Peanut Sauce, over Tofu and Broccoli, and Tofu Tutorial

The fastest and easiest way to pull several disparate foods together into a Real Meal is to add a sauce.

You can pour it on top. (Gravy.) You can cook one or more components in it, for the flavor. (Spaghetti and meatballs, macaroni and cheese.) You can use it to hold everything together. (Mayonnaise in countless salads.) Sauces add seasoning to bland foods, moisture to dry foods, and interest to everything.

A very quick and easy one I learned many years ago is a simple peanut sauce. This was making the rounds of vegetarian sources back in the 80s - inspired by an Indonesian dish, gado-gado. Well - most books called it gado-gado, but it isn't, really...  (With the wonders of the internet, you can look up real gado-gado. It looks delicious - but it's not this quick and mindless...)

That said - here is a simple vegetarian dish made interesting by an easy sauce, which, several levels removed, was vaguely inspired by an Indonesian food...

I used tofu. Chicken works well, too, or, really, almost any meat or fish I can think of. Tempeh has the advantage of being, even... Indonesian! The basic meal is some kind of protein, with some kind of vegetable, cooked in, or served under, a peanut sauce, the whole thing served over rice. In this case, I cooked the sauce separately from everything else, and poured it over.

For this, I prefer a firm tofu. For years I read, and ignored, instructions to put slabs of tofu on a slanted board with weights on it to make it firmer. Do it if you want - too much fuss for me... Then I learned a method of simply wrapping it in a clean kitchen towel (or even paper towels, if you must, but the paper gets soggy) and letting it sit on the drain board while you chop onions or start the rice or whatever your first step in cooking is. I find that just that little bit of time and attention makes a big difference in the end product - it's firmer, and browns nicely, and seems to get a bit more flavor from whatever it is cooked with. (If you prefer a soft tofu, don't do this - that's a different method, I'll talk about it another time.)

So, I wrapped my tofu and set it aside. Then, I sauteed an onion in a little olive oil, and added a bit of the chopped hot pepper I froze. I let them cook until just soft. Then I unwrapped my tofu, diced it, and added it to the pan.

If you use a stainless steel or enameled pan, the tofu will stick, at first. If you try to stir it too soon, the cooked browned bits will peel off the cubes, and it's messy looking (though fine to eat.)  It feels counter-intuitive - but if it sticks, leave it for a while longer. When the side touching the pan becomes firm and golden, it will magically release, and you get the nice cubes (or slabs) of browned tofu. *Then* stir it around, so the other sides have a chance to do the same - and the vegetables also move around and soften.

Meanwhile - I heated brown rice, and steamed broccoli... (If I'd been cooking the rice fresh, I'd have started it first.)

Once the tofu and aromatics were nicely cooked, I put them over rice on the plates, and arranged the broccoli around it. Then I started the peanut sauce (Yes - it's that fast...)

I used natural peanut butter - just peanuts and salt, thank you...  I scooped up a big spoonful for each of us - a heaping tablespoon per person, basically - and put it in the pan with about a cup of water, and a splash of soy sauce. (OK - true confession - this was more than a splash. There is something wrong with the plastic insert in my soy sauce bottle... This was Way Too Much soy sauce. Tasted OK, but... not Great... saltier than we'd usually want... This means that, when you do it, the sauce will have a lighter peanut color. Don't be surprised.)  Normally, at this point, I'd also add some Tabasco or other hot sauce, but this time I'd put hot peppers with the tofu, so I skipped it.

I heated the mixture, stirring. (I use a silicone spatula - it's great for scraping the pan.)  At first, it looks pretty awful, with blobs of PB in the liquid, but it emulsifies quickly, and then thickens surprisingly. You may even find that you want to add more water, in a bit, if it gets too thick. Once it is heated through, and smooth, just pour it over the rest of the food. For family service, it can be put in a sauceboat on the table - let everyone help themselves.

I did this separately, so you could see how the sauce itself works, and that it can be used in many ways. I often, though, just add the water and peanut butter to the tofu or chicken or whatever in the pan, and go from there. I may even have all  the vegetables in that mix, as well. That probably works better for just one or two, though.

