Fried Tofu – For Beni

I really love fried tofu.  Sometimes, I dust with my special fried chicken seasoning and fry.  Mostly, I fix this simply.  I serve it with several dipping sauces, such as a sweet garlic chili sauce or soy flavored with slivers of ginger, sesame oil, and sliced scallion.  I personally just like it plain – hot and crispy on the outside, hot and almost custardy on the inside.  A member of the 11/16 Society shared this with me years ago.  It was one of our favorite appetizers to serve to visitors to our home.  Some may say this isn’t authentic Japanese, but since he is authentic Japanese, I beg to differ.

This is not the Japanese agedashi dofu, which is usually served with a dashi broth or a soya dipping sauce.  I suppose you could use these cubes in agedashi dofu.  My friend enjoys this but like me, he just liked the fried tofu – neat!

Servings: 4 appetizer portions

1 block extra firm or firm tofu

cornstarch for dusting

peanut or other high temperature oil for frying.

Press the tofu down, leaving something heavy (such as a cutting board stacked with your heaviest cookbooks) on top to squeeze out as much moisture as you can. Cut the tofu into 1-inch cubes and dust lightly with cornstarch before frying.

Pan-fry the cubes of tofu in a wok or medium, deep, heavy-bottom saucepan: Add enough oil to coat the bottom of the wok or pan or, come halfway up the side of a tofu cube and heat over medium-high heat until hot – about 375 degrees. Test the oil with one cube of tofu, adjusting the heat as necessary so the cube fries quickly but does not burn. Fry the cubes in a single layer, making sure the pieces do not touch, until crisp on all sides, 5 to 7 minutes total. Repeat until all of the tofu pieces are cooked; this may need to be done in 2 batches. I use chopsticks to turn and remove cubes.  Drain the pieces on a paper towel lined plate.

Snow Day Cooking – Recipes

It snowed last night – great gouts of clustered snow flakes rapidly covering the ground and everything else it       would stick to.  A wet snow, in some areas it will be gone by late afternoon and in some protected areas, sometime tomorrow.  The snow covers our lawn in a smooth sheet until it gets to the woods and then it decorates the leaves, bare tree branches, and sides of downed trees.  The line of azaleas in front of our house and the ones that separate the woods from our lawn, blossom with huge clusters of pure white snow.

Still…today is one of those days I am going to pretend the roads are impassable and we are snowed in.  That means – a whole day of cooking!  This morning started off with my husband begging for sausage, eggs, and silver dollar pancakes.  Usually our breakfast is what we grab in passing – yogurt or oatmeal for me and Danish for him.  The pancakes are from a standard recipe of flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, eggs, and milk – standard, fluffy and satisfying.  I’ve been making these since I was five and had to stand on a chair by the stove to reach the pan.  The sausage is homemade – lean bits of pork left over from the killing and butchering and then ground with a bit of suet and spiced with salt, black pepper, some sugar, red pepper flakes, and lots of sage – in the south, in farm co-op stores, you can buy bags of sausage seasoning for batches from 2 – 100 pounds.  Beats bought sausage all to pieces and you know what is in it.

My husband’s uncle has a massive farm – every year they kill hogs and butcher and sell the meat or give away.  His sausage is made from trimmed pieces of tenderloin and hams and seasoned with co-op seasoning – hot or mild.   This same sausage will be used later in the day when I make sausage and cheese balls – some for munching on now and the rest to be pulled out of the freezer and cooked for the rest of the football season and on to March Madness basketball (Go Duke!).

Snow day cooking can be done on a cold rainy day or just a day you want to hide from everything and everyone and be in your own kitchen world.  On the counter great northern beans are soaking.  I am going to make a big pot of white bean (navy or great northern) and ham (leftover from Christmas and portioned out and put in the freezer) with cornbread.  This will be for dinner tonight.  I am also going to make quickles – quick pickles with a bread and butter taste to go with the beans to add a bit of sparkles.  I am in the process of writing a most learned and riveting two part article about quickles…snow day came up though and took precedence.    Sliced cucumbers and onions are on the kitchen table in a colander over a dish with a smaller saucer on top with a large heavy can of tomatoes on top to help press out excess liquid.  Bread and butter style quickles are also on the menu for tonight.

