Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Awesome Orange Chicken Style Tofu

So easy to make, and you don't even have to have all the ingredients listed. You can pretty much replace any of the vegetables with some other vegetable you have on hand, like bell peppers or asparagus.

20080513_0009

Ingredients:
Olive oil
1 block extra firm tofu, drained and chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 smallish eggplant, chopped
Mushrooms, chopped
2 green onions, minced (just use regular onion if you don't have them)
1/2 C shredded cabbage
Carrots, chopped in long little pieces
Salt
Pepper

Sauce:
3 TBSP orange juice
2 TBSP lemon juice
2 TBSP vinegar
4 TBSP light soy sauce
1/2 C brown sugar (reduced a little bit if you don't like it too sweet, i just don't pack the sugar very firmly when measuring)
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
3 TBSP Cornstarch mixed with 2 TBSP water

I also like to add ~1 tsp of this Asian chile thing that I got from a Chinese market but I have no idea what it's called because the label is all in Chinese. It has chili flakes and peanuts and it's in oil. Really yummy.

20080513_0008

Directions:
1, If you have a nonstick pan that actually works toss the tofu in the pan on medium heat and cook until the water disappears. this is way easier than having to press the tofu and drain all the water out. As soon as the water is gone add some olive oil and then add the eggplant and garlic. If you have a crappy nonstick pan just add the oil first and try to get as much water out of the tofu as possible and hope it doesn't splatter and burn you.
2. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Once eggplant is almost done add the rest of the ingredients.
4. While that cooks, take a smaller pan and add the sauce ingredients (except the cornstarch mixture) to pan and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium and add the cornstarch mixture while stirring. Once it gets as thick as you want it, take it off the heat.
5. Add sauce to the tofu and serve with rice. I think the sweetness goes well with a side of plain edamame.
Tofu Ceviche!

Yum! This recipe is super easy and it tastes good...it tastes like what I think I remember the real thing tasting like. :) I found the recipe for this online, but I changed a few things to make it yummier. :)

20080515_0011

Ingredients:
One package extra firm tofu, chopped and marinated in my crazy homemade Worcestershire sauce.
Tomatoes, cut into little cubes
Cilantro, chopped
Red onion
Salt
A ton of lemon juice (I use meyer lemons from my backyard)
[You could also toss some chopped up green chile if you're into that.]
[I've also made it with chopped up radishes.]

My crazy homemade Worcestershire sauce Ingredients*
1/2 C apple cider vinegar (any kind of vinegar will do though)
1/4 C water
1 C orange juice
4 TBSP soy sauce
2 TBSP brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp pepper

*The original tofu ceviche recipe said to marinate all the tofu with 2 tablespoons of vegan Worcestershire sauce.... How are you supposed to marinate all that tofu with 2 tablespoons??? you need at least a cup of sauce to cover it completely and that's a lot of Worcestershire sauce ...which of course I don't have, so I googled a recipe for the Worcestershire sauce and made some modifications to it ...because I didn't have the proper ingredients for it of course! I finally bought the proper ingredients for the sauce and I decided my version was much better, so maybe this doesn't taste like WS, but it tastes good on the tofu, so there.

Here's what you do:
1. Take a package of extra firm tofu and squeeze as much water as you can out of it then slice into small cubes. I like to wrap the tofu in a couple of paper towels and then wrap it with a cloth towel and pile plates on top of that.
2. While tofu is being pressed, mix all of the stuff for the crazy homemade Worcestershire sauce together in a small pan and stir thoroughly. One it starts to boil you reduce the heat and simmer for a minute and then take it off the heat.
3. Toss the sauce on top of the tofu and let it marinate in the fridge for half an hour or so.
4. Afterwards, spread the tofu out onto a baking sheet covered in a nonstick mat type thing or parchment paper. Don't get a lot of sauce on there because it will just burn. Put in 350 degree oven for half an hour, mixing halfway through the cooking.
5. Meanwhile slice up all your veggies and squeeze a lot of lemon juice.
6. When tofu is done toss it in your bowl of veggies and lemon juice and salt and put it in the fridge for a few hours.
7. Eat with some tostadas.


