19 February 2009

Peanut Noodles with Broccoli and Tofu

This dish, which I created All By Myself, is sort of Southeast Asian. It took about a half hour.

Ingredients:
mirin (this is sweet rice wine, and you can find it in most supermarkets
these days in the Asian section. It's a good liquid sweetener)
low sodium soy sauce/shoyu (I like yamasa best, but you usually have to go
to an Asian grocer to get it)
firm or medium tofu (I used Nasoya around here, but my favorite is the West
Coast's medium Westwood brand.)
1 stalk broccoli
rice noodles (I like to use wide ones with chunky things like tofu and
broccoli)
leftover Peanut Sauce from the Moosewood Cookbook (I use this peanut sauce
for everything; it's easy and great) Or you could use any leftover sauce or
pesto I guess!

Directions:
1. Boil a kettle with water and pour it over an appropriate amount of rice
noodles to cover. When they're soft, drain them. If they get sticky, rinse
and drain again.
2. Drain tofu. This is my method: Cut tofu in half so that it's not so
thick. Put it back together and put it between two plates. Top the plates
with something heavy like a can of beans or a bottle of juice. After five
minutes, drain out the liquid and turn the plates over and repeat with the
pressing one more minute. Drain again. You're done!
3. Cube tofu, not too small or it's obnoxious to fry. Heat up a frypan with
canola oil and fry the tofu in there. The cubes should get golden brown and
crispy on several sides.
4. Meanwhile, wash the broccoli stalk thoroughly. Cut off the head from the
stalk. Quarter the stalk lengthwise and then shorten into 2-inch sticks.
Separate large florets and halve them. The leaves are edible too and good
for you.
5. Bring a pot with a steamer basket and 2 inches water to a rolling boil.
Add the broccoli and cover. Cook exactly 5 minutes. Drain the broccoli.
6. Mix about 1 Tablespoon mirin and 1 Tablespoon soy sauce. Pour over the
tofu. Cook liquid off, tossing the cubes until they are well coated.
7. Put it all together: Mix noodles with peanut sauce. Top with broccoli and
tofu cubes, serve hot.

In other words: steam broccoli, press and fry tofu cubes, mix with mirin and
shoyu, and put on top of softened rice noodles mixed with leftover
sauce/pesto. Not very complicated when you get right down to it!

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