Try It Again: Tofu with Basil and Chilies

Today, I launch a new feature "Try It Again". This involves me giving something that didn't quite work a second chance. On sunday, I vowed to vary up the Tofu with Basil and Chilies recipe and here is the exciting conclusion.

Tofu with Basil and Chilies, Again

Oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

4-6 [!] chili peppers, finely chopped

Salt

100 gm firm tofu, cubed

1/2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp lemon

2 tbsp water

1 tsp sugar

pepper - 2 pinches

Large handful of basil leaves

Heat a wok or pan on high and then add the oil. Before the oil is smoking, add the chilies, garlic and salt. Stir-fry for about 15 seconds and then add the tofu. Mix the soy sauce, sugar, pepper, lemon and water together well, and add to the pan after the tofu has been stir-fried for a minute. After another minute, tear the basil leaves with your hands and add.

Serves 1

This was better but, honestly, still isn't worth it. Conventional basil really isn't doing any value-added here. If you're going to make this I'd suggest upping the soy sauce to 2 tsp or 1 tbsp and reducing the lemon down to 1 tbsp. There are plenty of better things to do with tofu and chiles though. While this is a bit of a downer start to the TIA series, I'm glad I gave it another go. From now on though, my basil is just going to go into pizza and pastas. Due to Canada Day plans, there will be no post next Sunday so this one subbing in for that.

Tofu with Basil and Chilies

I've been thinking about recreating that type of Cambodian tofu for a while. Now that I own some basil plants, I decided to try it out using this Thai tofu recipe as a base.

Tofu with Basil and Chilies

Oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

4-6 [!] chili peppers, finely chopped

Salt

100 gm firm tofu, cubed

2 tbsp soy sauce

1/4 cup stock or water

1 tsp sugar

pepper - 2 pinches

Large handful of basil leaves

Heat a wok or pan on high and then add the oil. Before the oil is smoking, add the chilies, garlic and salt. Stir-fry for about 15 seconds and then add the tofu. After a minute, add the soy sauce, sugar, pepper and water. After another minute, tear the basil leaves with your hands and add.

Serves 1

This recipe didn't work out that great for me. First, no kidding on the "large" part of the "large handful of basil". It wilts. A lot. Second, there was too much soy sauce for me and it overwhelmed the other flavours. Third, sweet basil is not really a substitute for thai basil. Fourth, the chili peppers I bought could have been hotter (the outsides almost tasted like conventional red peppers, though the innards and seeds still packed a punch). Fifth, the sugar didn't really mix as well as it could've, so there were some bites that were sweet and others not affected.

I could stop here, but I'm not going to.

That's because, I'm going to redo this dish and post how it goes! I know, I know: the suspense is killing me too.

Restaurant: Zen Gardens

I used to be a card-carrying vegetarian. The card was from the University of Western Ontario's Purple Veggie club. The card was, appropriately enough, purple and offered a 15% discount at, inter alia, Zen Gardens. Much like Simon's Wok the focus is on fake meat dishes. Simon's Wok has, I think, better food but Zen Gardens is a far more elegant restaurant.

Normally, I'm not a huge fan of restaurant elegance but I needed to find a place for a big family dinner in London and I thought it would fit the bill. The restaurant is not licensed, but has a wide variety of teas. The tea was excellent and was stored on top of candles to keep it hot. We started with an order of dumplings and then ordered for the table.

We had two different fried rices: one curried and with avocado. The Curried Fried Rice had a solid curry flavour, very different than everything else on the menu. While it was somewhat unusual, I liked the Avocado Fried Rice though several of my aunts loved it. Kung Po Soy Chicken were chewy and tasty and came with a nice medley of vegetables. The Schezuan Style Spicy Tofu were good, but not as spicy as the title might imply. There were also other dishes not displayed in the photo above. The Lo Han Chai Chow Mien had the right mix between crunchy and savoury and I am informed that the Spicy Eggplant was good (don't care for that vegetable myself). Finally, there was the Veggie Fish with Black Bean Sauce which was beautiful enough for its own picture:

I can't really remember what fish tastes like, but the meat eaters and the pescatarians at the table said this tasted like fish. It seemed so realistic I half expected to find fake bones. I liked it, but not as much as some of the other food.

I realize it's been a while since I've posted an actual recipe; hopefully now that I'm settled in and the traveling has paused I'll return the blog to its roots.

Zen Gardens Vegetarian Restaurant
344 Dundas St., London

It's still fresh

I've talked before about how vegetarian restaurants scare me (because of all the choice). Another problem that vegetarian restaurants can have is the "granola" factor (think "hemp-braised fair-trade tofu served with a side of self-righteousness). Fresh suffers from both of these issues: all items on the menu have multiple variants and they certainly bring the granolaness (you can order a power shake of organic acai & guarana mango). If you order the right stuff though, I've found you can have a good meal. There are three freshes (freshi?), we went to the one near Queen Street.

I decided that I would solve both problems with one stroke, by pre-committing to ordering the least granola item on the menu. Therefore, a quick glance showed that I should get the bbq burger with onion rings (the burger is served on a multigrain bun and the onion rings are quinoa-battered. I said "least" not "without")

The meal was quite tasty. I'm not a cole slaw fan, so I gave that away to those who were. The onion rings (two, the minimum possible number to qualify as onion rings, plural) were very nice, the quinoa lent an extra crunch. I honestly couldn't tell you what the burger tasted like, it was more of a canvas for which the vegetables, garlic mayo and bbq sauce were painted on. Although it seems like there might have been too much stuff, everything in the burger fit between the two buns. So many burgers do not pass this simple test. All in all, it was a good meal and I was quite content as I ate my meal and sipped my beer (organic, natch).
fresh on crawford
894 Queen Street West, Toronto

Happy Birthday, The Frugal Veggie

My little blog turns one year old today. In retrospect, I probably should have picked a more distinct googleable name. Or gone with my original choice of "Pushpanathan". I was thinking I could've named it "The Lentilist" but that might be a little too typecasting.

Still, over its short life there's been 85 posts which have been visited 1,252 times (with 2,477 pageviews) from 21 different countries. The blog hasn't been as productive lately as it was in its early halcyon days. By which I mean I haven't been as productive. Still, I've keep to the Sunday Frugal Sunday schedule since getting back from the Dominican (even if an entire month was about cabbage and another entire month was basically reviews of California restaurants most people will never get to go to).

So happy birthday! Who knows what adventures the blog will have between now and when it becomes unprofitable?

Cheese Sandwich

I have had thousands of cheese sandwiches over the course of my life. A not insignificant percentage of those have followed the same basic template: marble cheese, lettuce and Hellmann's® Real Mayonnaise. There are, of course, variations. Sometimes I do some substitution: a different type of cheese or hummus instead of mayonnaise. I will not put in another type of mayonnaise because I hate them (though I do want to try crafting Bittman's homemade stuff). Occasionally I will augment the sandwich with tomatoes, or avocados, or an olive with a toothpick through it ('cause I'm classy).

Cheese Sandwich

The sandwich I had today fit the normal template, though I added arugula to the lettuce. I find arugula on its own to be too bitter, but it works great with others. One of my favourite things about my standard form sandwich is that you can hold it in one hand and it will stay self contained. The problem with a lot of sandwiches (and with my optionals of avocado and tomato) is that they go against the basic principle of sandwichdom. You bite into the sandwich and the filling shoots out in all directions. I've been in restaurants where the bread is such a small fraction of the overall sandwich that it doesn't even survive first contact. One can only imagine what the Earl of Sandwich would think!