Cornmeal Crusted Tofu with Jalapeno Cheddar Grits

It has finally been cooling off out here in Philly, which makes it much more pleasant to cook in my kitchen.  It also makes me much more inclined to eat spicy meals.  I don't tend to shy away from cooking if it is hot out, but this summer had some doozies.  So thank goodness for 65 degree nights! 

The last time we had these grits we tried them with fried green tomatoes...that didn't work out so well but boy those grits were tasty. 

Cornmeal Crusted Tofu (from Veganomicon)

1 pound extra firm tofu, drained and pressed (frozen then defrosted for ultimate texture)
1 c almond or regular milk
2 T cornstarch
1 c cornmeal
2 T chilie powder
1 t cumin
1/4 t cayenne
1 T lime zest
1 1/2 t salt

Slice the tofu into 8 slices.  Combine milk with cornstarch in a shallow bowl and mix well.  In another bowl, toss cornmeal with the remainder of ingredients.  

Heat about 1/4 inch or less of oil in a large skillet (I love my big rectangle electric skilletfor this) to medium heat.  Drop one piece of tofu into the milk mixture then dredge in the cornmeal mixture.  Cook the tofu in batches if necessary so you don't overcrowd the pan.  Fry the tofu for about 3 minutes per side till browned on each side.  Drain on paper towels.

Jalapeno Cheddar Grits
1 c grits
3 jalapenos, diced
3/4 c sharp cheddar

Cook grits according to package directions.  When there are 5 minutes left in cooking, stir in the jalapenos and cheddar.  Easy peasy.

Oh My!

I am working on a post, but have to collect a few more photos as well as finish writing, but for now, revel in this beauty:

Go to Closet Cooking and make this simple but oh sooo tasty jalapeno popper grilled cheese.  I made it Saturday night, and it was so worth it!

Leftover HodgePodge

What do you do with leftover red rice and beans, collard greens, butter tofu, jalapenos, and sweet potatoes? 

Try to make enchiladas!

At least that was what I did.  I am trying to be better about using up leftovers and remnants of food in my fridge (especially veggies).  This week, I had a TON of leftovers.  The sweet potatoes weren't quite ripe when I needed them to make fries so the super hard-middles got put into a tupperware with some water and into the fridge.  The collard greens only came in a 2 1/2 pound bag (of which the remaining uncooked 1 pound is still currently languishing in my bottom drawer).  And the butter chicken was too acidic for my tummy the night we had it (growing, annoying problem since I love tomatoes). 

Hopefully this post inspires you to make over your leftovers, highlighting keynote ingredients, and making a completely different dish out of them.  It is possible!  And saves money!  (this was made with leftovers and we got 3 meals out of this!) 

What do cajun style red rice and beans and butter tofu have in common?  Lots.  Cajun and indian cooking have many similar ingredients to mexican cooking: jalapenos, cumin, cilantro, onion to name a few.  So I got the weird idea to blend the tofu chicken mixture and adding what was needed by taste.  This ended up being a can of tomatoes with habaneros, jalapenos (ok- so this ended up too spicy for me, could have done without them), chili powder, smoked paprika, cumin, and cilantro.  I probably added things 3-4 times and tasted after every addition.  Key lesson learned from Top Chef: Taste your food.  Every time. 

Sauce accomplished.

On tastespotting I found a few black bean sweet potato enchilada recipes, so I boiled the sweet potatoes, mashed them, and added cumin, paprika, and black beans. 

Filling #1 accomplished. 

I also had leftover sauted leeks and collard greens (recipe here).  So again here, I added cumin and paprika.

Filling #2 accomplished. 

Last, but not least (and oddly my favorite), I added similar spices to my leftover red beans. 

Filling #3 accomplished. 

The night before (I spend a lot of time planning food, thus the night before making), I made homemade tortillas off Pioneer Woman (recipe here).  I stuffed the tortillas with a bit of cheese and the fillings (each seperate), topped with the sauce, and baked at 350 for 40 minutes (the fillings were cold and needed time to heat through). 

Voila!  It does not look pretty, but it tasted mighty nice with a cilantro sour cream. 

Cheating

(apologize for the negligent photo, i was hungry and impatient for a good photo with my weirdly acting camera that probably needs a tune-up.  The flowers are oh so pretty though!)

