Our First Moosewood Adventure

Tonight we made sesame tofu and Northern Indian Stuffed Eggplant, a recipe that came from a Moosewood Cookbook (for anyone not familiar, check out Mollie Katzen and her fabulous cookbooks at http://www.molliekatzen.com/books.php).

The sesame tofu had a lot of potential, but we would recommend some changes. Here is the recipe the way we made it, with  notes on changes following.

Ingredients:

1 package extra firm tofu
1/4 cup cornstarch, for dusting
oil (for frying)
1/2 cup sesame seeds, lightly toasted
1 bunch scallion, diced (we didn't have these but they would have been delicious)

Sauce
1/3 cup honey (we just barely didn't have enough so added a tbsp of brown sugar) 4 tablespoons tamari soy sauce (we used regular soy sauce) 3 tablespoons finely minced ginger root 3 tablespoons sesame oil 3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar 3 finely minced garlic cloves 1 -2 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes

Directions:
Drain tofu (wrap tofu in paper towels and put under heavy press for 30 minutes)
Dust tofu with corn starch
Cube or cut into long strips (whichever you prefer) and deep fry in at least 1 inch of oil until tofu turns a beautiful golden color (on all sides). Be really careful - that oil is super hot!
While tofu is cooking, mix all sauce ingredients in small pan until they start to boil
Throw tofu into the sauce and let it sit and soak until you're ready to eat (at least 10 minutes)
Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve!

Our recommendations:
Double the honey amount and reduce the sesame oil and vinegar (by at least a tablespoon each). Our sauce wasn't as viscous as it could have been and a bit too acidic.

(Original recipe at http://www.food.com/recipe/sesame-tofu-177242)

Northern Indian Stuffed Eggplant

Ingredients:

2 large eggplants
4 c cubed potatoes
8 ounces of cream cheese
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 c chopped onion
4 tspn cumin (the original recipe called for 2)
2 tbsn coriander (the original called for 1)
2 tspn turmeric (the original called for 1)
1/2 small hot red pepper
1/4 tspn cloves (ground)
4 tbsn ginger root
4 cloves garlic, diced
2 med carrots, diced
1 large green pepper, diced
1 c frozen peas
1 tomato, diced
2 tbsn lemon juice
sesame seeds

Directions:

First cut the eggplants in half, lay them cut side down on an oiled baking sheet, and bake them, covered, on 375 for 30-40 min (until cooked enough to mash). 

Boil potatoes (we used about 5 smallish potatoes, not peeled). Once boiled, drain water and mash cream cheese into potatoes.
Saute onion with cumin, coriander, turmeric, and cloves. When onion turns translucent (in one minute or so), add carrots and cook for about 5 minutes. Then add ginger, garlic, and chili pepper. Cook another minute or two. Then add green pepper and frozen peas. Cook for about 5 minutes. Add tomato and lemon juice. Cook another 3 minutes and remove from heat.

Mix onion mixture with potatoes.

Flip your eggplant and scoop out the eggplant guts, leaving the skin intact. Add eggplant pulp to potato/onion mixture and mix well.
Stuff 1/4 mixture into each of the 4 eggplant slices. Bake for 15-20 at 375.

Tada! Indian food that actually tastes delicious AND like Indian food.

One thought we had was substituting potatoes with cauliflower and making this dish over rice next time.

A little Italy

Pesto was the word today.

Starting from pesto, we went to pasta and then a beautiful salad, and then a baguette was added as well.

Pesto Pasta

Ingredients:
1½ cups fresh basil
1 cup Italian parsley
4 garlic cloves, peeled
2 cups walnut pieces
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup olive oil
1 cup Pecorino Romano, grated (we used Parmesan)

Directions:
Put the pasta of your choice on the stove to boil
Put all pesto ingredients except the cheese into a food processor and pulse until uniformly paste-like
In a large bowl, toss pesto and approximately half a cup of the cooked pasta water (to make it creamy, so you can use less or more water depending on how you like it)
Use additional pesto to spread on baguette and anything else that comes your way

Source: http://www.lidiasitaly.com/recipes/detail/280

Summer Salad

Ingredients:
1 (ripe) mango cubed
1 (ripe) avocado cubed
Quarter of a red onion (maybe even less) sliced thinly
Fresh blueberries (amount to your taste)
Fresh strawberries (amount to your taste, we recommend most of a quart of strawberries) chopped
1 cup crumbled feta
Baby spinach

Dressing:
2.5 tbsps vegetable oil (although the original calls for olive oil)
1.5 tbsps fresh lemon juice
2 tbsps apple cider vinegar (you can probably use something else but that's what we used and it was so good!)
2 tsps brown sugar
A little bit of salt (to taste)

Directions:
Throw the spinach, chopped mango, chopped avocado, strawberries, blueberries, onion, and feta together. Pour dressing on top and eat the entire bowl.

Inspired by: http://www.the36thavenue.com/2013/06/spinach-salad-recipe.html