Tofu Challenge: Chinese Five Spice tofu and veggie stir fry

Friday, February 29, 2008

I can’t believe it’s the last day of February - and the end of the tofu challenge!  As someone who does not routinely eat a lot of tofu, I feel like I learned a lot this month.  Mostly, I learned that I really like tofu…and for the first time ever, I can actually see how people could want to eat and be satisfied with Tofurkey for Thanksgiving.  Not that I intend to give up being a carnivore, but I get it.

Late last week I made a fried tofu dish inspired by a recipe in This Can’t Be Tofu, a book recommended by Allison (as a testament to how crazy busy the end of the month has been, I’m only getting around to posting it today).  It was absolutely delicious and almost entirely local.

This dish could not have come at a better time - there was a bag of local hydroponically-grown yellow bell peppers in my fridge that were getting ready to go.  I purchased them a few weeks ago at the Fair Food Farmstand.  It seems very wrong to have bell peppers in the middle of Winter, but I could not resist at least trying them.  While I can say they were absolutely not as good as Summer bell peppers, it was still lovely to have them and know they were locally grown.

In addition to the bell pepper, I included a locally grown onion, white button mushrooms, spinach, and Chinese Five Spice pressed tofu from Nature Soy [a local tofu manufacturer].  The only thing not local: the tomato, hot pepper flakes, salt and pepper, curry powder, soy sauce, and cumin seeds.

The tofu was cut into cubes and then pan-fried, and then mixed with the other stir-fried veggies.  Delicious!

Tofu Challenge:  Lemon Pepper Pasta

I think that this Lemon Pepper Baked Tofu is my favorite Fresh Tofu variety.  The flavor is light and crisp with a little bite, and like all of Fresh Tofu’s baked varieties, the texture is sublimely dense.

The subtleties of this lemon and pepper tofu can get lost in some dishes, so I usually eat it as simply as possible.  Diced into tiny cubes, it’s perfect for a lightly dressed salad, where the taste can shine.  For dinner, they blend perfectly in lemon pepper pasta.

I use a pretty basic and quick recipe; the ingredients are simple and it’s easy to time everything to finish up at once.  That, combined with a barely one-dollar-per-serving price, this dish could easily find it’s way into your weekly menu plan.

Lemon Pepper Tofu and Pasta
serves 6

1 package (7.5 oz) Fresh Tofu’s Lemon Pepper Tofu
1 lb. angel hair pasta
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 lemons
1/3 cup chopped parsley
2 teaspoons plus a dash black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Lemon zest for garnish
Parsley for garnish

Cut lemon pepper tofu into 1/4” cubes.  Heat tablespoon of oil in a frying pan, add tofu and sprinkle with a dash of pepper.  Allow to brown over medium/high heat, tossing often.  Right before removing from heat, squeeze juice of 1/2 lemon into pan, toss and cook for 30 to 60 seconds.  Keep warm.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for three to five minutes, or until done; drain.

In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup olive oil, juice of one lemon, parsley and black pepper; stir well.  Toss with pasta. 

Serve pasta with tofu cubes on top, garnish with parsley and lemon zest, pepper and salt to taste.  Serve hot or cold.

Many lemon pepper pasta recipes call for basil rather than parsley, which I plan on trying this summer when the basil comes in from our CSA or garden.  I’d also love to try this tofu over VeganYumYum’s spicy lemon pepper fettuccine or with this lemon pepper cous-cous.  Any non-local veggies you find in lemon pepper recipes could easily be replaced with seasonal ones.  Except of course for the lemon.  Maybe Nicole’s Tuscarora Organic Growers Co-op will come through with some lemony citrus for us?

And now, all this light and airy lemon pepper herb talk has got me jonesing for spring something fierce.  Drool!

Posted for:

wishlists

Thursday, February 28, 2008

I need ideas!!

