Seared Tofu with Mango Salsa over Rice and Beans

 

A year or two ago I went over to a friend’s house for dinner and we made this recipe.  I LOVED it.  But of course I knew I would.  I love mangoes, black beans, brown rice and seared tofu.  A no-brainer.   The recipe comes from Peter Berley’s “Fresh Food Fast” which I bought after having this dish for the first time.  At the time it seemed like a great vegetarian cookbook but it has pretty much sat on my shelf for the past year or so.

When I decided to do my whole vegan experiment I started pulling out all of my potentially vegan-friendly cookbooks and rediscovered this one.  It’s OK. It’s divided by seasons which is neat/annoying but there isn’t a ton of stuff that I want to make.  Maybe when I start running out of ideas…

Anyways… I made this pretty much according to the recipe.  The only change I made was added avocado to the salsa.  I was concerned that my tomatoes and mango wouldn’t be ripe enough and I figured a nice ripe avocado could balance things out.  As it turns out my  tomatoes and mango were great (considering that it’s February in Toronto) so the avocado was a bonus.

What I like about this recipe is that the end dish looks very complex but it all comes together pretty easily.  I put the rice on first since it takes the longest.  Then I put together the salsa so that the flavours have enough time to come together.  Then I do the beans and lastly the tofu.  A word of caution: use a pan with a non-stick coating to do the tofu.  I didn’t and it stuck and didn’t sear properly.

While I know I made this horribly out of season it was really a great pick-me-up and reminder of summer in dreary and gray February!

Seared Tofu with Spicy Black Beans & Mango Salsa

FOR THE RICE:

2 1/4 cups water
1 1/2 cups  rice
3/4 teaspoon salt

FOR THE BLACK BEANS:

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup diced red onion
2 teaspoons cumin
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 15-ounce can black beans

FOR THE TOFU:

1 pound extra-firm tofu, cut into 4 thick slices
Salt, to taste

FOR THE SALSA:

2 ripe mangoes, peeled and diced
1 medium tomato, cored, seeded and diced
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, plus more for garnish
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons minced red onion
1 jalapeno pepper, with seeds, minced
1 1/4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
Pinch of salt

1. To make the rice, bring 2 1/4 cups of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add the rice and salt, cover and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes. Fluff with a fork before serving.

2. To prepare the beans, warm the oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add the onion and cumin and saute for 5 minutes. Add the ginger and garlic and saute for 2 more minutes. Add the beans with their liquid and simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes.

3. To prepare the tofu, warm a large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add the tofu to the pan and sprinkle it with salt. Cook until browned on each side, about 3 minutes per side.

4. Meanwhile, make the salsa. In a medium bowl, combine the mangoes, tomato, cilantro, lemon juice, onion, jalapeno, oil and salt; mix to combine.

5. To serve, spoon some of the beans onto each of four plates. Top with rice, tofu and salsa. Garnish with cilantro. (From Fresh Food Fast by Peter Berley)

Vegan Banana Nut Pancakes

Yes, you read it right… vegan!

I’ve been really conflicted about meat these days. Not because of animal cruelty or anything like that but more for health reasons. And the more I read about how animals are fed and treated prior to slaughter the more I get freaked out. No matter how you look at it unless you are buying crazy priced organic grass fed or other idyllic meat the meat we’re eating comes from animals that aren’t fed right. The last straw for me was when I read that they feed salmon food pellets with pin/orange dye in them so that their flesh looks more appealing to consumers! Seriously! DYE PELLETS. That’s just crazy.

So I decided to take a break from animal products for a while. I was going to do it for the month of February but then realized that Lent was around the corner so I decided to give up animal products for Lent. So for 40 days no meat, fish, dairy, eggs, honey etc.

So far things have been good and I’ve been very strict about it. With mild exceptions. I used margarine on a bagel the other day that had 1.4% whey powder. I figured 1.4% of a teaspoon or two of margarine wouldn’t kill me. Also, if I’m eating out I’m not that concerned about the minute details of the dish. If to the naked eye the dish seems vegan then I’m cool with it. If the sauce on my stirfry contains an ingredient that has a trace of dairy somewhere down the chain I’m ok with it. But generally I’m adhering to things strictly. Particularly while cooking at home.