Sticks of unsalted butter are on also  the counter softening.  On the  for dessert are Mexican wedding cookies.  The pecans in them came from Georgia.  Every Thanksgiving, I go to Charlotte Courthouse where Mr. Claxton comes up from his home in Thomasville, GA and brings a huge truck loaded with this season shelled or unshelled pecans.  I buy both – enough to take me through to next Thanksgiving.  For about two miles on either direction of him along 360, you’ll see hand-lettered signs:  Pecans Ahead!  The Pecan Man  – 1 mi. Awa!!!  Your Close!!!  (big arrow) Right there – PECANS!!!!   I’ve done this for a long time but I always eagerly look for the first sign. The excitement builds.   Only in the South, folks.

Recipes are below.   As usual, I do not take pictures of ingredients and step-by-steps as most folks seem to do on their cooking blogs.  I’ve said it before:  you all are grownups and know how to cook.  A chopped carrot is a chopped carrot, a pound of great northern beans are great northern beans, confectioners sugar is……you all get my drift.  Enjoy my day with me!  I’ll glady share recipes but you can’t have my happy shoes.  Y’all stay for or come by for supper.  The cornbread is in the oven and the golden crust is liberally smeared with butter.  Sweet tea, the table wine of the South, will be your beverage to complement our meal.  Plenty of napkins are on hand to catch the powdered sugar from the cookies.

 

 WHITE BEAN AND HAM SOUP 

• 1 lb of white beans -navy or Great Northern, picked over and washed
• 2 quarts of water HOT water – soak beans in this for about three hours and drain
• Ham chunks, ham bone, ham hocks
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cup of diced onions
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 2/3 cup chopped carrots
• Salt and pepper

Fill a pot or bowl large enough to hold the beans with water, soak and drain. some folks soak the beans in cold water for 8 hours.  others bring the beans in water to a boil and soak the beans for about 2 hours. Your choice.

Meanwhile, put the ham hocks, ham chunks, or ham bone and cover with 2 quarts of water.  For frugality, I am using leftover frozen Christmas ham and the hambone.  I am not using a huge amount of ham, maybe about a 3/4 pound.  I will simmer the ham bone and add the bay and sautéed veggies, bring to a simmer and simmer for about an hour.  When I add the beans, I will add the ham chunks, bits, shreds…whatever. Cook for another couple of hours or so, until the beans are tender.  Cook longer to thicken.  Check and stir mixture in pot to ensure no sticking.   Add more water if necessary.

Serve with hot cornbread and butter or other bread of your choice.  When serving, put  a good sprinkle of chopped onion, parsley, Crystal or Franks hot sauce on top – any or all is good.  Let the individual season their beans or not.  Remove bay leaves before serving.

FOR VEGETARIAN/VEGAN VERSION:  omit ham (duh).  Saute veggies along with several cloves of garlic.  You may want to add more veggies to the sauté mixture to flavor and hearten up the taste and texture.  I use regular vegetable oil to sauté veggies but you can use fancy olive oils if you choose.

ANTI-FART (haha) TIP:  When cooking dried beans, take a nice stringy large rib of celery and cut in half.  Add to the cooking beans at the beginning.  At the end of cooking, remove the two pieces of celery.  The cellulose in the celery absorb the sulfur dioxide from the cooking liquid and help cut down/prevent stomach gas.  Be careful to remove the fart-absorbing celery ribs from the soup.

MEXICAN WEDDING COOKIES (or SNOWBALL COOKIES)

1 cup  (2 sticks) butter, softened

1 1/2 cup  powdered sugar, divided

2 tsp.  vanilla

2 cups  flour – all purpose

1 cup  finely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Beat butter, 1/2 cup of the powdered sugar and the vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.  Gradually add flour and pecans, beating on low speed after each addition until well blended.  Shape into 1 inch balls (I use a 1 inch cookie scoop).   Place, 1-1/2 inches apart, on ungreased baking sheets.  I use cooking parchment.

Bake 14 to 16 min. or until bottoms of cookies are lightly browned.  Roll warm cookies in about 1 cup of powdered sugar until evenly coated; place on wire racks to cool.  The sugar will coat the cookies and give a happy white coating guaranteed to “snow” on your black sweater and stick to your fingers.   Cool completely.  Store in tightly covered container at room temperature.  They really don’t last long because they are such a good, short cookie – not too sweet but rich and yummy with cold milk, hot tea or coffee. makes about 28 balls of yumminess.

