le sauce

must make: general tso's tofu sub, jibaritos, inside/out grilled cheese

(the most indulgent sandwich week ever)

Just in case all the indulgent sandwiches this week weren't enough, I'm leaving you with a few more we must make. I made No.7's EPIC General Tso's Tofu Sub. It took a lot of restraint to take the picture above before attacking it. It's pillowy and yields when you bite in, but the flavours are powerfully salty, sweet and tangy. Definitely worth the effort to make the marinade and the sauce for which the sandwich is named. And of course you can use that famous sauce to make many other things as well (I wish I'd doubled it for use in a stir fry).

And have you ever heard of a jibarito? It's a sandwich that uses slices of fried green plantain in place of bread! I love the idea of a grilled cheese jibarito with guava paste and the only reason I haven't made it yet is because I haven't gone out of my way to source that paste yet. Soon. Soooon.

As for the ultimate grilled cheese, I have to say, it's gotta be one where the cheese is pressed into the outer sides of the bread. Just imagine the crust that forms as it fries! A fried cheese-bread grilled cheese, essentially.

If you missed any of the sandwiches from the most indulgent sandwich week ever, I hope you'll check them all out--and please, tell me if you tried any of them! Also, pleeease tell me about your most indulgent sandwich creations too. 

Fried Oyster Mushroom Sandwich with Harissa Mayonnaise

Pulled Jackfruit Sandwich with Ginger Beer BBQ Sauce

The Poutine Sandwich with Tamari Gravy

Homemade Condiments! Quick Pickles, Mustard and Mayonnaise

 

black pepper tofu

Tofu has this sort of angelic reputation, but it can slum it with the best of them. I wouldn't call Yottam Ottolenghi's black pepper tofu trashy, but it's certainly not the light, healthy food you might imagine when you think of tofu. This tofu is fried until golden and crisp, the sauce is butter-based, and it's sticky with salty soy sauce and sugars that are cooked until caramelized.

I was cleaning up splatters and licking my fingers. This is indulgent weekend food that knocks the halo right off tofu. 

vegetarian mapo tofu

My friend Jenny Gao is talented photographer, world traveller and smart woman. But truly, we met and became friends because she's an avid eater. When she was visiting Toronto last month from China, we hung out, cooked, and made the most of her short time here by working together. This is our first collaboration and I'm so happy with it: our vegetarian re-make of the famous Sichuan dish, Mapo Tofu.

Mapo tofu is all about two things: texture and spice. This is a Sichuan dish, which means it's gloriously spicy. The flavours are bold--fierce, even, and in contrast, the silky cubes of tofu are graceful and delicate. They will hold their shape in a fire-red pool of sauce if you're careful with them. And then there's the fried ground meat, usually pork, in the traditional recipes. In our recipe, king mushrooms are shredded and seasoned, and after marinading, as much liquid as possible is squeezed from them. They hold up to frying and are a perfect substitute for the pork! 

  
(Both pretty photos above shot and styled by Jenny Gao)

Jenny said she could eat this spicy tofu every day, and I feel just as strongly about it. I like it punishing-ly strong (you can play around with how many chilies you use) but really, it's a comforting dish overall that must be served over a bowl of fresh, hot white rice. Be prepared to sweat and go back for more.

steamed tofu with a tart tamari dressing

I am a big fan of tofu, which is not to say that I eat it all the time (I don't really eat anything all the time) but I think it's pretty spectacular. Some think tofu is bland, but that's sort of like calling rice or pasta bland--it's not about the flavour, it's about the texture and how that pairs with what else you're having. And like rice or pasta, you don't need to pair tofu with a lot. It's true that marinating firm tofu will help flavour the dense insides a little, but I like to prepare silken tofu very simply.

Sometimes I stir fry it, because even when you're careful about it, some of it will break down and thicken the sauce. But here I chose to leave the tofu whole and steam it, so I could scoop off large pieces with my spoon and eat big but delicate mouthfuls. The soft rice is the toothsome part of this dish, the tofu, true to its description, is silk. Both are the foil for this tangy soy dressing, which is similar to a dressing a filipino friend of mine used to make to spoon over rice. His raw version called for soy sauce, scallions and sugar. I added rice vinegar and dried chili for more zing, and cooked it down to give it some body.

korean fried tofu

 

i saw a picture on saveur magazine's website of these firey-looking chicken wings and it made me crave. not for the wings, but for that crazy, bright sauce, and the crunch the picture promised. recently i vowed to start using my cookbooks at least once at the beginning of each month. but this recipe stole the spot of any i might have tried from my books in june. the only trick was trying to figure out how to make it vegetarian.

i've had "buffalo potato wedges" at bars before, and coated and fried potatoes do get a crispy coating that stands up to being drowned in sauce. but the inner texture was not what i was going for. i wanted something a little juicier inside and a little chewier. i thought about using soft tofu, breaded and fried the way the chicken wings in this recipe are. but i was a little worried that it might fall apart. so i settled on fried tofu balls that you can pick up in the refrigerated section of chinese grocery stores. success! a few minutes in an oiled skillet, turning so that each side browned, resulted in a very crispy outside and a still soft, chewy centre. 