The lack of dairy leaves a huge whole in one BIG ritual for me… weekend breakfast! Seriously, what do vegans eat for breakfast? I eat steel cut oats monday through friday and can’t do it on the weekend. Usually on the weekend I’ll have a bagel (surprisingly naturally vegan.. thanks What A Bagel!) and then on Sunday do bacon and eggs or pancakes. When the weekend rolled around I knew I could compromise so after some seriously googling I came across this recipe .

Easy enough. I wasn’t too sure about the chemistry of the whole thing but figured that mixing the soy milk with vinegar probably initiated a suitable chemical reaction and left it at that. Totally a good call! These pancakes were DELICIOUS. Maybe the best pancakes ever. I know, a bold statement, but they were great!

I sauteed some bananas with brown sugar and cinnamon and then poured some maple syrup over top. FABULOUS. Seriously, you don’t even miss the dairy!

BANANA WALNUT PANCAKES

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 cups soymilk + 1 teaspoon vinegar (let sit for 5 minutes)
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tsp vanilla

3 small-med bananas, mashed really well with a fork or blended in a blender

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Directions
Sift together first 5 (dry) ingredients.

In a seperate bowl, mix bananas and other wet ingredients until pretty smooth. Poor wet into dry and mix but do not overmix. Fold in the walnuts.

Brush a large nonstick skillet with canola oil or non stick cooking spray and heat over moderate heat until hot but not smoking. Working in batches of 3, pour 1/4 cup batter per pancake into hot skillet and cook until bubbles appear on surface and undersides are golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Flip pancakes with a spatula and cook until golden brown and cooked through, 1 to 2 minutes more. Transfer to a large plate and loosely cover with foil to keep warm, then make more pancakes, brushing skillet with oil or spray for each batch.

Serve with sliced bananas and maple syrup.

From Post Punk Kitchen

Pork Tenderloin a la Mexicana

And the experimenting continues…

I’ve been having a mexican food obsession recently and have been really into working my way through Rick Bayless’ “Mexican Everyday”. Half of the drive is hunting down ingredients (not that hard but it requires me hopping on the subway and heading downtown) and the other half is my newfound fascination with Rick Bayless. His books ALMOST make me not want to go to another mediocre Mexican restaurant again.

A few months ago I bought what I thought was one pork tenderloin (it was vacuum packed) but turned out to be two. As you may remember I baked one in salt and froze the other for later use.

This dish turned out OK. The flavours were great. Roasting the poblano peppers brought out a nice sort of smoky/ sweet/ spicy taste that went really well with the tomato sauce without overpowering the whole dish. I followed the recipe as written but used cilantro instead of the epazote branch (I wasn’t feeling that adventurous when I made this dish!). The one thing I would have changed is the size of the pork chunks. Bayless suggests 1-inch cubes but I found them to be way too big. I would have preferred smaller strips of pork instead. I think the pork would have absorbed more of the flavour from the sauce that way AND each bite wouldn’t have been so “meaty”. But maybe I’m over analyzing.

I served the pork with red beans (cooked loosely based on the Goya recipe) and rice that I seasoned with lime juice, cilantro and corn (think the yummy rice at Chipotle). Overall a yummy dish with not too much “stuff” happening.

Pork Tenderloin a la Mexicana (Puerco a la Mexicana)
2 large fresh poblano chiles
1 to 1 1/4 pounds pork tenderloin, cut into 1-inch cubes
Salt
2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
1 medium white onion, sliced 1/4 inch thick
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped or crushed through a garlic press
One 28-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice (preferably fire-roasted), drained
3/4 cup beef broth OR 2/3 cup water plus 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 large branch fresh epazote OR 1/2 cup (loosely packed) coarsely chopped cilantro

1. Roast the peppers over an open flame or 4 inches below a broiler, turning regularly until blistered and blackened all over, about 5 minutes for an open flame, 10 minutes for the broiler. Place in a bowl, cover with a kitchen towel and let cool until handleable.