Bob Pierson (the gentleman I work for at Farm to City) is going to a meeting next week on value-added foods made from Pennsylvania farm products, sponsored by Penn State. He wants to bring ideas to this meeting on what people in the Philadelphia area want to have in terms of value-added foods (transformed by cooking, canning, freezing, or special preparation).  So!  What foods would you like to see in local stores, the Winter Harvest buying club, the Fair Food Farmstand in the Reading Terminal Market, etc., that can be made from food produced in PA (from produce, meat, poultry, eggs, dairy products and combinations)?  General categories of ideas include specialty cheese and sausages, minimally-processed food, ready to cook dishes.

You can leave your ideas as comments to this entry, or email them to me (my first name [at] farmtocity.org) with VALUE ADDED in the subject line.

(To clarify, please note this isn’t a wishlist for a particular shopping location like the Farmstand, or produce varieties you wish farmers would grow.  It’s just a general wishlist for value-added products you wish were available in the Philadelphia area.)

Pizza again

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

One of the unfortunate side effects of pregnancy for me is an aversion to most vegetable matter. Ordinarily I cook several vegetable heavy meatless meals a week, but since learning I was pregnant in September we’ve mostly eaten take out pizza, meals involving ground beef, and cheesy pasta dishes. This does not bother my husband at all.  My taste for vegetables eventually returned, but my desire to buy and prepare food other than pizza and cookies has been lackluster at best. I used to go out of my way to shop at the farmer’s market in Ardmore every week. Now I’m feeling ambitious if I manage to stop in to the Marketplace at East Falls on our way to the zoo or Smith Playhouse. Our refrigerator has never been so bare. One week we even forgot to get our Meadow Run Farm monthly meat order from the pick up site and sheepishly found it still on the porch the next day. It’s a good thing it’s cold outside.

Yesterday, after eating a cupcake and Utz (local!) pretzels with Bobbi’s (local!) hummus for lunch I figured it was time to cook something that wouldn’t be found on a school cafeteria menu. I knew I had a butternut squash still in the dark cabinet beneath the pantry and decided to use it. I found a recipe for Butternut Squash, Bacon, Rosemary and Phyllo Pizza on Epicurious and scoured the kitchen and freezer in the garage for the rest of the ingredients.

In the freezer I unearthed some bacon from Meadow Run and my rosemary plant is still thriving out back. I didn’t have scallions or red onion, but I had a regular onion that I sautéed in reserved bacon drippings with a clove of garlic from my CSA I found hiding behind the squash. There was half of a package of phyllo dough in the freezer, and to add some greens to the dish (since I had no intention of making anything other than the pizza for dinner) I pulled out some Swiss Chard I’d frozen early in the fall when I couldn’t bring myself to eat it.

I’m pretty good with phyllo so the whole thing took about an hour from start to finish. I wasn’t sure at first, but after my second slice I decided the pizza was delicious. It could have used a bit more rosemary, and the squash puree needed some seasoning other than salt and pepper, but on the whole it was good. Really, I’m a sucker for just about anything made with phyllo dough. (And it was a lot easier to make than the butternut squash and caramelized onion that filled my house with smoke last month.) I would definitely make it again as party appetizer using phyllo cups instead of sheets.

The local ingredients were bacon from Meadow Run Farm, butternut squash, garlic and Swiss chard from Red Earth Farm CSA and rosemary from my backyard.

Starting seeds

Monday, February 25, 2008

It’s nearly March.  I noticed the other day that I have at least three or four inches of leaves up on my daffodil bulbs outside.  It won’t be long now before the earliest bulbs are flowering, and before long it will be time to start gardening in earnest.  The official last frost date here in the Philadelphia area is May 15, but global warming is certainly pushing that date earlier and earlier each year.  Last year I planted tomatoes in the garden on May 1 and had a lovely crop.

For long season crops, like leeks and celery root, it’s best to get a head start on the season and start the plants indoors.  I planted seeds for both on February 18 and, as you can see, the seeds are starting to sprout.  If I can keep the cats out of the plants and if I can give these seedlings the love they need, I’ll have a healthy head start on the growing season by May.

I was intimidated by starting my own seeds for a long time, but it’s really pretty easy.  I prefer to use Jiffy peat pellets in those plastic greenhouse things for starting seeds. It’s easy, and I have a good sunny, warm spot that means I don’t need to mess with a grow light set up.  But you definitely don’t need to purchase peat pellets to start seeds - you can use things you have lying around the house instead.