I miss summer.  And boxes of vegetables so graciously picked up by my friend G.  And salsa, and fresh tomatoes, and eating dinner on the front porch after a nice run in shorts. 

So last night, I cheated on winter and her vegetables.  I bought a cucumber, avacadoes, and an orange pepper, and used frozen spinach and canned tomatoes.  And it was lovely.  Not as robust as peak in-season veggies, but tasty.  Please forgive me for relenting to my desires and betraying fresh, local, winter produce.  I just couldn't take another root vegetable or frozen peppers. 

I watched Guy's Big Bite on television at my parents Sunday.  Temptation at its finest.  I loved the idea of a spinach tostada despite his topping, which seemed to negate the lowered carb "tortilla".  So I devised a topping of my own, atop Guy's Spinach tostadas.  

Tostada Topping

2 avacadoes, diced
1 can roasted tomatoes, drained
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cucumber, diced
1/2 orange pepper, diced
1 jalapeno, finely chopped
2 green onions, diced
juice of 1 lime
4-5 cubes frozen cilantro (about 1 tsp each)
salt

Mix together, and it gets better if it sits overnight.  Spoon over spinach tostadas.  ( I did not add, but perhaps 1 tsp of cumin would be great).

Bahn Mi

The hubs and I went to Newark, DE to Home Grown Cafe for our anniversary. We are big lovers of finding new restaurants, and have a tricky time sometimes being veg. We are often disenchanted with the lack of options at vegetarian or vegan restaurants. Our mantra is basically if we could make it just as good/better at home, why go there? This tends to rule out italian, lots of tofu options, and some other types. We also look for menus with a couple options as we want to leave room for our mood once we get to the restaurant. Many veg friendly places have 1-2 options, which is not all that exciting.

Home Grown peaked my interest because it had cheaper and pricier options, varied cuisines, and about 75% of their menu could be made veg or vegan! Now, not only could it be made veg or vegan, but you had options for your protein. When I read that I nearly fell out of my chair. And boy did they deliver, as often does not happen, we had a hard time choosing not because of lack of appealing options, but because of an abundance of appealing options! I ended up with a Bahn Mi on flatbread (which i failed at trying to recreate the great punchy flavor here), and the hubs got some sort of grilled tofu with a grilled pineapple topping and purple mashed potatoes. This place was beyond fantastic! Wish we would have stayed for dessert instead of going to the overrated cupcake place. Next time. Anyone wanna go? We need an excuse...

Anywho, that evening made me want to try to make my own Bahn Mi. This recipe was nowhere near as flavorful, starting with the slaw. Now, in my defense, I do not have an appropriate slicer and dicer to julienne veggies, this changes the texture a lot. But it was pretty tasty, nice and cool, and a great way to use up some veggies.

Bahn Mi

Slaw: (based on recipe from foodnetwork)

1/2 c water

1/4 c sugar

1/4 rice wine vinegar

1/2 julienned carrot

1/2 c julienned daikon radish (or double the carrots)

salt

Tofu:

1/4 c soy sauce

1 T chili garlic sauce

1 pkg firm tofu

Sandwich:

1 baguette, sliced

1 cucmber, thinly sliced

1 jalapeno. thinly sliced

bunch of cilantro

mayonnaise mixed with a touch of siracha (optional)

Preheat oven to 400.

Drain tofu and wrap with a towel, topping with a heavy item to get moisture out, at least 10 minutes.

Once tofu is done, place in a baking dish and top evenly with the soy sauce and chili garlic sauce. Bake for 40 minutes or until firm.

While tofu is baking, marinate carrots and radish. To do so, in a small saucepan heat up water, sugar, and vinegar to a boil. Transfer mix to a bowl and cool. Add veggies, mix, add salt, and set aside for at least 30 minutes.

To assemble the sandwich, spread the bread with the mayonnaise mix. Add tofu, top with cuke, jalapeno, and cilantro, finally with the slaw. Enjoy!

Broiled Tofu with Blueberry Peach Salsa

Wow.

This recipe was so good I had to post if first. I am attempting to set up some posts so that I can post a meal a day or so. We shall see if it works out in my favor. But for today, I tried a recipe from Fat Free Vegan that sounded so tasty, I bought the extra fruit even though blueberries are back to being quite expensive.

