Monday, May 25, 2009

Monday

Chili glazed tofu with asparagus rice (recipe in the comments)
Steamed bok choy with sesame orange sauce

Hot tea
Sugar cookies
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Well, apparently we're back to our normal cooking MO. You know that we're back to normal once we're testing out a new tofu dish. This was inspired by a Cooking Light 20/20 series recipe on their vegetarian meals post. It is sort of like our no-fail tofu recipe, but bigger pieces and a glaze instead of a sauce. This means the rice, though mixed with veggies is a bit bland. We kicked it up a bit in the posted recipe and I think the new version is quite delightful. This will not double easily unless you do the tofu in two pans or do it in two batches, keeping the first set of tofu pieces warm while you make the second set. The original recipe made no use of the microwave, but I think the change works well and I used the same dish to cook the bok choy in as I did the asparagus and carrots. Yea for less clean up!

Prep Notes
Difficulty: Easy
Chopping: Asparagus, tofu, ginger, bok choy
Time: 35 minutes
Make ahead: You could prep all of this and make the sauces, but do it all last minute.

Reaction
J: "New tofu is always something to celebrate!"
M: "A worthy tofu addition!"

1 comment:

J said...

Chili Glazed Tofu and Asparagus Rice – J & M (Inspired by Cooking Light)
Serves 2 ½

1cups rice (I add about ½ t salt to the cooking water. If you don’t, add some salt to the rice sauce)
1 lb chopped asparagus
¾ cup shredded carrot
1 block extrafirm tofu, drained, blotted dry with paper towels, and cut lengthwise into 8 pieces
1 T peanut oil
1 T sugar
2 T rice vinegar
2 T soy sauce
1 t minced ginger
1 t hot chili sauce with garlic
½ t salt
¼ t black pepper
2 T rice wine vinegar
1 t dark sesame oil

Set up rice to cook.

Place asparagus and carrots in a microwave safe dish. Add about ¼ cup water, cover, and microwave on high for 3-4 minutes. Test asparagus for doneness and continue cooking until barely fork tender. Carrots should be barely soft. NOTE: If asparagus are particularly thick, cook them in ¼ cup water alone for 3 minutes and then add the carrots for the remaining 3.

While rice cooks, heat peanut oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Combine sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, and chili sauce in a small bowl. Sprinkle tofu with salt and pepper. Add tofu to pan; cook 5 minutes on each side or until browned. Add soy sauce mixture; cook 20 seconds, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
Combine rice, asparagus mixture, rice wine vinegar, and sesame oil. Serve tofu over rice.