2. While the chiles are cooling, pat the meat dry on paper towels. Sprinkle liberally all over with salt. Heat the oil in a very large (12-inch) skillet over medium-high. When the oil is hot, add the pork in an uncrowded single layer and cook, stirring and turning regularly, until browned all over, about 4 minutes. With a slotted spoon, remove to a plate, leaving behind as much oil as possible. Set the skillet aside.

3. Rub the blackened skin off the chiles and pull out the stems and seed pods. Rinse the chiles to remove bits of skin and seeds. Cut into 1/4-inch strips.

4. Return the skillet to medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until richly golden but still crunchy, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and chile strips and stir until fragrant, then pour in the drained tomatoes, broth (or water-Worcestershire combo) and epazote (save the cilantro to add later). Bring to a boil and let cook until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Add the meat to the pan (and cilantro, if that’s what you’re using). Reduce the heat to medium and simmer briskly until the pork is cooked through–I (Bayless) like it still a touch rosy inside, which usually takes just about 5 minutes of simmering.

5. Taste and season with salt, usually about 1 teaspoon. Remove the epazote from the pan, if necessary, and you’re ready to serve.

(From Mexican Everyday by Rick Bayless)

Shrimp Florentine Over Tomato Grits

When I’m at home with the TV on chances are it’s tuned to the Food Network (if it’s not primetime that is!). Now, I have a love hate relationship with the Food Network. Back in the day it used to be great when they had real chefs that weren’t annoying. But these days there are way too many Rachael Rays, Sandra Lees etc for me to deal with. But I like food, so I watch.

I have a soft spot in my heart for Paula Deen. Maybe it’s my love of Southern Food, maybe it’s her accent and overly enthusiastic use of butter but something always compels me to watch her show. About 98% of what she makes grosses me out. She’s the type to fry bacon in lard and top it with butter if you know what I mean. For the average person that is just unacceptable. I spend most of the time watching her episodes and guessing how much butter, sugar and lord knows what else she will use. But every once in a while she’ll make something that makes me stop and think that I might be willing to make it. Hence my affair with Shrimp Florentine Over Tomato Grits.

I know what you’re thinking, it looks like shrimp on top of barf. Okay, I get that and I respect it, but trust me, it’s delicious. But in a weird way. I would NEVER think of serving shrimp in a spinachy cream sauce on tops of grits made with cheddar cheese and canned tomatoes… but for some bizarro reason it works.

The recipe is via the Food Network and requires a lot of work to make it to my level of wholesomeness. Some of the things it calls for I’ve never heard of or seen in the supermarket (they must be popular in the south, I checked all over New York City — including Harlem — and couldn’t a garlic cheese roll to save my life), and others I had no interest in using. And for the sake of my sanity, and health, I reduced some of the ingredients so that I wouldn’t feel my heart seizing up.

The tomato grits required the most doctoring. I didn’t use the Garlic Cheese Roll which I later learned is something like garlic flavoured velveeta (I’ve never had velveeta and don’t intend to anytime soon). The original recipe calls for Garlic Cheese Roll AND 2.5 cups of cheese. No kidding. I knocked out the cheese roll and used somewhere between 2 and 2.5 cups of cheddar cheese. To add the garlic flavour make in I used a bit of garlic powder and some sauteed minced garlic. As per usual with Paula Deen the recipe calls for a full stick of butter. I used about half that amount and was happy with the results. Finally it’s hard to find diced tomatoes with jalapeños in Toronto so I just used regular diced tomatoes and threw in some minced jalapeños for the extra kick.

The shrimp florentine was less problematic. The only change I made was not using heavy cream. I used some half and half with a bit of milk and that worked for me.

I’ve made this a few times and still enjoy it. It’s definitely not an everyday dish (unless you are trying to kill yourself) but it’s yummy for a change of pace.