Peanut Sauce

Per Serving - 

1/2 c water
1 1/2 T natural peanut butter
1/2 t soy sauce
dash hot sauce - opt.

Put all ingredients - using roughly those amounts per person - into a pan over medium heat. Stir while heating, until sauce becomes smooth and thickens. Add more water, if needed.

Browned meat with Beans (and no time...)

In a post last week, I described the situations in which I might used precooked browned meat.  

I then promptly hit the trifecta... 

I was delayed on a job, and got home late. With a (very mild) migraine. And I had a container of cooked beans in the refrigerator... which could be the basis for dinner, but were not, alone, enough. 

But, I had my cooked meat with onions...

I broke off a chunk, and dropped it in a pan.(I didn't even bother to heat the pan first...)

If I'd been more together, at this point I might have added any spices, such as cumin, or hot pepper, which I might want to heat. This time, I didn't bother...

I poured in the beans, and bean cooking liquid.

I routinely cook enough beans for more than one meal, so I have some to use later. This time, as you see, I was using up odds and ends... (OK - so, I could claim this is my Three Bean Special. It was odds and ends dumped in the same jar until I had enough to use... This time - kidney, navy, and garbanzo beans... maybe a couple of pintos?)

If I were using canned beans, which would work just fine, I'd drain them and rinse them off. The starches that accumulate in the can are one of the causes of... um... digestive disturbances, shall we say... for some people. I'm never bothered by beans I cook myself, but I sometimes have trouble with canned beans - one reason I usually cook my own. I do find that cooking them a little longer, not just heating them up, also helps prevent problems.

If I were using canned beans, I'd also add a little water - I want it just a bit soupy, to begin with, because I'm going to simmer it all a bit, and I don't want it to stick.

I sat down for a few minutes, while it heated, and the meat thawed.

  

I then cut up a yellow summer squash, and tossed it in, and let it all cook for about five minutes, until the squash was just tender. (I sat down...)  I also had a small container of some broccoli rabe from dinner the day before - I tossed the cooked greens in. Then I just stirred it together until everything was heated up, and served over rice I had handy (Yes - I cook enough brown rice for 2-3 meals at a time, also - it heats up beautifully in the microwave.)



I had Rich take pictures every time I stopped (and sat down a minute...) while that step cooked. Neither of us remembered a picture of the plated food. It wasn't, to be honest, particularly pretty - though not bad, with the green and yellow  vegetables - but it tasted awfully good for something that was ready in 15-20 minutes - including breaks for the cook to rest...

I could still, of course, write this up as a Recipe - but that isn't the point. The point, here, is cooking within the constraints you face. What time and energy do I have? How much cooked or canned beans do I have? What's a vegetable that will take little or no effort? I have the frozen cooked meat...

How would your family like it?  Would it need to be something recognizable - say, chili - for them? In which case - chili powder in the pan with the meat,  kidney or pinto beans, a can of tomatoes added with the beans, and other veg on the side. Not your Prizewinning Chile Recipe - but something fast the kids will eat...

Or - skip the beans, use more meat, add a jar of decent commercial  pasta sauce. I'd go ahead and add the squash and rabe (though I'd chop the greens a bit more) and serve it over pasta. We always have a jar or two of commercial sauce in the pantry, just in case... though I usually make my own, when I have time and energy.  (We often have a container or two of that in the freezer - but not always.)  If I didn't have the jarred sauce (or didn't want to use one) I'd use plain canned diced or crushed tomatoes, and crush  in some basil and oregano. Like the "chili" - not exciting, not as much flavor as I'd usually like, but it works.

Or...  What would you do with something like this,  for your family?

Convenient Food: Browned ground meat with onion

As I've said before, one reason I keep convenient foods on hand is so that I can always put a meal together with very little time or effort.

I have several situations driving this need. For one thing, I have chronic migraine. They're mild, as migraines go, but I never know either when I'm going to get one, or how disabling it will be. I can have a lovely meal planned out, and then find that I'm not able to do more than throw a few ingredients together - or even that I'm just going to Lie Down Now, and tell Rich to Make Dinner Happen. I need a backup plan for those nights.