 

 

 

the spicy, tart and sweet sauce in this recipe makes a great condiment on its own, so the remaining 1/3 cup (the recipe yielded more than enough sauce to cover the package of tofu i fried) is in my fridge for me to dip into later this week. this is not the healthiest recipe, and eating it basically requires beer (the way eating chicken wings always does), but the good news is that it also screams for a vinegary salad, so you can balance your indulgences in this meal.

the fork i placed at the table for this dinner was strictly for the salad. i ate every piece of this fried korean tofu with my fingers, biting into them just as i used to with wings, licking the sauce off each of my fingertips. by the end, i was eating the salad with my fingers too, dredging it through the sauce smattered across my plate. 

 

it was just as good after it cooled down too, so i think it would be great for potlucks and picnics this summer. just make extra and leave some at home, because once people get their hands on this, you're not going to get your fair share.
 

korean fried tofu

(my adaptations on saveur's korean fried chicken recipe)

canola oil, for frying
5 cloves garlic
1  1 1⁄2" piece peeled ginger
3 tbsp. soy sauce
3 tbsp. gojujang (korean chile paste)
1 1⁄2    tbsp. rice vinegar
1 tbsp. asian sesame oil
1 tbsp. honey
2⁄3 cup flour
1 tbsp. cornstarch
16 chicken wings (about 1 3⁄4 lbs.)
180 g package fried tofu balls (puffed tofu)

1. pour oil into a 6-qt. pot to a depth of 2". heat over medium-high heat until a thermometer reads 350˚. chop garlic and ginger in a food processor. add soy, gojujang, vinegar, sesame oil, and honey; purée. put sauce into a bowl.

2. whisk flour, cornstarch, and 2⁄3 cup water in another bowl. add chicken; toss. working in 3 batches, fry chicken coat the bottom of a large skillet with oil. heat and fry tofu on all sides until golden, 6–8 minutes. drain on paper towels. return oil to 350˚. fry chicken until crisp, 6–8 minutes more. drain again. toss chicken tofu in sauce.

SERVES 2 – 4

dad's deviled tofu

once upon a time this was my dad's deviled chicken recipe. but my family and i became vegetarian at roughly the same time, by sheer coincidence actually, and it evolved into a "deviled soy meat" recipe. and although he remains a great cook, my dad doesn't cook quite as much as when he was making his meaty specialties, like black pepper king fish, chili roasted lamb, and goat curry. i wish he would adapt all those recipes that guests raved about over dinner, and that i've been craving for about, oh, 7 years now. this is a good start. 

 

my family has always refered to this technique as "deviled", and with this much cayenne pepper, it qualifies. but with tomato, onions and pepper it could be compared to some creole recipes, and with the addition of the other spices it definitely resembles many other recipes my family makes, which is to say, there are a lot of sri lankan ingredients here. wondering if that was just because my dad was used to using them when cooking, i asked if we really needed to include rampe (screw pine leaves), for instance. my dad replied "oh yes! that's what gives it the aroma!"... the finished flavour is exactly that of the delicious deviled chicken burned into my memory, that i devoured one night when i was about seven at the home of an indian woman my mom was friends with. i assume similar spices were used, so perhaps this resembles deviled recipes cooked in the homes of many south-east asians? regardless, it's fantastic.

and about the tofu; my dad went from making this with chicken, to making this with dried soy meat. but after using puffed fried tofu, my family all agreed this was the way to go. the sauce permeates this tofu much better. (it's available at chinese and other east-asian grocers, and pictured below, sliced.)

(my dad and mom prepping the ingredients for dad's deviled tofu) 

i'll keep pushing my dad to give me more of his recipes and to keep cooking. in the meantime, i hope you'll try this one. feel free to adapt it if you don't have every ingredient on this list, and if you would rather, you know, use chicken.

dad's deviled tofu

140g (about 5 oz) fried tofu pieces, quartered
2 small onions, sliced into 1/2-inch rings
2 roma tomatoes, quartered and thinly sliced
10 curry leaves
1 3-inch piece of rampe (screw pine leaves)
2 cardamom pods
1 piece of cinnamon
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 1/2-inch piece of ginger, peeled and slivered
1 tbs cayenne pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 c water
2 tbs vegetable or peanut oil

heat a wok or large pan over medium-high heat. add 1 tbs of oil, allow it to get hot. add the tofu and stir-fry for about 1 minute, until the pieces start to brown slightly. remove from wok and set aside. return the wok to heat and add 1 tbs of oil. when the oil is hot, add curry leaves, rampe, cardamom and cinnamon and stir-fry for 30 seconds. then add the garlic and ginger and stir-fry for 30 seconds. add the cayenne, paprika, sugar, salt and pepper, and stir-fry for 30 seconds. then add the the tomatoes, stir and cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. add the onions and water, stir and allow to cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally (do not overcook the onions). add the tofu back to the pan, stir and cook for 2 minutes. remove cardamom, cinnamon and rampe, and serve hot.