Monte Negro, Django James and the Midnight Squires and Haim

I went to the Key Club last night for their free indie night type show that they do on Tuesdays. I wanted to see Monte Negro because I thought the way they blend English with Spanish and dancy type music might be fun to see live.



They were the headliners that night and they were pretty good, but I didn't like the singer's stage persona...he seemed like he was trying too hard and half of the time I didn't understand what he was saying in between songs.

20080520_0013

Their live show is pretty good though, and besides, the cute drummer and bass guitarist more than make up for any annoying frontmen. :)

20080520_0015

They did a cover of Soda Stereo's "Musica Ligera" and my Soda Stereo obsessed BF was very much indignant that they even dared to cover such a song. The look on his face when the first chord rang out and the face that accompanied the "Oh my god, he doesn't even know the right words!" were funny to watch.



We were both really impressed with the second band that played that night. They're called Django James and the Midnight Squires. I really wasn't expecting them to be good, but they came out and this little kid with crazy hair, a green jacket and sparkly green makeup across his face came out and started singing right away. The song started off mellow with the singer belting out the words and the keyboardist and both guitarists singing these awesome background "ohh" type things. Their sound is very unique and the lyrics are not your typical lyrics.

Photobucket

The singer who goes by the name of Django James (formerly Johnny vox) has an awesome voice and a cute London accent. I don't think I have a particularly wide music repertoire, but I would say his singing voice reminded me a bit of Freddy Mercury. And the kid can dance! Haha. So I've been snooping around their myspace/personal myspaces and it appears they are a VERY new band, like 2 months old! Plus, they are all young, the singer especially. But if this band manages to stay together I think they will be very big. Check out their youtube videos, I unfortunately didn't get any pictures or videos of them. Check out their myspace too, if you don't like them upon first listening try again! ha, that's just how much I was impressed by them. Oh! and the singer was getting over a sore throat to top it off and he still sang great! He was coughing between songs!

I feel I should mention the first opening band just to be fair. They were called Haim and the three singers/guitarists are all sisters. The have a keyboardist and drummer as well, don't think they're related. They had a lot of family members there, it was cute. They weren't bad, their voices were impressive and they really get into the show, but a few of their songs had a tendency to drag on a bit.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Sausage and bean mix type thing...

My lunch:

The sausages are a bastardization of the Everyday Dish's Spicy Italian Vegetarian Sausages recipe and Cupcake Punk's Super Easy Steamed Sausages recipe and my crazy substitutions.
Strawberry Pie...

So my dad brings home 3 boxes of strawberries. Not the little basket ones, the larger plastic containers. OK, I love strawberries, BUT NO ONE IN MY HOUSE HELPS ME EAT STRAWBERRIES AND THEN THEY JUST GO BAD SO I FEEL BAD. :( I usually wash most of them and then freeze them for smoothies. This time I decided I wanted to make a strawberry pie.

I made a pie crust and baked it in the oven. My crust was hideous. I suck at pie crusts. :( Probably because I insist on trying to work a little bit of whole wheat flour into the crust in an attempt to make it healthy or something. Anyway, my pie crust dough was too dry and cracked while I was rolling it out, so I got cranky and wadded it up into a ball and then slammed it against the countertop... and then started calmly over again. The damn thing shrank in the oven though. :/

While the crust baked, I sliced a bunch of strawberries and kept the outside slices for decorating the top of the pie. I tossed the inside slices in a pan with about half a cup of sugar and a little bit of vanilla and cooked them for a bit. Then I tossed that into the pie crust (minus the juice), and attempted to make it look pretty with the fresh bit of strawberries. Drizzled some of the juice on top to make the fresh strawberries look glaze-y.

And voilĂ . Don't look too closely at the crust. :(

Tofu Wings!


They were pretty yummy. :)

Recipe taken from Yeah, That "Vegan" Shit taken from "Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk!"