On a happier note, I sometimes need something after a day at work. I freelance, and, while some of my gigs are by the hour, some are by the job. I go in, and do the set job, however long it takes. Usually it is pretty predictable, but sometimes I'll hit a snag, and get home an hour or two later than I had expected. Then I need something fast - I may have been planning to start the brown rice, and chop the onion, and cut the chicken, but now I want something on the table in 15 minutes. (And, of course - that is everyday reality for many people. I'm in a position to serve a late dinner - most schedules don't allow that.)

Enter browned and cooked ground meat - with or without onion already added. I buy ground meat in so-called Family Packs, which save me money. I'll use some right away, and freeze some raw for later use - but I always brown a good chunk of it right away, and then freeze the precooked crumbles. Then Rich can break off a chunk and put it in a commercial pasta sauce, over pasta, with frozen vegetables (either commercial or leftovers we freeze) and I don't have to do anything.

Or, when I get home late, I can just saute some vegetables, add this, serve it over heated commercial polenta (a commercial convenience food I keep on hand, for this reason - it's still a whole food, it sits in the pantry, and it's ready to go in a couple of minutes. Sure, I can make polenta myself - and I do, when it's a planned meal with plenty of time to cook - but this is to avoid takeout...)

The cooked meat is also useful if I am making a bean dish, that I feel needs just a little boost in protein. This way, I don't have to use another pan, take time for another step - I just break off a bit, and let it heat right in the simmering beans. Another time, I might add hard cooked eggs, or cheese... I like to have choices.

I usually (but not always) saute some onions just slightly, first. Most dishes I use this in will benefit from a little onion - but, if I don't have them handy, or I'm in a rush, I can leave out this step.  I just cook them until they soften a little, as I don't want them overcooked.

Then I break up the meat. Now, you may notice, I keep saying "meat" - not just "beef" or "hamburger." I often mix two kinds of  meat, here - half beef and half turkey or chicken, for example. The mixture is lower in fat than beef alone, but more juicy and flavorful than turkey alone. (Turkey is also usually less expensive - I'm all for stretching budgets...) As it happens, though, these pictures are just of beef.

The pan is already hot from sauteing the onions. If I didn't cook onions, I heat the pan, over medium heat, before adding the meat, so it will brown nicely. I break the meat up in little bits, and sort of sprinkle them over the pan, to maximize surface. I let them sit a while, and then stir occasionally, until it is brown.

I find a lot of ground meat these days has a surprising amount of water in it. I hadn't cooked much meat for many years (and when I did, I wasn't cooking hamburgers) so I really noticed the difference when I started again. So, as the meat cooks, you should be getting some grease cooking out, but you may also get liquid. I let it cook off, as much as I can (and I try to find sources that don't make me pay for water...) When the meat is brown and cooked, though, if there is much liquid in the pan (fat or water or a mixture) I pour it off.

I have seen suggestions that you then rinse the crumbles under hot water, to remove as much fat as possible. That's also going to remove a great deal of the flavor, so I would not recommend it under normal circumstances. I mention it, though, as it might be useful for someone who needs to be on a very low fat and cholesterol diet... Mixing the meats and rinsing might be an occasional alternative to avoiding beef altogether.

Then I let the meat cool. After it is cooled, I bag it in zipper freezer bags. I press the air out, then flatten the bags, and lay them on their sides to freeze, so that I end up with a thinnish slab of frozen food. I find that I can break off pieces, that way, and use the amount I want at any one time. 

Plain looking for a lifesaver, isn't it? But a couple of those bags in the freezer give me a base for a wide variety of quick, easy meals, as needed. 

Theme: Braised Chicken

The key to cooking Dinner every day is to be prepared to do so - and the easiest way to do that is to make sure you have ingredients on hand. And, if you want to be able to cook quickly, with little effort (the bus was delayed, you're exhausted, and a family member needs to eat and get out to a meeting.) it helps if you have a few already cooked, or ready to cook, ingredients on hand.

This can also be the key to making a lunch to carry, instead of relying on the local fast food place... I've spoken before about making a lunch salad with previously prepared foods.

One thing I try to have on hand is cooked chicken. It is versatile, inexpensive, nutritious,  and it tastes good.

