Hot Tofu

There's just something awesome about making stir fry dishes. They're fast, have tons of flavor, and somehow exciting, but I can't explain how or why. Rob thinks it's the peanuts.

Tonight I decided to make Cooking Light's Szechuan-Style Tofu with Peanuts. You broil the tofu (gotta love that whole roasting/broiling/carmelizing thing), while the rest is cooking on the stovetop. The recipe doesn't have rave reviews on the site, but I thought it was pretty good. It's not something I'll probably make again (or at least I'll add some garlic), but I like the idea of broiling the tofu, which is new to me. It also calls for a full tablespoon of sambal oelek (ground fresh chile paste), not that I'm complaining (YUM).

Tofu. It used to scare me. Tofu is fairly harmless, though. It takes on whatever flavors you throw at it, which is handy since it won't interfere or clash with anything else. I've come to love the firm variety, and I especially love tofu in stir fry dishes. It almost seems like tofu was made for a stir fries (maybe because it's Asian, but maybe not). I hear that it might originate from cheesemaking in Europe (source).

At any rate, this week it seems that the cooking bug has bit (note photo). Library books that I just wanted to 'take a little look at.' Gah! Looks like my reading schedule is booked up (HAHAHA) for awhile (oh, come on.. I'm a former librarian, so I'm allowed one or two awful book-related puns).

Pi Day!

It was pure cosmic circumstance that I happened to make pie today. I usually go grocery shopping on Sundays, after carefully deciding what recipes I want to make for the week (thanks Pam!). King Krappers didn't have black bean garlic sauce for the stir-fry dish. I forgot the dried chickpeas for the curry. Once home from the store I realized that I had the wrong kind of cornmeal for the creamy polenta - which I had planned to make tonight.



The only recipe left to make with the ingredients on hand was, thankfully, one of our favs: Spinach-Mushroom Pie. I've been making this pie ever since I started cooking. It includes a roux, which used to turn me into a cranky maniac if any unfortunate soul decided to interupt me while in the middle of this step. Nowadays, like tonight, I was chatting away at my mom on the phone as I whisked away at the roux, babbling about nutrition and food science (poor mom, she hates science-talk). Funny how things change.

So this recipe comes from one of my favorite cookbooks: The Not-Strictly Vegetarian Cookbook. My mom and I bought it together when she was gently pushing me to cook - it might have been my first cookbook. It worked. I love this book for a few reasons: I have never been a vegetarian, but these recipes inspired me to eat healthy, and it has a lovely red beet stain that leaked along many of its pages.

Happy Pi Day!