Lots of people simply reuse egg cartons or yogurt cups for starting seeds. These containers offer a way to recycle your garbage, and they’re a great size for starting seeds.  You can use regular dirt from your garden or backyard in the container of your choice, but seeds generally do best in a soilless potting medium (which is one reason why I prefer the peat pellets).  A trip to your local gardening center will score you a bag of what you need. 

When you’re ready to plant, just take a look at the packet of seeds you have.  Read about how deep the seeds need to be planted.  In most cases, it’s about a quarter of an inch deep.  Make sure the peat or soil or whatever is moist and then plant.  Put your containers in a sunny window and cover the containers in plastic wrap to trap warmth and humidity.  Check your containers every day or two to make sure the soil is moist, and eventually your seeds should sprout.

It’s at this point where things most often go awry.  Seedlings need 12-18 hours of light.  If your sunny window isn’t providing the needed light, you may need to invest in a grow light - but be careful not to position the light too far above the plants or they may get too leggy.  When the plant gets its first set of true leaves, you may want to fertilize a little encourage good roots and healthy growth.  You can normally keep the plants in their original containers until you’re ready to plant, unless you’re growing them indoors for an extended period.  In that case, you may want to pot them up into larger containers.

It doesn’t take a lot of work to start your own seeds, and you’ll be rewarded with the most local of locally grown produce!

Hendricks Farm Cheddar Bleu

Sunday, February 24, 2008

The Fair Food Farmstand recently started to carry another cheese from Hendricks Farm and Dairy - the Cheddar Blue.  It’s basically their Pub Cheddar with the introduction of bleu cheese inoculant.  I like Hendricks’ Pub Cheddar quite a bit, but I’m not 100% on board with the Cheddar Blue.  The taste is very nice - it’s a smooth bleu taste, rather than a super tangy taste.  Unfortunately, the texture suffers. 

The Pub Cheddar is crumbly, but the Cheddar Bleu is so crumbly that it has limited uses.  It could certainly be used as a topping for all sorts of things, but it shatters into such small pieces when cut that it couldn’t really be used on, let’s say, a cheese plate.

Still, the Cheddar Bleu is tasty!

Jelly Roll Call

Friday, February 22, 2008

When I moved to an on-campus apartment in college and finally had a kitchen, my parents gave me The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook, a wonderful basic cookbook that I still use regularly.  It’s got some leftover-from-the-fifties recipes (pickled shrimp in a crystalline ice bowl?!?), but for any ordinary food like pancakes or cream of mushroom soup or lasagna, it’s useful.  One of its best sections is the one on desserts, so when I realized that we were going to have too much jam left over this season, I went looking for a jelly roll recipe.  Jelly roll is sticky, but it is also soft and squishy and what my Dad used to make for us to eat with tea when I was a little girl. 

I used our “black and blue” jam—blackberries and blueberries we picked last summer.  The other local ingredients were maple sugar, honey (in the jam), and eggs. 

You can see a peek of the maple sugar and the egg yolks behind the bowl of lovely frothy egg whites.  This jelly roll also has flour, baking powder, salt, vanilla, and confectioners’ sugar, none of which I had local. 

It came out well, not as sweet as you might imagine, given all the different kinds of sugar! 

Not Our Local, Their Local

  A pleasant side-effect of eating local food at home is that I now seek local food when I travel.  If I hadn’t become more aware of “locavorism,” I may have never eaten at the Lancaster Arts Hotel during a weekend getaway or made reservations for Blue Hill in Manhattan.  Most recently, we travelled to Austin, Texas where I was pleased to discover Farm to Market on South Congress Avenue.  In addition to nationally-known organic brands, they are stocked with local nuts, soaps, baked goods, salsas (I particularly loved the tomatillo salsa), tortilla chips, etc.

To me, a trip anywhere is wasted if I don’t come away with a sense of the distinctness of that place or feel what it is like to live there.  I am learning how indicative local food is of local “life.”  So, if you’re ever in Austin (SXSW anyone?), take a trip over the river to “SoCo” and buy (Texas) local. 

even simpler tofu options

Monday, February 18, 2008

I wouldn’t want to suggest that the soup I made yesterday was complicated or challenging at all, but there are times when I want food that’s even easier to prepare.  Tonight’s version: baked tofu and sautéed brussels sprouts. 