In this case, I bought a family pack of bone-in chicken thighs, and filled a soup pot with them. Then I poured in enough cold water to just cover the meat. I covered it (with the cover just a little ajar, to allow some steam to escape,) brought it to a slow simmer,  and simmered it about an hour, just until the meat started to fall from the bone.

Another time, I might season it, at least with salt, or add vegetables, but this time I just wanted a plain stock and unseasoned meat.

I removed the meat from the stock, let it cool, and removed and discarded bones and skin. Then I packed the meat in a couple of containers - one for the freezer, for future use, and one in the refrigerator, to use in dinners and salads. I also poured off the stock into containers, and saved it - to add to sauces, to make a soup, to add flavor to anything I make. The fat rises to the top, as it cools, and I can skim it off, or choose to use some of it for flavor. (If making soup, I discard most but not all of it - the fat does carry much of the flavor.) This is the rendered chicken fat, or schmaltz. used in traditional Ashenazi Jewish cooking in the way other cultures use bacon fat or butter - and I occasionally use it in that way, for the flavor.

I prefer legs or a whole chicken for braising - breasts alone end up dry and tasteless. And the thighs are the easiest to bone. Boneless skinless thighs would be even easier, of course.

The next day, when I did not have time to cook, I sautéd half an onion in a little olive oil, added enough chicken for the two of us, poured in some of the stock, and brought it to a boil.

Then I added Frozen Mixed Vegetables. Yes, if you read this blog, you know I use and prefer fresh, local vegetables from Greenmarket or a CSA. However, I *always* have some sort of frozen vegetable in the house. In a few months, they will be vegetables I have cooked and frozen for later use (aka leftovers,)  but, at this time of year, with fresh vegetables few on the ground, I have commercial frozen vegetables. Honestly, even in midsummer I may have either these or frozen peas, because they are so easy to add to things - they mean I never skip vegetables because I'm tired - they're never "too hard."

Anyhow - I heated all that through (frozen veggies just really need to be heated, they're already cooked,)  sprinkled in some Spike (a seasoned salt,) microwaved the container of leftover brown rice I also had handy (I always make rice in batches with enough for 2-3 days) and I had... Dinner. In 10-15 minutes.

Simple enough, better than a commercial frozen dinner, faster than ordering out, and I had control of the ingredients.

I will show and discuss more interesting meals. It is important, though, to remember that this is still cooking - indeed, it is cooking from scratch (though I had done some of the cooking at an earlier time.) And it really did taste good...  And it is really achievable, however busy you are. 

It's Dinner

I read an Opinion piece in the New York Times - Pay People to Cook at Home  I think there are some very valid points about valuing the work (traditionally considered Women’s Work) done at home - but I am concerned by this statement. “It’s nearly impossible for a single parent or even two parents working full time to cook every meal from scratch, planning it beforehand and cleaning it up afterward.”

Well, it may depend on how one defines "from scratch" - but I disagree.

Now, let me make this clear - I am not cooking for children now, I never have, and I do understand that there are some constraints with small children that I do not face. The major one, really, is that, if you are picking children up at day care after work, they can't really wait a few hours to eat. I can come home, sit a while, and then start a meal - a mother often cannot.

I worked in daycare, though, for years, and I know that many of the parents did cook dinner every night. (I often heated up the leftovers for the child's lunch, the next day, and we sometimes talked about time management in the evenings.) I also know that this scheduling problem gets easier as they get older (though you no longer have the time after they go to bed for prep work...) Again, I think, we are caught up in the Cooking Mystique - the idea that it must take hours and hours, and huge effort.

Although I do not have children, I do have a chronic illness, and I have had to learn shortcuts. There are times I simply do not have the energy to do much, times I have to turn to Rich and ask him to cook, times we pull something out of the freezer. So, I make sure there is something *in* the freezer, or something he can cook without direction, or something I can throw together. It does take planning, though not necessarily the precise charts often described.

I have learned to cook food for more than one meal. I have learned what wonderful servants a handful of kitchen appliances really are. (There are jobs that do take time - but it doesn't have to be *my* time.) I have learned a few things that can be easily prepared in advance, to make another meal easier. I have learned the convenient foods that are not Convenience Food, but real food - that is convenient.

