Tofu Peaks

Why hello there, Dear Readers. I thought I would take a break from procrastinating doing school work by watching episodes of Twin Peaks and finally post a recipe I promised to share about a year ago. And actually, I have my mom to thank for motivating me to revisit the tender-golden-crunchy loveliness that is Parsley-Walnut Crusted Tofu. About two months ago, she called saying she had found some tofu in the back of the fridge, leftover from when I had stayed with them during winter break. And she specifically remembered enjoying this tofu, and had me e-mail her the recipe. (Allow me to indulge in a moment of excitement at one of my omni parents requesting a tofu recipe: hurrah.) Ever since then, I had been planning on making it and posting the recipe. Last weekend I finally got around to it.

I was not disappointed. Definitely as good as we both remembered it: the bright slightly-bitter freshness of parsley balanced perfectly with the rich nuttiness of ground walnuts. Panko breadcrumbs thrown in for a satisfying crunch. This is a dish worth springing for some of the nicer tofu. The first time I made it, I owed part of its success to my favorite tofu ever, the West Virginia-made Spring Creek brand that I used to buy at the East End Co-op in Pittsburgh. This time, I picked up a package of tofu made by local Connecticut company The Bridge. It's nice stuff. As you can see, I ate it with some braised red cabbage. Okay, time for the recipe--

Parsley-Walnut Crusted Tofu
makes 2-4 servings (you know how it is)


1 lb. (or 14 oz.) extra-firm (or firm) tofu, pressed
1/2 cup ground walnuts*
1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/4 cup minced flat-leaf parsley
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp salt (to taste)
dash cayenne pepper
1/2 cup soymilk + 1/2 tsp vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil (to coat baking sheet) + cooking spray


Preheat oven to 425 F. Coat a rimmed baking sheet with 1 tbsp olive oil


In a small bowl, whisk the soymilk and vinegar together with a fork. Let side to thicken.

In a shallow dish (a pie pan or sandwich-sized Tupperware container works well for this), mix together the panko, ground walnuts, parsley, nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, and cayenne.

Slice up your tofu according. You can do it up all pretty-like with triangles, or just do simple widthwise-sliced rectangles; you get about 6 slices that way (cut across these diagonally and you've got your triangles).


Dip a piece of tofu in soymilk mixture, coat in breadcrumb mixture. Place on baking sheet. Repeat.


When you've got all your tofu breaded (you'll probably have a little leftover breading--lots of creative uses for this), mist the tops with some of the cooking spray (the olive oil variety, if you've got it). Bake for 15 minutes, and then flip. Bake another 15 minutes. And they are done! Best to let rest on the sheet about 5 minutes before eating.

*In case you need a refresher course: walnut halves + a bit of blitzing in the food processor = ground walnuts.


Alright, I'm off to make a second cup of tea and succumb once more to the bizarre addiction that is David Lynch's conception of plotting tycoons, conspiring high school kids, sexual fetish, and murder in a small mill town.

Winter's Leftovers: Slaw

Continuing on the theme of raw(-ish) food--Red Cabbage & Winter Root Slaw. I qualify the "raw" label, because I have no desire whatsoever to follow a strict raw eating style, so I am far from being a stickler about things like mustard. Is spicy brown mustard raw?--I doubt it. But as the weather has been warming up and its no longer dark by 5:30 in the evenings, I've been fancying more fresh vegetables and such. Even though it isn't winter, we (here in New York, unlike you smug California people) still have a ways to wait for things like tomatoes and other nice salad sorts of produce. Anyway, it seemed more fun to make a salad out of vegetables typically neglected for such purposes. Red cabbage, golden beets, and parnips tossed in a Balsamic-Maple-Mustard Dressing turned out pretty delicious. Here's the recipe:

Red Cabbage & Winter Root Slaw

1/2 head red cabbage, shredded
2 golden beets, peeled and grated
1 small parsnip, peeled and grated
1/4-1/2 red onion thinly sliced
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tbsp spicy brown mustard
1 tsp maple syrup
1 tbsp canola oil
dash salt
freshly ground black pepper

Throw all the vegetables together in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk together vinegar, mustard, maple syrup, canola oil, and season with salt and pepper. Pour over salad and toss.*

Make about 4 servings as a side.


*The photo at the beginning of the post shows the salad before dressing; the colors get a bit more muddied with you toss everything together with the dressing. It will keep for several days in the fridge this way. Alternately, you could plate and drizzle each serving with the dressing.

Green.

Over the past couple months I've joined the league green smoothie admirers. And a few weeks ago, I achieved--as this photo documents--green smoothie perfection. Typically my smoothies turn out more brown than green; adding frozen berries is usually the culprit here.

However, eschewing the berries in favor of frozen peaches--and adding a dash of spirulina powder at the end--resulted in the beautiful emerald smoothie you see here. It was also, incidentally, pretty nice-tasting as well. Here's what I remember of the formula: 1 frozen banana, 1 date, few cubes frozen mango, few slices frozen peaches, ground flax, handful frozen spinach, water, a liberal dash spirulina powder. I think I also did toss a few frozen berries in there and maybe a drop or to of stevia. Fancy.

P.S. While we're on the subject of green foods, another thing I've been enjoying lately is the infamous raw kale salad: bite-size pieces of raw kale, finely minced garlic (I get it into a paste-like consistency with a little salt), and a drizzle of olive oil--"massaged" into the kale leaves. Please someone come up with an alternate word to describe the preparation!? Is it just me?--massaging kale leaves sounds so creepy. Regardless, the end result is lovely.