The tofu, garlic, and brussels sprouts were all local, but the soy sauce, ginger, cayenne, and lime juice that went into the sauce/marinade for the tofu were not. 

Last week’s super-quick local lunch strategy was sandwiches on locally-made bread (my favorite Slow Rise multigrain) with Fresh Tofu, Inc.‘s sesame-tofu spread and baby spinach from the farmers’ market.

The spinach didn’t really want to stay in the sandwich, so it needed the plastic wrap to be packable, but those were nice lunches.

Tofu Challenge: Baked Tofu Sandwich

Looks like we’re all singing the same song here at Farm To Philly, as I too was recently hit with a nasty cold.  Working outside of the home and doing the mom thing while miserably sick means my kitchen (and gym!) get a break.  For meals, quick and easy have been my MO, with a little bit of spice to alleviate the sinuses.  I’ve had lots of soups and sandwiches, including this yummy creation of Fresh Tofu’s baked tofu, Blooming Glen onion, spinach, roasted red peppers, homemade hot pepper spread, hummus and refried beans:

Because this tofu is already seasoned and processed, there’s no reason to press, drain or marinade.  Each package comes with four mini blocks, each of which I simply sliced “open” and heated in a non-oiled pan.  I also grilled the bread, complet from Bakers on Broad, using a light coating of olive oil.  There was no method to the rest of the ingredients—I just scavenged the refrigerator.  I’m pretty sure you already guessed that, though.   The result was a filling and flavorful meal that, most importantly, didn’t require too much strain on my foggy brain.

Although I prepare Fresh Tofu’s baked tofu fairly often, this was the first time I added it to a sandwich—something I’ll definitely do again.  The texture is perfectly dense, and the flavor very mild with just a hint of sesame, making it a perfect addition to just about any meal.  I absolutely recommend also using it as salad topper; cut into tiny cubes and crisped in a dry frying pan, they provide a fantastic protein punch with great texture and taste.  It’s also great in stirfries, either sliced into strips or cubed.

Posted for:

Tofu Challenge: tofu and noodle soup

Like almost everyone else, it seems, I’ve been sick for the last several days.  Yesterday, having run out of other soup options, I made a nice, brothy soup with rice noodles and local tofu.

Except for the rice noodles and hot sauce, nearly everything in this soup is local: onion, garlic, crimini mushrooms, tofu, chard, and homemade veggie stock.  I don’t usually eat tofu in soup—it’s often fried first, and fried is basically the only way I dislike tofu—but I think I’ll probably try this again. 

On the Wagon

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Life has been unusually busy around here lately.  I thought February was supposed to be a sleepy month with plenty of time to study the seed catalogs and whip up late winter dishes.  It’s not happening this month.  Anyway, I’ve found that I’m able to stay on the local foods wagon even when I’m pinched for time and have to shop at one of the huge supermarkets with more produce from Peru than PA by buying mushrooms.  With Kennett Square being the mushroom capital or some such designation, a lot of mushrooms that are at the big supermarket chains are actually grown in-state.  So it was that I was able to make this batch of stuffed mushrooms to take to a party this weekend. (I snapped the photo before we left - we popped them under the broiler for about 8 minutes once we got to our hosts’ house.)  Not perfect locavore cuisine, but not bad either.  Oh, and they’re very tasty and easy. 

Stuffed Mushrooms

1 lb. of mushrooms (button, white, baby bella, etc.) with stems removed and reserved
1/2 - 1 c. swiss cheese
1 c. bread crumbs
1/4 c. butter
2-4 T. minced onion

Mince half of the mushroom stems with the onion. Add the cheese, bread crumbs, butter and seasonings. Stuff mushrooms and broil for 5-8 minutes.