SHRIMP FLORENTINE OVER TOMATO GRITS

Tomato Grits:
2 cups water
3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoons salt
1 cup quick cooking grits
1 stick butter, plus 1 tablespoon butter
1/3 cup green onions, diced
6-ounce garlic cheese roll
2 1/2 cups Cheddar, shredded
10-ounce can diced tomatoes and green chiles
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Shrimp Florentine:
2 tablespoons butter
1 clove minced garlic
12 shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 to 2 lemons juiced
White wine, for deglazing
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup grated Parmesan or Grand Padana
2 cups fresh spinach, packed down
1 dash ground nutmeg
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

To make the tomato grits, in a saucepan, bring the water and milk to a boil. Add the salt. Slowly add the grits and return to a boil; stir for 1 full minute. (The secret to preparing good grits is the initial stirring of the pot.) Reduce the heat, cover, and cook for 3 minutes. Stir the grits and add 1 stick of butter, stirring until it has melted. Cover and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the grits are thick and creamy. Remove from the heat and set aside. Saute the onions in the remaining 1 tablespoon butter for 1 minute. Add the garlic cheese, 1 1/2 cups Cheddar, and onions to the grits, and stir until cheese is melted. Add the tomatoes and green chiles and mix well; stir in the beaten eggs. Pour the grits into a greased 8 by11 by 2-inch casserole. Bake the casserole for 40 minutes. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the casserole for the last 5 minutes of cooking time.

To make the Shrimp Florentine, start with 1 tablespoon butter in saute pan. Add minced garlic and shrimp. Deglaze with lemon and wine. Add cream, cheese and spinach. Reduce, season, to taste, with salt and pepper and pour over grits

baked sockeye salmon with bell peppers and capers

When it comes to making dinner I rarely like to slack off. I feel like with all my experimenting these days I don’t really have any go-to off-night meals. Back in the day I’d always have salmon in my fridge and make salmong marinated in soya sauce, ginger, garlic, honey and crushed red pepper flakes. I haven’t made that in AGES.

But I digress.

The other night I was thinking about making dinner and realized that I had some salmon in the fridge that I just HAD to use. So as usual I started going through my cookbook collection looking for something new. Over the holidays I got a copy of Marcella Says… by Marcella Hazan that I hadn’t used. I looked at the index on the off chance that she would have a salmon recipe (they don’t really eat Salmon in Italy!) and she actually had a few.

I fell in love with this because of the capers. I LOVE LOVE capers. Not sure when the love started but it has been in effect for a while now. I also liked the idea of roasting my own peppers.

I made the recipe exactly as written and it turned out great. I really liked the sweetness of the roasted peppers with the slightly salty capers. At first I was nervous about the lack of seasoning on the salmon, but the salt and pepper alone were all the dish needed. I served this some broccoli cooked with chile pepper flakes and white wine and it was great. Would be really nice with some orzo…

Check out the recipe here!

INGREDIENTS

2 red bell peppers and 1 yellow
2 pounds wild salmon, preferably cut as a long fillet, not steaks
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons capers, drained and rinsed in cold water if packed in vinegar OR if packed in salt, rinsed, soaked in cold water for 10 minutes, then rinsed again; if their size is much larger than nonpareils, cut them up a little bit
4 whole peeled garlic cloves
Fine sea salt
Black pepper ground fresh from the mill

PREPARATION

1. Char the peppers, skin them, split them, and remove their core and seeds. Cut them into strips less than an inch wide and 1 1/2 -inch long. You can prepare the peppers early the same day that you are making the fish for dinner. 2. Turn on the oven to 375°.

3. Wash the fish in cold water and pat it dry with paper towels.

4. Coat a baking dish with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Lay the salmon down in the pan, skin side facing down if you have long fillets. Distribute all around the salmon the peppers, capers, and the whole peeled garlic cloves. Sprinkle with a liberal quantity of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Pour the remaining olive oil over the fish. Put the dish in the preheated oven and cook for 16 minutes. Let it settle for a few minutes before serving.

