Veganmofo: YRR Mission Continues: Cajun Crusted Tofu

 

 One of those cookbooks you keep coming back to paired with one of those recipes you always wanted to make but somehow never got around to it.

Yellow Rose Recipe's Cajun Crusted Tofu has been tempting me since it's testing days.

So when I defrosted some homemade tofu and thought, what am I gonna do 2 lbs of tofu YRR had the answer.

First came the Cajun spice, which let me tell you is worth the cover price alone. These were cripy, chewing bundles of delight.

Diner was pretty simple, wild rice, steam carrots/broccoli, Garlic braised cabbage, YRR Cajun Tofu and some amazing Mustard Chow from the Market.

Braised cabbage!

Crispy tofu slices

Late Night Snack: Curry Caramel Corn!!

ZOMG!
Let me just say, this may be some of the best stuff I've ever tasted. I was checking out Choir Queer's Recipe and asked them if they've ever tried it without the coconut (being lazy, I didn't want to open a can for a tablespoon or two). Choir Queer advised me to try it and then let them know, so I did!

The recipe below is almost the same, and Choir Queer offers a lovely step by step photo guide along with their recipe at there blog: Here. 

ETA: I've just been informed the original inspiration came from peas and thank you!

That version looks super fancy and tasty, but my kitchen being what it was I made a few changes.






 Salty, Spicy, Curry Caramel Corn!

• plain popcorn popped with you prefered method
• 1/2 or more sesame seeds
• 3 heaping TBS Margerine
• Splash of Sesame oil (I a tiny drizzle left)
• 1 large tsp Curry Powder
• 1 tsp of fine salt
• 1/3 cup of brown sugar + 2 table spoons
• Splash of maple syrup
• Coarse sea salt, Fresh ground black pepper and cayanne

Pop your corn however you like. I have two main ways, the lazy way: take a brown paper bag, handful of corn, fold the bag over and microwave with the popcorn button. Or the old fashioned way on the stove: Coat the bottom of a pan with canola oil, heat over medium high until glossy, add enough corn to make a single layer on the bottom. Turn heat down to medium, and shake the pan until the corn pops. Once you've done your corn, toss it into a bowl and rinse you pan (or grab a pan or microwavable dish if you don't have a stove).

With your pan over heat melt the margerine and sprinkle in your sesame oil if using. Stir until combined over heat, then shut off the heat. Now grab your brown sugar and dump into the pan stiring until it melts. Add your curry powder, fine salt, mapple syrup and a dash of cayanne if you want it creamy.
Once sugar melts turn heat to medium and continue stiring over heat until it bubbles and is fully combined 3-5 minutes. Mine kinda looked like those candy making videos with lots of bubbles and if you push some up on the pan it slides off easily. Remove quickly from heat and toss over popcorn, toss in your sesame seeds and toss to coat.

Continue tossing until you can get it evenly coated or mixed around. While the caramel is still tacky sprinkle your coarse sea salt/grey salt, grind pepper and add your cayanne (if you didn't put it straight into the sauce). Keep tossing to coat.

Eat all at once and feel fancy!

Alternatively you could try using garlic powder, chili powder or other savoury flavours into the sauce or corn. This would also make a pretty nifty house warming gift!

Let's get Fancy now

Here is a cheap and easy way to impress your dates, friends and family and to make your everyday vegan food look uber fancy. We've all seen the fancy restaurant portions of little food artistically mounted onto a plate for the "ouuus" and "ahhhs" only to leave you still fucking hungry! So my solution, stack your own food.
Stacking food, especially into little towers of alternating flavours looks impressive and isn't very hard. Best of all, you get enough to eat and hey, this might even get you laid. Now, normally I don't give two rats asses about presentation, I want tasty food and I wanted it now damn it. But if you have people to impress or want to try something new here are a few easy tips.
1)Use edibles to create beds, baskets, mounds or cups to present your food on. Because no one wants to pick out paper or plastic from their food when they sit down to eat. Dress up plain plates with drizzles of sauce, a bed of lettuce or get really fancy and cut carrots and other vegetables into cute little shapes to arrange.

2)For some reason humans are fascinated and excited about food in shapes. Molds are an easy way to do this, now this doesn't mean you should go out and buy all kinds of fancy equipment but the next time you make say a grain/noodle/mashed potatoes try experimenting with what you have available. Spray some oil into a mug, tupper ware contain, old EB container etc and try different shapes it may take some practice but once you master it you can create layers by alternating sauce, vegetables (squash etc works nicely). Rissorto work really well for this.

3) finally the easiest of all is food towers. Which is basically stacking your food on the plate, alternating sauces/toppings with your main dish. This works in a variety of ways, you could do tofu rounds, eggplant rounds, polenta rounds and basically make all your food round or you could use different shapes and for an alternating pattern. Sometimes I find using a variety of shapes gives a dish more appeal for example my breakfast:


Tofu triangles stacked onto a bed of sauteed mushrooms with onion and then repeated until finished surrounded by rounded potatoes. This is a very simple dish, but it gets fancier just because of the way it is plated.