tofu on the shelves of Asda I will be trying to make more things with it. When it has firmed up properly it is delicious on its own without the need for complex sauces… mind you they don’t hurt it though.

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 4 tsps groundnut oil
• 14oz extra-firm tofu, rinsed, patted dry and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 lb sweet potato, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 14oz can light coconut milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable stock
• 2 tsp red Thai curry paste
• 1/2 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tsps lime juice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup fresh coriander, chopped

Add half the oil to a frying pan and heat it. Add the tofu to the pan and cook for 8-10 minutes, turning it every few minutes so it nicely browns. Take it off the heat and then set aside.

In a medium-large lidded saucepan heat up the remaining oil and cook the sweet potato for 4-5 minutes so that it browns. Now pour in the stock and coconut milk as well as the curry paste. Bring this to the boil and then leave to simmer for 4 minutes with the lid on. Take the lid on and then stick in the sugar, tofu and green beans and put the lid back on so it can simmer for a further 3-4 minutes. Stir in the lime juice and then serve with coriander scattered over it.

Adapted from here

Verdict: Coconut milk always tastes great when it is used in a Thai curry, and light coconut milk really does not make it taste that different. Two things about this recipe that needs to be emphasised are the following:

1. Make sure the tofu is nice and firm, otherwise it will get mushy and try to dissolve into the curry sauce
2. Cook the green beans well or they will have that weird squeaky texture against the teeth which is horrid

Calorie Count: 348 per serving

Day 199: Tandoori Tofu

TOFU!

A short recipe for your guys today since there really is not much more to say about this apart from it’s tofu… but grilled… fantastic.

The original recipe suggests garnishing this with some chopped coriander leaf or some spring onions. The only reason that I chose not to do this is that I served this recipe with a variation of my previous recipe of noodles with oyster mushrooms and ginger… just without the mushrooms.

Ingredients (serves 3):

• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp ground coriander
• 1/8 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 1/2 tbsps extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 tbsp minced garlic
• 1/2 tbsp lime juice
• 400g extra-firm tofu, drained
• 1/3 cup nonfat plain yogurt

Preheat your grill to medium-high.

Pour the oil in a pan and heat. Add the garlic, lime juice, salt, paprika, coriander, turmeric and cumin and cook for 1 minute whilst stirring.

Cut the tofu into 6 equal slices and brush it with the seasoned oil (make sure there is some left behind for later). Now heat these under the grill for 5 minutes per side.

Whilst these heat mix the remaining oil with the yogurt to make a sauce. Serve the grilled tofu with the sauce

Adapted from here

Verdict: Right, I’ll be honest here… I am not entirely sure how to properly use the grill in our oven. Therefore (as you can see) I was unable to get those delightful little black grill marks demonstrated in the original recipe. Sadly.

Still, it tasted nice and the consistency of the grilled tofu was great. One problem with it was that I think it was a tad bland towards the middle. It would probably have tasted better if the tofu had been cut into 8-10 pieces instead.

Calorie Count: 173 per serving

Day 173: Oyster Mushroom and Tofu Laksa

As of writing this I was on work experience at Supply Management magazine (some months ago now). This meant that I had a deal with the parental that since she had to wait in this afternoon for an electrican to fix the shower (how I miss thee) she would be making dinner. So I chose  a recipe with many ingredients to even the score a little bit… tee hee.

However, I wasn’t able to just sit to the site practicing my shorthand. Oh no. I had to help her work out substitutions. I didn’t mind really… anything to procrastinate from doing shorthand. Therefore, substitutions that we made are: tinned tomatoes instead of fresh ones, jarred lemongrass instead of a lemongrass stalk and some rice noodles to make up for the fact that we only had half of the amount of egg noodles than th recipe required. Ah well.