(From Marcella Says.. via epicurious)

Lahey’s Bread — Once Again

I’ve made no secret that I’m obsessed with this bread. It has literally changed my life. I don’t buy bread anymore because homemade is so much better.

If you do a quick search on this site with the term “lahey” you’ll come across my previous attempts with the bread. My goal is to find the right balance between whole wheat and white flour. The more whole wheat I use the less the bread rises and the flatter the loaf (and it ends up being super dense). I’ve made it with varying amounts of whole wheat flour, tried using whole wheat soft flour to varying degrees of success. So the other day I decided to start from the beginning and make the bread in its purest form — 100% white all-purpose flour.

The results were great and so different from the whole wheat. The bread rose so much both times which meant I got a nice high loaf… perfect for sandwiches. As you can see there was also a great crumb.

The one thing that I forgot to do was sprinkle the top with something. I usually play around and do either flour, wheat germ, cornmeal or oatmeal… but I totally forgot this time around. Didn’t make a difference but I enjoy an extra something something.

I also get super nervous about my loaf burning and I’m also awful at knowing when to take it out… so I always think my loaves are a tad under-cooked. But maybe that’s just my paranoia setting in.

Once I find my whole wheat sweet spot then I’ll start experimenting with additions… olives, cranberries, pecans, rosemary… the possibilities are endless!

For the uninitiated here is the follow-up article about the bread. Follow the links along the side to see the video and get the full recipe.

Snapper with Zucchini and Toasty Garlic Mojo

And the Rick Bayless fascination continues…

Now I’m not an expert on Mexican food at all but I’ve never seen a dish like this on the menu at any Mexican restaurant I’ve ever been … but I’ll take Rick’s word for it as an authentic dish.

The main reason that this dish caught my eye were the words “Toasty Garlic Mojo”. Doesn’t that just sound delicious? And really, any recipe with the word “Toasty” in the name is good enough for me!

I made this with snapper and halved the recipe since I was cooking for two. It turned out OK but some of the flavours were off… I’m thinking because I halved it. My garlic mojo wasn’t garlicky enough for me… but I only used 4 cloves, I should have used more. In generally I found that I need more sauce. I think I cooked the zucchini with the sauce for too long because I wanted it to thicken up. The zucchini was fine but it sucked up too much of my sauce!

My last issue with this was the fish itself. Salt and pepper alone did not work for the fish. It could have used a touch more flavour. Next time I’d probably season the fish with salt, pepper, cumin and/or coriander for an extra kick.

Overall I didn’t fall in love with the recipe right away but I see the potential. Bayless recommends using chicken breast in place of the fish, substituting different vegetables for the zucchini (asparagus, artichokes, leeks, fiddleheads) or even adding some canned chopped chipotle peppers in with the zucchini.

Snapper with Zucchini and Toasty Garlic Mojo

1/3 cup olive oil
8 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
2/3 cup chicken broth
Salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Four 4- to 5-ounce fish fillets (snapper, halibut, mahimahi, catfish, bass etc)
2 large zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 large lime, cut into wedges, for serving

Turn on the oven on its lowest setting. In a very large skillet, warm the olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until soft, lightly browned and very aromatic, about 4 minutes. With a slotted spoon, scoop the garlic into a food processor or blender jar, leaving as much oil as possible in the skillet. Set the skillet aside.

Add the broth to the processor or blender, along with 1/2 teaspoon salt and the pepper. Blend until smooth.

Return the skillet to medium-heat. Generously season the fish with salt and pepper. When the oil is hot, lay in the fish. When Richly browned underneath, about 2 to 3 minutes, flip and cook until the fish gives slightly under firm pressure from your finger, about 2 minutes. Use a spatula to transfer each piece of fish to an oven-proof dinner plate. Keep warm in the oven.

With the skillet still over medium-high heat, add the zucchini and cook, stirring regularly, until lightly browned but still a little crunchy inside, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic mixture and cilantro. Stir until the sauce comes to a boil and becomes homogeneous. Taste and season with more salt if it needs it.

