Pan-Fried Mystery

It may not look horribly appetizing, but all things considered, it wasn't bad!

Like many meat-eating american males in my age group (read: alive), my experience with tofu in the past has been somewhat limited. I've never really considered that a shame, but I've also never had the distaste towards the stuff that appears evident in those who are not vegetarians. However, while I don't despise the stuff, let's face it: meat tastes better. Thus, it should be noted that I used tofu in this dish simply to remain true to the recipe (and to experiment with an ingredient I rarely use); it could certainly be made with chicken or beef and probably have a bit more depth of both flavor and texture to it as a result.

When I first discovered this recipe, I earmarked it simply for the novelty. It seemed like a dish that would help ease my way into working with the gooey soy substance and, if it resulted in a failure, would still result in a mixture of beans, mushrooms, and sauce that would still be tasty. That said, the end product turned out fairly favorable; I'm not sure I'll be making it again (or at least not without some modifications), but it did help me develop some techniques that are fairly common in asian-style cuisines.

Tofu Stir-Fry with Snap Peas and Mushrooms

(Stolen entirely from The Kitchn)

Ingredients

For the sauce:

3/4c chicken or vegetable broth

3tbsp soy sauce

1tbsp rice wine vinegar

2tsp sugar

2tbsp corn starch

For the not-sauce:

5tbsp vegetable oil

1/3c corn starch

1 block (14oz) extra-firm tofu, cut into cubes

10oz small mushrooms, quartered

8oz snow peas

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 bunch green onions, chopped

Heat a standard wok or skillet to medium-high heat.

Procedure

Before starting work on any of the major ingredients, it's important to prepare the sauce. Mix the broth, soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar in a small bowl until the sugar has dissolved. Add the corn starch and whisk until it has incorporated. Set the mixture aside; it won't be used until near the end of the process.

Place the 1/3c corn starch into a small bowl and toss about half the tofu in the powder until well coated. Add about 1tbsp of the oil to the wok and let it heat up until just before the smoking point (if it starts smoking, just ease off the heat a bit). Place the tofu in the wok and let it sit for about a minute before attempting to move the pieces. Flip the pieces over completely to start cooking them on the other side, and let them fry for another minute. Remove them to a plate lined with a paper towel and repeat this entire process for the second half of the tofu chunks. Set the entire batch of tofu aside.

Add another tbsp of oil to the wok and let it heat back up. Add the mushrooms and fry, tossing or stirring frequently to prevent burning, until they have browned and shrunk to about 2/3 their size (they will be releasing moisture during this process; when no more steam is coming off, they are ready). Add the snow peas and garlic and continue tossing/stirring for another 10-15 seconds (longer won't hurt anything, but I prefer my vegetables nearly raw in most cases, so didn't see the need for a longer cook time).

Whisk the sauce mixture made at the start of all this to ensure that the starch re-distributes through the liquid and add it to the wok. Continue cooking, stirring periodically, to reduce the sauce to the consistency you desire (note, however, that the sauce will thicken as it cools as well, so err on the side of caution and don't overcook). Allow the sauce to come to just above room temperature before adding the onions and tofu; this will allow the sauce to continue to thicken, helping to reduce softening of the fried tofu. Additionally, green onions are better fresh, so we don't want the sauce to end up cooking them.

Serve alongside rice or by itself, according to your preference!

Lessons Learned

This was a fairly straightforward recipe; I must give credit to the folks at the Kitchn (or whoever they stole it from) for putting together a very good procedure to work with. That said, I found the tofu fairly bland; I might consider marinating it for a half hour or so in a flavorful broth of some sort to infuse a bit more into it. Also, the dish was very salty, and came across as imbalanced. I would've preferred a sweet note of some sort, perhaps adding some oyster or hoisin sauce to the mix to balance things out. A bit of heat might help as well, but I've never been a big fan of overly-spiced dishes either.

All things considered, I may give this recipe another shot with some meat instead of tofu, simply to see how things need to be changed in order to accomodate it.

Sweetening the Nut

Pictured: Not my peanuts.

Lest one of my rapidly-dwindling readers decide to make a wise remark, I'll just preface this by stating that I am fully aware that peanuts are not nuts; however, "Sweetening the Legume" certainly doesn't have the same ring to it. That said, brace yourselves for yet another of my infamous culinary disasters, which unfortunately seem to happen with frightening frequency. My initial goal of creating my own delicious honey-roasted peanuts (thereby sticking it to Mr. Peanut, the greedy bastard that charges so heavily for these things) remains a distant sight that will hopefully be reached with some minor tweaks to the current recipe.

My more avid readers will find it entirely unsurprising that I stole this recipe from The Kitchn add to the lack of surprise, despite their claims to the contrary, I can safely assure you, the readers that I hold so dear, that the Kitchnfolks who oringially posted the recipe almost certainly didn't even bother attempting it before giving it shining accolades. If they had, I'd like to think that they would have been willing to level with the Internet at large by pointing out that the recipe is very poorly balanced and doesn't work at all (I'll elaborate in greater detail towards the end of this post). However, I do think that the recipe shows promise for tinkering, so it may as well be documented for posterity.

Honey-Roasted Peanuts

(Stolen from The Kitchn)

Ingredients

16oz. Roasted unsalted peanuts*

1/3c Honey

1/2c Sugar

*I don't know that I've ever been able to find roasted unsalted peanuts anywhere. Even if they did exist, they'd be too expensive for this recipe to be cost-effective for anyone other than the aforementioned Mr. Peanut himself. Thus, I settled on using salted peanuts and eliminating the kosher salt from the original recipe. I know that would result in a small sacrifice in texture, but I made up for it with sugar instead.

Preheat oven to 350F

Melt the honey in the microwave until it is liquified and runs smoothly (probably about 1 minute). Make sure not to let it go too long, lest it burn and become unpleasant. Also, don't touch it. Hot honey burns are painful. Pour the peanuts into a large mixing bowl and prepare to make a mess.

Sure, they look innocent now...

Drizzle the melted honey over the peanuts and mix thoroughly. This will require some effort, as honey tends to be somewhat sticky, and honey-coated peanuts like to stick to anything that makes contact with them.

At this point, one hopes that coating the peanuts in salt will help with the stickage. Yeah, let's see how that works out.

Sprinkle the sugar over the peanuts and stir to coat (as best you can). Spread them out onto a well-greased baking sheet and bake for around 20 minutes, stirring frequently to ensure that the peanuts don't burn. You want them to brown, but that's about it. Let them cool before attempting to handle (naturally).

You can't really tell, but the spatula is stuck there. I couldn't remove it. I ended up shooting the entire thing, bowl and all, into the center of the sun. Now I need a new spatula.

Lessons Learned

You will note that I unfortunately did not retain a photo of my actual finished product (I know, you're shocked that the picture up top is not a real result, right?). Suffice it to say that this recipe produced what I would charitably describe as "a gooey mess". See, honey is sticky and messy at room temperature, which is the temperature at which most peanuts tend to be stored. Therefore, coating the peanuts in said goo and then setting them out simply results in peanuts that pack up into clumps and leave a honey-sugar residue on the fingers. This result, while tasty, does not meet my definition of honey-roasted peanuts.

To fix this result, I think it might help to add some of the sugar to the honey during the microwave process in order to create a solution that has been hypersaturated with sugar. One might note that sugar itself is solid at room temperature; therefore, more sugar makes more solid. Baking the peanuts at a lower temperature for longer might also help, as the baking process eliminates water from the coating, which would (hopefully) result in a more solid glaze. Of course, this is just speculation until my next attempt, which should be coming soon!