Baked tofu w/vegetables + peanut sauce

Saturday, February 16, 2008

I am a fairly recent convert to tofu. To help myself along, I bought this quite helpful cookbook by Deborah Madison, author also of the Greens Cookbook and The Savory Way called This Can’t Be Tofu! My favorite way to prepare it is one she describes in the “Techniques” section where it could easily be missed: baking it. I have found that cutting the brick in thirds and then in quarters makes for nice-sized pieces, and then I bake it on parchment paper—no oil necessary. 35 mins. at 375 will give you little tofu puff—dense and chewy. Then I can do with it what I want.

I like her Tofu in Creamy Nut Butter with Scallions, but I substitute my baked squares of locally made Fresh Tofu for her fried tofu trianges. And then add a stir fry of vegetables—here, napa cabbage, yellow pepper, shitake mushrooms, and carrots. Good stuff for a winter meal.

Dark Days and Tofu Challenge: chili

Like just about everyone else I know, I’m recovering from some sort of plague.  After spending many hours this past week riding the couch I finally managed to cook a little something.  Between my cold and the cold outside, I wanted something filling and comforting.

Mikaela told me last month that freezing tofu will change the texture and make it more meat-like.  I froze one of the blocks of Fresh Tofu I picked up from the Fair Food Farmstand and thawed it.  I thought it would make a nice meat substitute for chili.  Admittedly, I had my doubts - it seemed rubbery as I was tearing it up.

Oh ye of little faith!

The chili turned out to be really great and almost entirely made from local ingredients.  Aside from salt, pepper, and a small can of tomato paste, that is.  I used a pound of pinto beans from Margerum’s (Clark Park Farmer’s Market), a bag full of frozen corn from last year’s CSA, dried parsley from last year’s garden, and a couple jars of plum tomatoes I canned last year.  And, of course, locally made tofu…which, as Mikaela promised, really does have a meaty quality.  In fact, if I didn’t know it was tofu I probably wouldn’t have noticed.

On a day like today, it was an excellent lunch with a heel of sourdough bread from Le Bus.  Yum!

A Simple Gnocchi

Monday, February 11, 2008

Velvet-textured and feather-light, a plate of sauced gnocchi seems, to me, a perfect winter dish.  Whether dressed in a chunky, wintry tomato sauce with carrots, celery and rosemary, coated in melted gorgonzola and vodka, or simply tossed with parmesan, browned butter and sage, gnocchi is beautifully accommodating to an amazing variety of sauces (these are just my three favorites). 

This is not to say that I’ve found gnocchi to be the easiest thing to master.  On the contrary, I failed miserably at least a dozen teams before coming up with something passable.  Through much trial-and-error (mostly error), I did stumble upon a few simple things to improve consistency and hasten the process.  One, despite the possibility of food mills, I steadfastly refuse to use anything other than my ricer.  It may take a little longer, but the result is always airy and dry, not pasty and wet.  Second, as sacriligious as this sounds, I peel the potatoes and cut them into uniform pieces.  This quickens the cooking time and makes it more uniform (it’s also much easier to throw them in the ricer.)  Finally, I don’t bother shaping them against the tines of a fork.  Yes, I know it’s supposed to improve how they cook and “grab” the sauce, but I can’t be bothered.  I roll them out, cut them, and throw them into the boiling water.  If I were to add another step, I think the whole thing would seem to cumbersome.

For years, I followed Mario Batali’s recipe of 3 pounds of russet potatoes, 2 cups of flour, and 1 egg.  However, I recently discovered Marcella Hazan’s version from her seminal Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.  Unlike Batali’s, there are no eggs (which, she insists, creates a heaviness in the gnocchi), a greater ratio of flour-to-potato, and, most importantly, “old” waxy potatoes are used.  I was daunted a protein-less gnocchi.  How would it hold together?  What would the texture be?  Would they dissolve in the boiling water?  Lured by the possibility of even lighter gnocchi, I took one-and-a-half pounds of kennebec potatoes from my recent Winter Harvest delivery, one-and-a-half cups of King Arthur Flour and created this.

I am not certain if they really are lighter, but they were certainly easier to make.  They also appeal to my sense that a recipe should be as simple and have as few ingredient as possible.  Though, I don’t suppose it’s fair to call that “my” sense: it’s just Italian.