I have figured out how to make tofu palatable for my husband.
I’m a bit remedial when it comes to experimenting with tofu. I’ve just recently started pressing it aggressively — as all of the recipe websites tell you to do — but I wasn’t finding that it made a huge difference. Why wasn’t it getting all nice and crispy like at the restaurants?
Cue this recipe from Minimalist Baker (adapted from the Kitchn). I didn’t actually make the full recipe from the post, but I copied Dana’s strategy: pressed my tofu under a massive stack of cookbooks, marinated it in equal parts maple syrup, soy sauce, and chili garlic sauce for ~1h and then dredged in cornstarch and pan fried in some Canola oil.
“This is the only good tofu you’ve ever made!” my husband exclaimed, and I knew we had a winner.
I didn’t use much cornstarch for the dredging (it was more of a light douse), and I’d probably use more next time to make it even crispier (or try the OG Kitchn method, which does not involve a marinade), but the flavours were great.
Now I just need to find a recipe for peanut sauce that tastes like it does in the restaurants. Any recommendations?
While I’m raving about recipes, my mom suggested we try these no-yeast cinnamon buns, made with 2-ingredient dough (from Big Man’s World) for our recipe club this week. I was skeptical. So skeptical. And surprisingly more because of the ingredients list than because the recipe was from a site called ‘Big Man’s World’. But mom wanted to make them, so off I went, mixing flour and salt and Greek yogurt (yes, it is actually a three ingredient dough, but I’ll let it slide because you know what, these were effing delicious!). The dough was easy to work with (I only swore once while rolling it out), the whole thing took less than an hour, including baking and clean-up, and if you’ve ever made traditional cinnamon buns then you probably know that it’s a bigger undertaking than trying to get a large family to Disneyland (not that I’ve ever tired to get a large family to Disneyland, but I imagine it’s both labour- and time-intensive).
Anyway, if you’re craving cinnamon buns and want them quick, I HIGHLY recommend this recipe. I had leftover (store-bought) icing from Easter carrot cake so I didn’t make the icing, but the buns themselves stand up even without icing. We had five of them in a tupperware on the counter as of noon yesterday, and they were gone by 8pm. I will now remind you that our household consists of two adult humans with no children, and no pets.
Last week’s culinary adventures also involved this chickpea curry with fried halloumi, which, for us, was just so-so. Obviously you can’t go wrong with halloumi, but otherwise it felt pretty bland.
Finally, tonight we made shrimp po’boys on pretzel buns, using Alton Brown’s failsafe (and delicious) pretzel recipe. It was…quite possibly the best thing we’ve ever made. I mean, I’m sure it wasn’t, but it was delicious.
In other news, the snow finally relented, and it got up to 19 degrees this week! I hit the trails for three glorious outdoor runs while listening to My Dark Vanessa on audiobook (creepy and icky but keeping me entertained so far), and the lighter days have just generally had me feeling more positive.
On that note, here’s three things I’m thinking about for this week:
- This has been said by many people and in many different ways, but it bears repeating: if you want your work to be good, figure out what you give a damn about.
- I have not been taking care of my mind garden, or ectopic grey matter as one of my medical school preceptors once called it.
- Maybe we’ll just have a snack plate for dinner one night. That peanut chutney looks gooood.
Have a delicious week!
Emma Olive Billington 