Tofu Biryani

Well of course it isn't traditional. I also omitted the cashew nuts, so it is a nut-free Biryani as well.

This is a two-day project, but unless you have a particularly greedy bunch to feed, it should provide you with several days of leftovers. That makes the effort seem worth it to my mind. I used tofu because I'm now wild about seitan "meat" replacements. I have no idea how this would work with them, but if you try it, I'd be interested to hear how it turned out. When re-heat this, add a few drop of olive oil to a large pan and give it a blast of heat before reducing it to low. This will help it maintain a crispy bottom layer of rice.

Marinade:
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 small onions, finely minced
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
3 tablespoons (not a misprint) finely chopped fresh ginger (peel it first)
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons poppy seeds
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 chicken flavoured (or veggie) soup cubes, crushed and diluted with 2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons malt vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
8 ounces plain yoghurt

Mix it all together really well. Take a package of extra firm tofu, cut it into 4 slices and press it dry under weights. Mix with marinade and layer in a non-reactive pan (glass is good). Chill overnight.

Next day, remove the tofu from the marinade (reserve the marinade) and cut into small cubes. In a heavy, heat proof pan (I used a Dutch oven) bake in a 400 degree f. oven for 30 minutes, stirring a few times to allow for even browning.

Meanwhile, slice 3 onions as thinly as possible. Measure out 1/3 cup of olive oil. Remove 3 tablespoons. You will use this to fry the onions. Set aside 3 tablespoons of raisins, and 1/4 teaspoon cardamom to fry with the onions.

Remove the tofu from the oven and stir in the reserved marinade, and the reserved oil. Cover and let sit until needed. Heat 1/4 cup of milk, 1 teaspoon saffron threads, and 1 teaspoon of sugar just until sugar dissolves. Let steep 5 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, make the rice. Boil 1 1/2 cups long grain while rice in enough water to cover by several inches. Cook 7 minutes, then drain well. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Spoon the rice over the tofu and marinade. Add the milk/saffron and mix well to distribute the yellow colour. Cover dish tightly, and bake 1 hour. Meanwhile, make the onions.

In the reserved 3 tablespoons of oil, fry the onions, cardamom and raisins over very low heat until they begin to soften and colour. This should take about 30 minutes. At the end, turn up the heat to really fry the onions until deeply browned. Remove to a plate covered in absorbent paper (I use paper lunch sacks) . Use this to top the Biryani. Serve with yoghurt,

Diet Yoghurt...

...is the devil's handiwork. Blech, what completely vile shit-how does anyone eat it?

I was lured-in by the inexpensive price-sakes alive, they shouldn't be permitted to give it away. The stuff is poison. I'm not convinced it is actual food.

I managed a couple spoons before pouring it down the drain. I really hate to waste, but I think that was an act of self-preservation. There must be a better way to get calcium.

Vile, I tell you. Vile!

Pumpkin Raisin Quickbread With Yoghurt

A little of everything in this one. I've been informed that it is "good", but not "as good as banana bread." That was the five year old. The forty nine year old thought it was just dandy.
The recipe makes 1 extra large loaf, or two smaller.

You Will Need:

2 cups AP flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 heaping teaspoon ground ginger (use more or less to your taste)
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoons honey
2 large eggs
1 small tin pumpkin (plain pumpkin-not the pie filling) or about 2 cups
1/2 cup plain yoghurt, drained until thick
1 cup raisins or currants

Generously butter one large or two standard loaf pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, and nutmeg. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in eggs. Beat in pumpkin and yoghurt. Gently mix in the dry ingredients. Fold in raisins. Pour into pans and bake until centre tests dry with a toothpick. My large loaf took about 1 hour, 20 min. You should really start checking at around 1 hour for a large loaf.

Cool on rack in pan about 30 minutes, then cool completely on rack before slicing. You should know, we didn't do this-we attacked that bread like we'd been days without food. If you can resist, you should let it ripen a bit before tearing into it. Hard to do though.

Yogurt Marinated Tofu

Have half a carton of plain yoghurt sitting around approaching the expiration date? Yeah, me too. What's worse, it wasn't very good yoghurt. That's OK, it made a terrific marinade for tofu.