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 2 red chillies
• 30g ginger, peeled
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/2 tsp lemongrass paste
• 1 tsp coriander seeds, ground
• 1 tbsp fresh coriander stalks, chopped
• 1 tbsp tamarind sauce
• 50ml groundnut oil
• 250g tinned plum tomatoes, chopped
• 500ml groundnut stock
• 400ml low fat coconut milk
• 125g tofu, cut into big chunks
• 250g oyster mushrooms, shredded
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 100g egg noodles, cooked according to packet instructions
• 100g rice vermicelli, cooked according to packet instructions
• 2 spring onions, finely chopped
• 1 lime, quartered

Blend the chilli, ginger, garlic, coriander seeds, coriander stalks, tamarind and oil into a paste using a food processor.

Heat a wok over a high heat and fry the paste for 2-3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes then add the coconut milk and stock and bring to a boil. Then add the tofu, mushrooms, noodles and soy sauce and cook for 8 minutes. Serve with a wedge of lime and a sprinkling of spring onion.

Adapted from here

Verdict: They say that the best food is the food that is cooked for you, which is no slight to this recipe since it was lovely. I enjoyed not having to cook (well I helped a bit but still…) so I could just settle down with an episode of The Big Bang Theory and slurp the noodles.

We only used rice vermicelli since we had run out of the egg noodles but I would never make laksa with any other noodles now. The mix really helped out. The pity is that 90 calories per serving derives from the oil in the paste but it is a sad fact of life that fat and oil add taste… blast.

Calorie Count: 438 per serving

Day 157: Broken Pasta with Tofu and Tomato

This week’s leftovers were composed primarily of tofu and feta cheese. Therefore the challenge I set myself was to make something that made up both of these rather different ingredients. After a rather exhaustive Google search I finally found something that used both of these ingredients in the quantities that were laying lost and forgotten at the back of my fridge.

The main problem with this dish was the use of orzo. Orzo is a type of pasta that resembles rice and the appropriate substitution would have actually been rice. However, I thought otherwise and decided to try something I saw on a cooking programme; use broken pasta. When you cook pasta you rarely use a whole packet, in fact in a 500g packet sod’s law dictates that you need 350g of it so the rest goes to waste. This was the case with me and the macaroni that I hadn’t touched since December 2009. After giving it a good pummeling in my pestle and mortar we were good to go.

Ingredients (serves 3 as a light lunch or starter):

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 5 spring onions, chopped
• 6oz extra firm tofu, diced
• 2 medium tomatoes, diced
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 cup broken pasta
• 2oz light feta cheese, crumbled

Cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling water for 5 minutes then drain and set aside. In a wok or frying pan add the oil and then cook the spring onions and garlic over a medium heat for 30 seconds. Add the tofu and cook until it’s browned. You need to keep the tofu moving, but try not to break it.

Stir in the basil, lemon juice and tomatoes then cook for another minute. Add the pasta, give it a stir until it is well coated and then serve with the feta crumbled on top.

Adapted from here

Verdict: When I made this I was disappointed at how little there was. However, this was a really nice meal and would have worked better as either a light lunch or something you would bring to a picnic with some friends. In fact, if cold, this would have made a really great pasta salad for a packed lunch to bring into college/the office/the living room when you watch Jeremy Kyle.

I think substituting cherry tomatoes for the regular tomatoes would have been better as their sweetness would have been a nice counter-point to the saltiness of the feta and the sour notes provided by the lemon juice. I would also half the amount of basil and then add half a teaspoon of dried oregano to tone down the effect of the dried basil whilst still maintaining the herby quality of the dish

Calorie Count: 180 per serving

Day 88: Hoisin Pork with Green Beans

Today’s Exercise: 13,000 steps, 23 minutes jogging on the treadmill

Commuting is a bastard. So are some of the people you meet on the commute. So the sad fact is that today when I got home I was in such a foul and tired mood that I may have inadvertently stabbed my chopping board in a fit of annoyance. This will have most likely have scared those around me which does explain why there was a sudden hush that fell upon the house. Saying that cooking itself relaxes me is a gospel truth since as I was sitting there eating the food I just lost all the negative feelings and was just able to relax having let out all my rage on the green beans and tofu.