This recipe kept unfolding in your mouth. It had so many layers of sweet and spicy that you just wanted to keep eating it to figure it out. But you can't.

I also had some cabbage that looked like it needed to be used right away. So I chose a quick recipe that I thought would meld, and it so did not. It was tasty, but probably better with a good texmex veggie burger or some tacos. I should have known, it is a Bobby Flay recipe. I did add a bit of parsley in an attempt to meld the two dishes. The parsley worked here, though it did not meld, no melding.

As far as for a hot summer day, which it was, these are pretty good recipes, though not together. I did use my oven because we have no grill, so my kitchen did get a bit hot, but by no means must you even touch your oven for this. But try this salsa!

Tofu with Blueberry Peach Salsa Recipe

Coleslaw with Cumin-Lime Dressing

Tacos!

Tacos! This is one of our staple meals, the hubs asks for it just a little bit less than he asks for burritos in our house. It is a bit easier as there is no need to think ahead and make the rice, a great last minute meal! I did make the salsa for these tacos too, but I have not posted a recipe as I am still refining my methods. Biggest problem faced: no food processor. And I am lazy so I just throw everything into the blender instead of chopping. This has generally led to watery salsa, though I do like the consistency mostly. It could be a bit chunkier, but I tend to like smoother salsas. I have tried seeding the tomatoes (a pain in the but), and using my small holed-strainer (holes were still a but too large, I need a mesh strainer I think). We shall see how this most recent endeavor has worked out shortly. In general though, I take tomatoes, a jalapeno, juice from a lime, 1/2 an onion, and a large handful of cilantro to make my salsa, add salt and pepper, and taste. My tacos turned out nicely, despite the watery salsa. And the lighting in my kitchen was oh so nice I just had to post 2 photos. This is one of the fastest, best meals in our repertoire. Tacos 1 pkg Tempeh 1 T olive oil 1 can black beans, drained 1 t smoked paprika 1 T chili powder 1 T cumin 1 t oregano Heat olive oil in a medium pan on medium high heat. Break apart the tempeh into crumbles into the pan and saute until slightly browning. Add black beans and seasoning along with 3 T of water or so. Saute until water evaporates.

BLA and Gazpacho

Wow. This was my favorite of the week, and the hubs loved it. He loved it so much that he asked for another sandwich once we got home from a tumultuous Ikea trip. Picture desk top strapped to the top of a VW flapping in the wind. Yeah, it was fun. I have been wanting to make gazpacho all summer and finally got a good crop of tomatoes from the farm to make it, though luckily I had some cucumbers left over from the previous week because they did not arrive in last week's box. Add some jalapenos from the garden, nice. Now, this is not a traditional gazpacho, it is a "what do I have in my cupboard and fridge" gazpacho. The hubs is not entirely fond of gazpacho, though was willing to give it another shot as I had not made it in a couple years. I knew that he needed a hearty dish to go along with it, so I put my thinking cap on and got to work. We had some crusty french bread leftover from our french cheese and pear night a couple days before, generally always have guacamole in the fridge, and a nice head of lettuce from the farm. Throw in some fake bacon, and voila! This meal was so light and refreshing, and the best part: no oven! And i only used the stove top for about 3 minutes to cook up the bacon. They always say on the cooking competitions I watch that adding bacon to something gives you an unfair advantage...

BLA

4 slices of bacon (we use fake meatless bacon from morningstar, still pretty tasty and cheaper)

2 large sections of french bread

2 pieces of lettuce, washed

few slices of extra sharp cheddar cheese

6 T guacamole or a couple slices of avocado (hence the A)

Melt the cheese on top of the french bread by placing it on a flat frying pan as you cook up the bacon. It helps if you put a lid over them.

Spread the guacamole on to the bread opposite the cheese, top with lettuce and bacon, enjoy!

Gazpacho

5-7 medium tomatoes, cored and quartered

2 medium cucumber mostly peeled and quartered

3 T white wine vinegar (or more to taste)

3 T cilantro, chopped

1/2 onion, halved

2 cloves garlic, finely diced

1/4 c olive oil

2 jalapenos, seeded and quartered

salt and pepper to taste

Blend ingredients in blender in batches, then mix together in a bowl and chill for several hours. Makes a great dipping sauce for the BLA's! Or as a fresh salsa with a cuke coolness!