Braised Tofu and Cauliflower in Curried Coconut Milk

I realized earlier today that I hadn't had anything new this week and would have nothing to blog about. So I turned to Mark Bittman's book and opened it at random. I wanted to have something a) good, b) new and c) something with cauliflower to use up the remnants from last week. The recipe I stumbled upon certainly seemed to fit the first two, and a bit of modifications made it fit the last as well.

Braised Tofu and Cauliflower in Curried Coconut Milk

3 large onions, cut into eighths

1 28-ounce can of tomatoes (with liquids)

5 cloves garlic

1 dried chili pepper

2 tbsp neutral oil

Salt and pepper

1 tbsp curry powder

1 tbsp garam masala

700-900 grams tofu, blotted dry and cubed

2 cups cauliflower florets

1.5 cups coconut milk

Combine the onion, tomatoes, garlic and chili in a blender or food processor. Purée. Add oil to a deep pot over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the pureed mixture with the salt, pepper and spices. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes: until it becomes saucy. Meanwhile parboil the cauliflower (toss in boiling water for a few minutes) and add the cauliflower and tofu to the mixture. Cook for about about 5 minutes and stir in the coconut milk. Bring to a boil and cook for a little bit more. Serve over rice.

Serves 5?

I thought I'd made it too soupy, but once it was over the rice it turned out quite nicely: with a hearty and complex taste. I'm not quite sure how many it serves, my parents and I all had a meal out of it and there were plenty of leftovers.

Restaurant: El Palenque Casa Del Mariachi

The other day, I had the most bizzare service I'd ever had in my life. I seriously considered that we were actually on Just For Laughs or something. The night began with me and my parents deciding to go out for supper and choosing a restaurant which I thought was just called "Mexican Restaurant" but actually had a longer name. We'd been there before and the food had been great but the service was lousy. Apperently it was under new management so we decided to give it a another try. That was a mistake.

We ordered some guacamole to start which was quite good (although the tortilla chips that came with it were way too salty) and then decided to order the mains. This is when the storm clouds started to gather. There was a burrito on the menu that came with cheese, beans, rice and sour cream. "That sounds good," said my mom to the waitress, "I'll have the burrito." "Beef, chicken or vegetarian?" the waitress asked. "What?" "Beef, chicken or vegetarian?" "No, no meat."

You see, at the top of the menu it had "Beef, chicken or vegetarian" listed (there may have been "pork" but I can't remember) but my parents had not seen that. To them, the question was whether they wanted meat added, which they did not as they are vegetarians like me. We all ordered the burrito (everyone having some similar degree of awkward back-and-forth while doing so) and then the burritos came. We were expecting something that would be a mix of the listed food items. This is what we got instead:

So it was a tortilla filled with mainly rice, with some boiled broccoli and such. I'm a pretty cheap date, as they say, so I just started eating it. It wasn't great, or even that good, but it was alright and I was hungry. The parents, however, were not happy and called the waitress back over. And that was when the bizarreness happened. The waitress wasn't getting at all what had happened and the situation kept on spiralling down.
"Look, we just want what we ordered."
"You got what you ordered."
"No, we didn't. The menu talked about beans, rice, cheese and sour cream. Can we have that."
"What just that."
"Yes, just that, that's why we ordered it."
"Well, this isn't Taco Bell, this is an authentic Mexican restaurant!"
"Oh really? I'm pretty sure that broccoli is not an authentic Mexican vegetable."
"Well we don't know what vegetarians eat."
"Um, not this."
"He seems to be enjoying it."
"He'll eat anything."

The actual conversation lasted probably around 10 minutes but eventually the waitress conceded and brought what they ordered. The whole thing was like a vaudeville routine at the Catskills about some rude waiter at a Jewish restaurant.

El Palenque Casa Del Mariachi
816 St Clair Ave W, Toronto

The Story Continues... Kimchi Tofu Soup

My last post here was a bit of a cliffhanger because I didn't mention what dish I used the kimchi in (I realize I am using a very expansive definition of the word "cliffhanger"). Well, now all will be revealed (unless you read the title of this post)! As I used Mark Bittman's recipe for kimchi, I thought I'd troll through the index to find recipes that used kimchi.