What makes this even better is that I was able to cook using hoisin sauce. I can not remember if I have mentioned this before but hoisin sauce is one of my most favourite ingredients. This thought has actually inspired me to one day do a top 10 of my favourites so I may start drafting a list in time for the next weigh in… or the one after that… or the one after that. I wish I had more time to do these things…

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 5 oz green beans, trimmed and halved
• 1/4 cup water
• 3 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 1 tsp cornflour
• A pinch of cayenne pepper
• 3/4 cup spring onions, chopped
• 1/2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
• 1/2 pound minced pork
• 8 oz extra-firm tofu, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 tsp sesame oil

Boil the beans for 5 minutes then drain and set aside. Combine the water, hoisin sauce, cornflour and cayenne pepper and then set aside. In a wok, previously greased using low-calorie spray oil, sauté half a cup of the spring onions and ginger for 30 seconds. Add the pork and sauté until it browns.

Now add the tofu and cook for 2-3 minutes then follow this with the beans and the set aside sauce and the cook for 30 seconds. Stir in the spring onions and sesame oil then serve. Serve with some streamed rice.

Adapted from here

Verdict: Since I am an avid lover of hoisin sauce I would have personally added more to this recipe… but that would have led others to complain about the sweet taste being too overpowering. The overall blend of flavours, however, made this a delicious and simple meal to make after a long commute where I struggled to read my book due to being pressed up against a door.

Calorie Count: 327 per serving

Day 4: Ginger Sweet Tofu with Napa Cabbage

Today’s Exercise: 31 minutes on Wii Fit, 9000 steps

When it comes to celebrity chefs there are actually very few that I actually like.  There are many who I feel indifferent, then those who mildly dislike and then finally Antony Worrall Thompson who I have actually met who turned out to be a jerk. Outside of all of these people is Ching-He Huang whose delicious food and bubbly presenting style rekindled my love of cooking a few years ago.

For today’s recipe I have made this with a side-dish (which I will publish another time). Because of product availability there has been a substitution of Napa cabbage (sold under the name of Chinese Leaf Lettuce) in the place of pak choi. This is a bit strange as the latter of them should have been the more widely sold… c’est la vie.

Ingredients (for two people):

• 250g fresh firm tofu, drained
• 2 tbsp groundnut oil
• 1cm piece ginger , sliced
• 200g napa cabbage, leaves separated and halved lengthways
• 1 tbsp Shaohsing rice wine
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• ½ tsp dried chilli flakes

Marinade:

• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• 1 tsp dark soy sauce
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp brown sugar

Prick a few holes in the tofu with a toothpick (to help marinate it), then cut into bite-size cubes.  Mix the marinade ingredients together in a bowl and toss in the tofu pieces. Set aside to marinate for 10-15 mins.

Heat a wok over high heat and add half the groundnut oil. When the oil starts to smoke, add the ginger slices and stir-fry for a few secs. Add the nappa cabbage and stir-fry for 1-2 mins. Add a small splash of water to create some steam and cook for 2 mins more. When the leaves have wilted and the stems are cooked but still a little crunchy, season with salt and transfer to a serving dish.

Rinse the wok under cold water, then reheat it and add the remaining oil. When it starts to smoke, add the tofu pieces (retaining the marinade liquid) and stir-fry for 5-10 mins. Take care not to break up the tofu as you toss it to get it browned evenly on all sides. Season with the rice wine and rice vinegar. Add the remaining marinade liquid, bring to the bubble and let the liquid reduce. Sprinkle over the chilli flakes and toss well.

Adapted from here

Verdict: The tofu was really flavourful, impressive if you’ve ever tried plain tofu. However, the cabbage was a little bit bland in comparison having only been cooked with the sliced ginger and the water. Texture-wise it was really well done with it turning out extremely tender. Maybe if there was more of a sauce then it would have been a lot better. Still, it may have been slightly dull but it still tasted nice.

Calorie Count: 241 per serving