QUICK BREAD AND BUTTER STYLE PICKLES

1    pound pickling cucumbers , sliced crosswise into 1/8-inch  rounds OR equivalent in standard or English cucumber. Peel, cut cukes in            half  and scoop out seeds if necessary

1     medium onion, halved and sliced thin

1   tablespoon kosher or non-iodized salt

1    cup cider vinegar

1/2  cup sugar

1/2   teaspoon yellow mustard seeds

1/4    teaspoon celery seeds

1/4    teaspoon corriander seeds

1/8    teaspoon ground tumeric

Toss cucumbers, onion, and salt in colander set over bowl.  Let stand 1 hour.  hour.  Discard any liquid collected in the bowl. Rinse and press out excess water and put in large non-reactive bowl.  Bring vinegar, sugar, mustard seeds, celery seeds, corriander seeds and turmeric to boil in large saucepan.  Pour over cucumbers and onion onion, and press to submerge in liquid.  Let cool.  Put into smaller glass container or quart jar and allow to chill at least two hours before serving.   Pickles can be refrigerated in a clean jar or covered container for 2 weeks.

                     

Slow Cooker Recipe: Part II Meatless Chili

People have an opinion about chili.  Ask them.  They’ll tell you.  It has to be just meat and no beans, it has to be hot enough to scorch the small hairs if dropped in your lap, it has to have special home crafted chili powder, it has to be made with lots of veggies, it has to be served over spagetti noodles….on and on.  Whatever.  IMHO, my take on chili is: easy, full of flavor, cheap.  Easily adjustable to individual palates and diets, this chili is just plain ol’ good.  Start it at breakfast and scarf it up at supper time with your family or some good friends.  Wash the slow cooker….done!!!!

 

Olive oil – 1 – 2 tbs4 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
Small bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup chopped celery
Small zucchini, chopped (or not or small chopped sweet potato). 
1 28 ounce can tomatoes (if using whole, peeled, chop or mush up with your hands)
Several shakes hot pepper sauce or to taste (Crystal, Franks, Tobasco, etc.)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp chili powder
1/3 tsp cumin
1  1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 6 ounce can tomato paste
4 standard size cans beans, drained and rinsed (I used  dark kidney, pinto, great northern, and red beans drained and rinsed, basically, what I had in the pantry) 

How To:
On medium heat, sauté chopped veggies, garlic and onion about 3 minutes, until al dente.  Add the cumin and chili powder and cook for another minute. 

Place sautéed ingredients into slow cooker.  Add remaining ingredients and stir well to combine.  Cover and cook on low setting for about six – eight hours.  About halfway through cooking, I checked for the need to add some additional liquid or adjusting seasonings.   

Serve over cooked brown rice, quinoa, or not. You can do it southwestern style and serve with tortilla chips or old school with saltines, crackers, or bread.

Non-vegan serving option:  top with low fat sour cream or plain yogurt, shredded cheese, chopped scallions, any or all.

Slow Cooker Food: Part I Irish Oatmeal

NOTE:  I posted this last November.  I am posting again along with another post of Overnight Oats.  I have made some changes to this.  For those of you who want to eat healthier and don’t have the time, and trust me, I understand, this is a great recipe.  So is the Overnight Oats but I’ll get into that in that post.  Below is the original post for this:

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It is starting to be crazy time…..in the states we have the Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years insanity.  I like to fix food that is brainless, yummy, and soothing. I also like foods for crappy rainy/snowy weather that puts its arms around you and soothes and warms you.

NOTE:  Some of you may have noticed I do not add pictures of food being prepped, packages of ingredients, etc.  My thing is:  you all cook.  You know how to chop things, what food ingredients look like, etc.  Unless it is something downright weird or incredibly hard, you are on your own.  I trust you.  If you every have any questions, please do contact me.

Slow Cooker recipes Part I:  Slow Cooker Irish Oatmeal

• 1 cup steel cut oats (or Irish oats)  Not: quick, instant, etc.
• 4 cups liquids (I used 2 cups water, 1 c. natural apple juice & 1 cup regular flavor almond milk)
• 2 tsp cinnamon (I use a good cinnamon, usually Saigon)
• 1 apple, skinned & chopped
• 1/4 cup raisins, or craisins, or dried plums (chopped into raisin size pieces)
• Stevia, honey, raw sugar or other sweetener of your choice to taste, or not
• Optional: ¼ c. chopped walnuts, pecans, or almonds….I love nuts. You don’t have to.

Add apples, dried fruit, and cinnamon to crock-pot.  Plus 1 cup steel cut oats.  Then 4 cups liquids.  Stir everything well and set slow cooker to low setting for 7 hours. The cinnamon on top was crusty, and the apples  fell apart in my mouth.  My whole house smelled like apple pie.  Even my cat was trolling for breakfast.  This reheats well.  You can also add the chopped nuts afterwards in case someone has nut allergies.

Steel Cut Oatmeal (Photo credit: missYcola)