Kimchi Tofu Soup

dark sesame oil

1 medium onion, diced

1 cup kimchi

1/2 block tofu, cubed (or crumbled if soft tofu)

2 teaspoons chili paste

4 cups water or stock

2 teaspoons rice vinegar

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1/3 cup white rice

Put the sesame oil in a medium saucepan over medium/high heat. Add the onions when it's hot and cook for a miute. Add the kimchi, tofu and chili paste for a few seconds then add the water, vinegar and soy sauce. Bring to a boil. Tone down the heat a bit till it's simmering, then add the rice and cook for 15-20 minutes.

The soup was a nice mix of sour and savoury but, like the kimchi, not spicy enough. I'm going to be making it again this week and I'm going to use soft tofu and more chili paste. Maybe even a couple of my pickled chilies, we'll see if they're still good after I accidentially put them into the freezer.

Restaurant: Samuel's by the Park

Perhaps the oddest thing about Samuel's is their wine pricing scheme: glasses cost less than bottles. Now, that statement by itself is obvious: of course, a glass of wine is going to cost less than a bottle. The surprise at Samuel's is that the relative cost is cheaper. You get 4-5 glasses per bottle and, for example, a glass of Jackson-Triggs costs $6 and a bottle costs $33. Even if we go for the higher 5 glasses per bottle, it still costs $3 less to get the equivalent amount of wine in glass form.

But aside from the oddity of the wine pricing (and, for the record, I did not get the Jackson-Triggs) you might wonder how the food was. That question is hard for me to answer, as I'm not really the target audience for this restaurant. The place is not what you would call "vegetarian friendly" as the dinner menu has no vegetarian options. Now, I was here at a big family dinner (17 people) so they had set up a prix fixe menu for us, which did include a vegetarian entree.

The bread they brought out was good, but the olive tapenade that accompanied it was amazing. Definitely the best I've ever had. So often they're too oily or too salty, but this was perfect. I checked the prix fixe menu, which had been printed out for all us on paper. It had "Mr. [one of my last name's] Menu" at the top, which made me think that I was sitting in my uncle's chair. After a moment's investigation, I discovered all the menus thus entitled as he had been the one who booked it. We had a choice of a starter, an entree and dessert. The two starters were caesar salad and the soup of the day (that's another oddity, when they printed up the menus presumably they knew what the soup of the day was. Why make extra work for the waiter who had to identity the soup to us all?) neither of which was vegetarian. The soup was made of chicken stock and the salad had anchovies and bacon in it. So that was a bit annoying (especially as a quarter of the party was vegetarian).

My entree was a spinach risotto with julienned vegetables and shaved asiago cheese. It wasn't bad, but I wasn't terribly impressed. The risotto was a little too chewy and not creamy enough, I couldn't taste the spinach or the asiago and every now and then it tasted burnt. My sister got the same thing and said there was no burnt taste on hers, so its possible I just got the bottom of the pan. Again, I'm not really their target audience so I guess they don't have a lot of experience making vegetarian food not bland.

The dessert was a delicious chocolate cake – the icing was perfectly done, rich and creamy and sweet (without being sickly sweet). I ended up having more than one piece as I got half of my aunt's (she was finished) and part of my sister's (she had left).

Bottom line: the bookends of the meal were excellent and the carnivores seemed to like their meals. I just don't think I could recommend the place to my vegetarian readers [yeah, your many vegetarian readers in Victoria, BC --ed].

Samuel's by the Park
655 Douglas St. Victoria, British Columbia

Rice

My rice cooker was cruelly slain and I never got around to replacing it. The one thing I disliked about it, and what I disliked about a lot of stove-top rice cooking, is the cust of rice remains left on the bottom (ugly example of this hidden below). I also dislike the inexactness of conventional stove cooking. This recipe, which I've adapted (i.e. really dumbed down) from Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything Vegetarian is a nice solution to both these problems and leaves rice that doesn't stick to the bottom. The original recipe involves sauteeing the rice in oil and adding all matter of spices and such. Its a fun recipe, but not necessarily needed when you just need plain rice. This recipe is for white rice, though you can use brown rice if you parboil them first.

Rice

x cups white rice

2x cups water
Turn the oven on to 350°. Put the pot on high heat and throw in the rice. Measure the water and add it to the pot (make sure it doesn't boil over, like it did above). Wait until it boils and then throw in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove and let sit for 10 minutes. Serve.

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