I put this together early this morning and cooked it tonight. I would give the tofu a minimum of four hours soaking.

There are a million variations of this recipe. The one at 101 Cookbooks is also very good, though it uses lemon juice which I prefer to skip. If you hate thyme (you're probably a weirdo, but that's OK I like weirdos) feel free to skip it, or try some other herb. Like most of what I cook, this is more of an idea than a recipe. You're still probably a weirdo if you hate thyme. How can anyone dislike thyme? It is the perfect herb. Weirdos.

I served the tofu with cous cous, carrots and shallots cooked with raisins and apricots, and a salad with blood orange vinegarette.

You Will Need:

I package extra firm tofu (NOT silken)
2 cups plain yoghurt, drained through a cheesecloth lined sieve for at least an hour.
3 tablespoons olive oil
Dash salt
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 tablespoons ground cumin (you can use less if you prefer)
A generous grind of black pepper

Mix it together and pour some in a small casserole dish. Prepare the tofu by slicing it in four pieces and then pressing as much liquid out as possible with towels. Layer the tofu on the yoghurt mixture and then cover with remaining mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and chill several hours.

Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy pan (I used cast iron, but if you have a grill pan that would be great). Scrape off excess marinade and place the slices in the hot pan. Cook over medium heat until browned, then turn and cook on other side.

Tofu With Yoghurt and Vegetables

I was going for something North African inspired, and the results were pretty good. Since Danny had the allergic reaction to (we think) the sesame, that has changed the way I treat tofu (usually with sesame oil and hoisan). I've used THIS recipe for cumin/yoghurt marinated tofu before and it worked well, but this time I took the idea and gave it a bit different treatment. Isn't that what cooking is about?

Make the tofu ahead and keep it chilled in the fridge to be tossed into the vegetables in the last few minutes of cooking. Or, cook it all at once if you're determined to wear yourself out cooking. Your call ;)

I served this dish over cous cous prepared with diced dried apricots and raisins.


You Will Need:

For the tofu:

1 block extra-firm tofu, rinsed and pressed free of as much water as possible
Olive oil
yoghurt (about a cup of plain)
ground cumin
salt

Heat a small amount (a couple tablespoons) of olive oil in a cast iron pan or other heavy pan. Cube the tofu and fry it until it is golden on all sides. Remove to a bowl.

Mix about a cup of plain yoghurt with a glug of olive oil, some salt and a couple tablespoons of ground cumin (use your tastes as a guide). Coat the pieces well and let stand about five minutes. Re-heat the pan with a bit more oil and with a slotted spoon, remove the tofu letting excess liquid drain back in the bowl and fry over medium heat until the wetness has evaporated and the tofu chunks are somewhat browned on the outside. Remove to a plate and chill until needed to assemble the dinner.

For the vegetables:

4 large carrots, thinly sliced
1 bunch scallions, chopped
1 tablespoon preserved lemon rind, chopped
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon mild chili powder (if I were making this for "grown-ups" I would have used more heat)
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary, crumbled
Salt and Pepper to taste
Peas, small pea pods and any other remnant from the garden lurking in your veggie bins (I had about a dozen pods to use)

Heat some olive oil ( a few tablespoons) in a large frying pan and cook everything until tender. I prefer my parsley a bit on the cooked side, but you can reserve some for sprinkling at the end if you like.

In the last few minutes of cooking, add the tofu and re-warm it through. Serve hot over cous cous with extra yoghurt if you like.

Quick Bread With Yogurt and Olive Oil

If I couldn't have butter and milk, this cake might be a nice substitute for pound cake. Since I can have butter and milk, I was kind of unimpressed with it. I guess it was sort of a novelty thing. The boys liked it quite a bit. I substituted lemon zest for the lime, but otherwise followed the recipe, which may be found HERE.

The cherry sauce was a complete experiment, and it worked fine. Basically, I under-cooked some jam.