Spoon the zucchini and sauce over and around the fish and serve right away, with lime wedges for each person to squeeze on.

(From Everyday Mexican by Rick Bayless)

Tomatillo-Sauced Enchiladas with Spinach and Mushrooms

Right now I’m going through a huge Mexican phase. All I want is delicious, incredible, and REAL-ish mexican. No Taco Bell no over-stuffed Tex-Mex burritos. I want the real thing. Toronto doesn’t have many options for authentic Mexican (Rebozos is a very delicious exception). Luckily over the holidays I picked up Rick Bayless’ Mexican Everyday cookbook so I have been able to fulfill my cravings.

I wanted to make tacos but that seemed too easy. I wanted something with a lot of ingredients and many steps… so enchiladas it was.

And let’s just say all my ingredient sourcing, time over the stove and burning fingers because of the chiles were worth it. Totally amazing dish. I followed the recipe almost to a T (I forgot to get Queso Fresco so I used cheddar) and was totally wowed by it.

The best part is that the recipe makes A LOT of the tomatillo salsa which you can use for other things. Delicious with nachos or wherever you normally use salsa. But, as I learned the hard way, do NOT just eat it with a spoon. It’s HOT!

More Rick Bayless creations to come… It’s currently my cookbook of choice.

Tomatillo-Sauced Enchiladas with Spinach and Mushrooms

3 garlic cloves, peeled
Fresh hot green chiles to taste (I used 2 serranos, 1 jalapeno would work too), stemmed and quartered
1 1/2 pounds tomatillos, husked, rinsed and cut into quarters
3/4 cup roughly chopped cilantro
3 tablespoons vegetable oil, olive oil, or bacon drippings
2 cups chicken broth
8 ounces mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
1 large red onion, thin sliced
10 ounces spinach
1 cup shredded cooked chicken (optional)
Salt
12 corn tortillas
3 tablespoons Crema, sour cream, heavy cream or creme fraiche
1/2 teaspoon sugar (optional)
1 cup Queso Fresco or other cheese

Turn on the oven to 350 degrees. With a food processor or blender running, drop in the garlic and chiles one piece at a time, letting each piece get finely chopped before adding the next. Add the tomatillos and cilantro; process until smooth.

Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons of the oil or bacon drippings in a medium (3-quart) saucepan over medium-high. Add the puree and cook, stirring nearly constantly, until the mixture has reduced to the consistency of thick tomato sauce, about 7 minutes. (The more you cook it the richer and sweeter it will be). Add the chicken broth and simmer over medium heat for about 10 minutes to blend the flavors.

While the sauce is simmering, heat the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons oil or drippings in a very large skillet over medium-high. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring nearly constantly, for a couple of minutes, until they begin to brown. Add about three-quarters of the onion and continue cooking, stirring frequently, for another minute or two, until the onion looks translucent. Add the spinach and optional chicken and cook, stirring constantly, for a minute or so, until the spinach is wilted. Season with salt. Cover to keep warm.

Lay out the tortillas on a baking sheet and spray or brush lightly on both sides with oil or bacon drippings, then stack them in twos. Slide the tortillas into the oven and bake just long enough to make them soft and pliable, about 3 minutes. Remove from the oven and stack them in a single pile; cover with a kitchen towel to keep warm.

Stir the crema into the sauce. Taste and season with salt (add the sugar here too if you’re using it). Holding a tortilla by the edge dip it into the sauce, then lay it on a plate. Spoon a heaping 2 tablespoons filling down the center, roll up and lay seam side down on a dinner plate. Repeat with 2 more tortillas, arranging them on the same dinner plate. Douse the enchiladas with about 1/4 cup of the warm sauce, sprinkle with a quarter of the crumbled cheese and garnish with some of the reserved onion and cilantro sprigs. Assemble the rest of the servings, and carry to the table without hesitation.

(From Mexican Everyday by Rick Bayless)