 makes 6-8 servings. 

i love you, tofu

(photographed by james piper) 

there! i said it! i love you even in your most basic forms, although i'll admit it took me a while to get there. but it was super easy to love you in the hands of your masters, carved into strips of chinese mock meats or pure bean curd fried and braised by japanese cooking gurus. 

in fact, most ingredients that people love, even bacon or chocolate, need the coaxing of experts and the stove before becoming the stuff of cravings. i think many people that don't like tofu or have flat out aversions to tofu just haven't had tofu prepared properly. great silken pieces fried to a crisp on the outside, clinging to, say, a spicy manchurian sauce (as above), yielding to teeth or chopsticks with ease, but retaining a texture like no other. any texture you could dream of, i might add, and any flavour you could want.

but some of my friends have yet to have these experiences and remain skeptical so the tofu challenge of 2010 is on! stay tuned for more. 

white vegetables en papilotte

 

one day i'm throwing a dinner party and the theme is going to be "white". i've already planned out the entire six-course menu, which led to me planning a "green" dinner menu, "black", then one that highlighted just beans or rice or chilies. i thought i'd be realistic and planned to execute just one of these dinners a quarter. yeah...that was over a year ago and i haven't attempted one yet. but this creation, although not part of the original plan, reminded me of the white dinner idea. i'm gonna do it, damn it. in june! there, i'm putting it out there. now i have to do it. in the meantime, let me tell you about calm-looking but super-flavourful white vegetables en papilotte (in parchment).

steamed vegetables may sound boring but it's all about strategy: trapping nutrients, cooking fast, and cleaning less! unlike stir-frys which require more oil, or boiling in which vegetables loose some of their goodness to the water, steaming requires no fat (though this recipe has some in the marinade) and the parchment also keeps in the steam which helps the food to cook faster. plus it's "one-pot cooking" without the really messy pot to worry about after.

 

just make sure to lay out a large enough piece of parchment to hold all of the ingredients with room to enclose the package and still be able to crimp the edges securely all around. you don't want steam or liquid escaping. parchment is quite tough and will scrunch well without ripping so don't worry, this is not a fussy process and you don't need a pretty result.

a random bite of zaru soba and the best tofu ever

there's a little, unassuming restaurant called sakawaya that makes traditional and fantastic japanese food. i will gush about them in detail another time, and focus for now on my recent take-out order from there. to start: zaru soba. because i actually took this to lunch the next day, i just piled everything into my bowl (and no, i didn't eat even half of the wasabi). usually, the only thing served on the noodles are the nori strips, and the scallions and wasabi are mixed into the dipping broth. but it's damn good eaten this way too. 

the tofu you see off to the side really is the best tofu i've ever eaten--consistently. it's silken tofu fried and dressed in a sweet, sticky sesame sauce that makes my head explode. it's perfectly cooked with a really thin crunchy shell around silky hot tofu. as for the sauce...i have to find out what exactly is in it the next time i eat there, but i'm starting to think sesame is my new favourite flavour. expect an "i love you, sakawaya" and more japanese food posts very soon.  

i love you, chinese vegetarian restaurants

to wrap up my week of fake-meat posts, i had to point out the best place to try mock meat dishes that taste authentic but more importantly, taste absolutely delicious: vegetarian chinese restaurants. if you're lucky enough to visit a chinese restaurant that specializes in vegetarian cooking, order the "duck"appetizer which seems to be consistently good (i could eat two servings by myself with nothing more than a little sriracha to dip the slices into), or "beef" with black bean sauce on rice noodles. but if you are super-lucky like me, you will find one of these restaurants that serves a full menu of vegetarian dim sum!

every chance i get, i visit graceful vegetarian restaurant, right behind pacific mall in markham, on. yes, that's har kow and sui mai in the picture above, made with mock shrimp (you will be pleasantly surprised with how shrimp-like mock shrimp is) and mock pork. and above that is graceful's "chicken" satay skewers which everyone i've eaten there with, loves. i am SO greatful that this restaurant exists and so glad that i can have my favourite dim sum or chinese "beef" rice noodle dishes again. i can't wait for other restaurants to start using mock meats. the day that i can have jerk "pork" again, i will be a happy, happy girl.