An Attempt at Ingeniousness

The moon came out early!

     That title makes me sound awfully conceited. But, I'm not conceited I promise, I was just (for a moment last week) trying to do something new. I was trying to be different. I wanted to make tofu for dessert. And, yes I know it's been done before - many times. There are enough tofu chocolate pudding recipes online to make me think people have stopped making chocolate pudding any other way. Except, of course, they haven't because talking about chocolate pudding makes me seriously crave the one I made so long ago without any tofu at all.

     You know, I think the worst part about blogging is that I can't start going back and repeating things I have already made because I wouldn't be able to blog about those. I must forge ahead, but I feel like I didn't really get to enjoy that pudding in the rush of making and photographing and trying to post before midnight that was my life before I realized I didn't have to blog everyday. Sigh, the path of a food blog is not all strewn with roses. Rose petals actually because if it was supposed to be strewn with roses I should have expected these little thorns. Ok, the bad analogy is over. We can all breathe a deep sigh of relief now.

     To return to the point at hand: tofu dessert. Well, I know tofu pudding has been done, but really this whole experiment started out without me thinking of tofu at all. It started out because, remember those Coconut Lemon Bars? The ones I had issues with because the filling slopped all over the place because I tried to make them in only half a baking sheet? Well, since some of the filling spilled out, one corner of the bars got baked without any filling at all- as a kind of big cookie. Well, most of that got eaten, but some was left behind, and then of course there were all the bits of crust that were stuck to the pan. And immediately I got to thinking, what can cookie stuff be used for? Cookie crumbs? Cookie crumb crust. Hence, you know, the hammer above for cutting up my cookie crumbs since I don't have a food processor.

     So, I wanted to make some kind of a tart with a cookie crumb crust. I still had some lemons left, and I had some yogurt....and I didn't want to go grocery shopping because I had to leave for Boston. Of course, if I had gone grocery shopping I wouldn't be back to eating eggs and grilled cheese sandwiches for every meal the past two days, but that is neither here nor there. So, I was sitting there thinking deep thoughts about lemon and yogurt. And that is when it hit me: I had to use up the tofu too! And now you know where this....tofu pudding tart...thing came from.

     For once, this is not something I think you should run off and try to make. I definitely will make another tofu dessert soon, or fix this one, but it is all an experiment. I mean, I made it in my steel tiffin so I would be able to make the crust out of how many cookie crumbs I had. I used the bit of tofu (about 1/4 of the block probably) and lemon and strawberry jam I had lying around. It didn't even set properly! Notice the filling oozing. But, it didn't taste half bad. I tried to mix the tofu up with only my hand mixer, so there were still some small tofu bits. If you have a food processor, you wouldn't have that problem meaning this dessert would taste good and have good texture. I guess I am not a complete failure after all. And, we did manage to eat all of it (me and DL - who didn't even guess it was tofu inside till I told him!), so I guess there's something to say for experimenting. And when you need something light and sweet, maybe tofu pudding is the way to go. It just....might need some tweaking.

Tofu Tart (Work in Progress) 

For the Crust: (for a 5'' diameter round) 

1/3 cup Shortbread-style Cookie Crumbs; pulverized with hammer or pulsed through a food processor
2 tbsp Butter

Mix together (or food process-together) the crumbs and the butter until the mixture is doughy. Then, spread it very carefully along the bottom of the tin. It will not be a thick layer.

Note: I didn't have enough cookie crumbs so I also had some granola in there. Granola doesn't break easily under hammer, I suggest sticking to cookie crumbs.

For the Filling: 

1/4 block Tofu
1 tbsp Lemon Juice
3 tbsp Sugar
1/3 cup Yogurt 
1/2 tbsp Strawberry Jam 

First, chop the tofu into very small pieces. Then, food process it (or put in a large bowl and try using a hand mixer to get it even smaller, but that probably won't work). Either in the food processor or still mixing with the hand mixer, add the lemon juice and allow the tofu to combine with it thoroughly. Then, add the sugar, yogurt, and jam. Mix everything together until it is thoroughly combined and the tofu is as disappeared as possible.

Pour the filling onto the crust. Allow it to set overnight in the fridge. It will not be completely set, but it will not be as liquidy either. Then, use spoons and eat it out of the tiffin because it is virtually impossible to cut slices.

I feel as though I am writing a joke recipe, but I guess in a way that is what this is :) Enjoy your own experimenting!

Time Off

What could it be?

     You might have noticed I took time off again. It tends to happen when I go home, something about my need to cook and in general have any responsibilities or obligations shutting off. They are on again - or maybe halfway on since I'm on the bus to Philly, and I don't really have to cook, just blog.

     Also, because I have a ton of recipe catching up to do. I went a little crazy last week, actually cooking every day again, because I was just so happy to have vegetables and cook fresh food. I'm going to have to grocery shop soon because I refuse to go through the kind of drought I had after spring break again. I may have a midterm next Monday, but I will grocery shop this week. Eating out just doesn't cut it.

     So, what first to share with you? It's a good thing that pictures get downloaded off cameras in chronological order, because now I can just share what I made longest ago with you today. That sentence got convoluted, but I'm sure you know what I mean. What did I make longest ago? Let's check the Pictures Folder. Oh right. Tofu. It was tofu week last week, and you are going to be hearing about tofu in many different incarnations. I'm excited, and if you are not excited than just be glad that even I cannot eat tofu for every meal so there are some non-tofuy things coming up as well.

So healthy!

     The tofu recipe of the day is mindnumbingly simple. It involves mixing a lot of things while cooking them in a frying pan, and then eating them super fast with a tortilla or roti or some rice because you don't have time or are famished after a long day. This is the kind of meal that is: super quick, super yummy, super super. Super. I'm happy today? Just looking forward to getting off this bus I guess.

     This is tofu done the Indian way. Its like mock scrambled eggs: Fry up some onions, spices, and tomato paste, dump in finely chopped tofu (instead of the eggs), whatever veggies you may have, mix everything together until it is cooked, and eat. It is flavorful. It is satisfying. I was so hungry I ate it right out of the pan and my tongue was burned for days - sometimes, you should not follow my example. Except when you have tofu and are out of fancy ways to cook it. Then you should make this, and be glad.

Tofu Scramble 

1/2 tbsp Vegetable Oil 
1/2 mid-sized Yellow Onion, Chopped as small as you like eating onions 

1/2 tsp Turmeric 

1 tsp Garam Masala 

1 tsp Coriander 
1/2 tbsp Tomato Paste
1/3 block Tofu, Sliced and then chopped into very small pieces 
Dash of Salt

Heat the oil in a frying pan at medium heat. Add the turmeric, garam masala, and coriander, stirring and frying for a minute. Then, add the onions and fry until they are translucent. Mix in the tomato paste and fry it for a minute, then dump in the tofu and the dash of salt. Stir everything together thoroughly until it is well combined (the tofu will become rather yellow from the turmeric). Cook at medium heat for about four minutes, stirring all the while, and you are ready!

Note: You may have noticed I also added three mushrooms (sliced) and maybe a half a handful of kale I had left to my scramble. I added them in at the same time as the tofu, and just left everything in the pan for a little longer to make sure each veggie was cooked properly. Feel free to do the same if you have mushrooms, spinach, kale, fresh tomatoes, etc. You will feel extra healthy.