For the Sauce:

4 cups pitted cherries (any kind)
1 cup granulated sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup water

Pit the cherries, place them in a bowl and cover with sugar. Let stand about an hour. Once the juices begin to run, toss the cherries and sugar into a pot and add the water and lemon juice. Cook over high heat, stirring constantly until it reduces. You don't want to take this to the gelling point, so test it with a cold, metal spoon. If it dribbled off in thick droplets you're good. You don't want it to break in sheets. If it does, no big deal, you have preserves.

This makes about a pint. I cooled mine in a heat-proof casserole dish on the counter and then transfered it to an open jar that I let cool completely in the fridge before closing. Use it within a week or so. I doubt it will be around that long.

Ginger/Cherry Frozen Yoghurt

I couldn't resist using the syrup in a frozen yoghurt. The flavour is subtle-if I'd known I'd be making this I'd have used much more ginger in the syrup-still it is nice, and the iciness you often get with a syrup isn't nearly as bad as I expected.

2 cups full-fat yoghurt
1 cup cherry/ginger syrup


Churn, and freeze several hours before serving.

Curries, Chutney, Coconut Rice And Fried Snacks

Admittedly, making curries when you're suffering stomach ills isn't the most obvious thing-but the rest of my family still needs to eat. I did sample about two tablespoons of dinner just so I could say if I liked it (I did) but I'm afraid this sort of thing is off my menu for a while.

The dinner consisted of curried potatoes and peas, a chickpea curry with coconut rice and apple yoghurt and tomato chutney as sides. I also made some fried snacks from chickpea flour. Those, I was less crazy about, though the flavour was good and they were light and crunchy. I should have cut them much thinner or forced them through a sieve so they would look like noodles, but this worked OK.

This whole meal was built around my inability to toss the remaining ¼ cup of coconut milk left over from the cake and frosting. Talk about thrifty! I was thinking I would need paneer and ghee so I made both and ended-up forgetting to use them. I guess I can make naan and saag tomorrow. I swear, my mind just hasn't been right this week and I'm blaming it on the mega doses of prednisone to counteract the iodine allergy on Tuesday. This has been the most miserable week (I won't go into the details, being a food blog and all) made all the worse by the feeling of being a hamster running in a wheel (not so good for getting much sleep either, but damn, my cupboards are tidy. I have one more dose of this stuff to go and probably a week after until the effects start fading, but wow, did this week ever stink. Well, enough about that, and on to the food.

You Will Need:

For The Chutney:

1 pint grape tomatoes
1 medium red onion, chopped
¼ cup chopped dried apricots
1-cup sultanas
1 large sprig fresh rosemary, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
¾ cup brown sugar
¼ cup cider vinegar
¼ cup water
½ teaspoon salt
A few flakes of dried red pepper

Toss it all in a heavy bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and cook until tomatoes pop and most of the liquid evaporates. Cool, pack in jars and use within a week.

For The Apple Yoghurt:

1 apple, finely chopped
1-cup plain yoghurt
1-tablespoon honey

Mix well and serve with curries.

For the Potatoes:

2 tablespoons oil
4-5 boiled potatoes, drained and quartered
1 cup cooked green peas
3-4 shallots, finely sliced
1-tablespoon madras curry powder
Salt to taste

Cook the shallots in the oil until softened. Add the peas, potatoes and curry powder. Mix well and cook a few minutes more. Adjust salt and serve.

For The Chickpeas:

4 cups cooked chickpeas
3 tablespoons oil
3 medium onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped ginger root
Salt to taste
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons coriander
½ cup hot water
2 teaspoons garam masala powder

Cook the onions, garlic and ginger in the oil in a large frying pan until golden and softened. Add the chickpeas, then the salt, cayenne, turmeric, coriander and hot water. Increase heat and cook off excess water. Boil for a minute or so and remove from heat. Stir in garam masala and serve hot over coconut rice.

For The Coconut Rice:

Stir in ¼ cup of coconut milk to cooked, hot rice.

For The Chick Pea Flour Crackers:

1-cup chickpea flour
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1-teaspoon oil
½ cup (or more) water for mixing
2 cups oil for frying

Mix the dry ingredients and rub in the oil. Add enough water to make a stiff dough. Heat the oil for frying. Cut into long strips (or force through a wide-holed sieve if you have one). Add to hot oil and fry until deep gold. Store in airtight container.