And I have learned how to walk into the kitchen knowing only that we will have chicken tonight, and have a delicious meal on the table in half an hour. It may not be exciting, it may be something we ate last week (with a few flavor tweaks) but it is good - and it is Dinner. We often join a group of friends for an evening of game playing. Most of our friends order takeout - we carry something I have cooked. Often, I have found, our friends envy Rich - he gets Real Home Cooked Food! But one evening, it was the leftover of a not entirely successful experiment - still pretty good, mind you, but not quite what I'd intended. One of the men asked what it was, and I started (sort of apologetically) explaining. At which point, another woman (who cooks for her family) looked up and brightly said "It's Dinner!" And we laughed, because, well - it was. And really, on an ordinary Thursday, that is all it had to be.

Shellfish...

I splurged (for us.) I got shellfish at Greenmarket - straight from the fisherman.

So - dinner tonight was steamed clams and mussels, over homemade noodles, with lita squash and a kohlrabi bulb sauteed with garlic scapes. We're enjoying the clam broth now!

Lavender silk

I am at a time in my life when I have found it to be a good idea to have some soy products on a regular basis. I also want to somewhat decrease the amount of meat I've been eating lately, while maintaining an amount of protein that makes me feel well, and the two goals work together well. I am, therefore, working on doing this in a more interesting way than tofu in my lunch salad every day.

I have seen recipes that suggest blending silken tofu to make a cream sauce. Now, I've used it in soups, to make them creamy, with very good effect. So, the other night, having some lovely fresh basil and some homemade noodles, I decided to try this.

First note - purple basil makes sauce that is, well... purple. Lavender, really, blended in the tofu. It's not the most appetizing looking food I've ever produced in my kitchen, particularly tossed with the light brown noodles.

Second - the texture was amazingly good. I have issues with dairy, and I've been missing a lot of those creamy textures - this was great.

Third - it was also a bit bland. Part of that, I think, was the basil - I'd had it nearly a week, and it was losing flavor. It was also the tofu, though, which absorbs flavor. I do remember reading that you need to season it much more than you expect - have to remember that, next time.

On the whole, though, we both liked it - voted "an experiment to repeat." The mouth feel (very important to me) was great, the taste was OK, just needed a bit more punch. (Seasoning added liberally at the table helped a good bit.)

Now, silken tofu has less protein in it than firm, so it was not enough alone. I have to serve it over something. I ended up tossing the sauce over cooked noodles, chunks of cooked turkey, and zucchini.

I made the sauce with 1 14 oz. package of fresh silken tofu, several cloves of cooked garlic (left from a garlic chicken dish I'd made) and a bunch of purple basil. I chopped the basil roughly, put it and the garlic into the container for an immersion blender, and blended them smooth. Then I added chunks of the fresh tofu.

I sauteed onions and zucchini, added the already cooked turkey. When it was hot, I tossed in the cooked, drained fresh noodles. Then I added the sauce, tossed just until it was heated through, and served immediately, with freshly grated romano cheese.

One of these days I'm going to try adding pictures. Believe me, though - this was no loss. Odd looking stuff. Did taste pretty good, though, and I'll definitely do it again.

The CSA is gradually picking up. There was enough this week that Himself declared that, if I'm not with him next week, he may take the cart.

• Multiple heads of lettuce.
  
• Chard and spinach and bok choy, rather than a choice.
  
• More radishes and a nice big bunch of dill.
  
• And, as the fruit share still hasn't started, a throw in of strawberries. (I think I mentioned that we didn't get the fruit share, as we don't really eat much fruit. We'll just supplement from Greenmarket.)

We have, as usual, eaten greens and salads throughout the week. But last night I experimented. I have a recipe from The Tassejara Recipe Book for spinach with strawberries, and tried it. Very interesting - favorably so. We decided that, while I won't make it often, it's something we'll want that two or three times a year - in June, with fresh spinach and the fresh, local, slightly tart strawberries. I personally don't think it would work as well with with the big, sweet, bland supermarket berries.

Then, I used the dill and a mix of sour cream and yogurt to make a dill sauce for catfish (non-local and farmed) and mashed potatoes. Quite nice. And the spinach and berries made a nice splash of color on the plate, next to the white fish/potato/sauce combination.