Tuesday's Twist: Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Filling (part 1)

Tuesday's Twist:  A basic recipe with a fun twist.  In other words, just another excuse for me to play around with weird recipes I've been dying to try.

I'm on the schedule to work a lot more this week.  I'll still be serving food or in the kitchen, but it will be at work, not here.  I'd love to tell you I'm way ahead of the game and got all the posts for this week done over the weekend, but I didn't.  After waking up around 3 A.M. Saturday morning to take my mom to the airport I suppose I could have stayed up and gotten a few things done.  I was home by 6:30 that morning but gave in and went back to sleep around 8.

I made this savory filling and then tested and photographed 5 different ways to use it.  When I went to transfer the pictures to my computer nearly all of them were black rectangles with red text reading "invalid image".  Not helpful.  I have a few hours of daylight before work to try it all again, so maybe you'll see pictures tomorrow.  Anyway, all that to say the posts for today and tomorrow are related. We'll make the filling today and I'll show you a few fun things you can do with it tomorrow (assuming I figure out what's up with my camera).  While this recipe stands on its own as a delicious dip or spread, we're going to use it soon as a filling for something a little more adventurous.

Oh, by the way, I "forgot" to mention this is one of those reoccurring tofu recipes I alluded to way back when Tofu Tuesday was discontinued.  Thankfully that tofu flavor is completely hidden by the tang of balsamic vinegar and citrus of fresh lemon.  Nutritional yeast and sun-dried tomatoes lend salty and savory notes that pair perfectly with the last of our summer basil.


Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Filling/Dip/Spread
inspired by Baked In and Running to the Kitchen

Ingredients:

1 clove garlic
10 oz firm tofu*, drained and pressed
1 cup cooked white beans, drained and rinsed
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp freshly grated lemon peel
1/4 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
6 sun-dried tomato halves (not oil-packed), chopped
1/4 cup packed fresh basil leaves, chopped

* After 15 minutes of pressing my tofu weighed 8 oz.  I used half of one box of the water-packed tofu from Trader Joe's with the hot pink label.  It doesn't specify a firmness level, but medium-firm or firm is my best guess.


Instructions:
* In a food processor pulse garlic clove until finely chopped. Add tofu and beans; process until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides if needed. Add nutritional yeast, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, lemon peel, salt and black pepper.  Process until combined.  Add sun-dried tomatoes and basil; pulse to incorporate. Refrigerate at least 1 hour to allow flavors to develop.  Serve as a vegetable dip or cracker spread. Also works well on sandwiches and tortillas. Stay tuned for ways to use in hot appetizers.

Update: See this post for some ways to use this filling.

Food for Thought: "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail . They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." -Lamentations 3:22-23

Tuesday's Twist: Creamy Polenta (without the cream)

Tuesday's Twist:  A basic recipe with a fun twist.  In other words, just another excuse for me to play around with weird recipes I've been dying to try.

I warned you I've been on a cornmeal kick.  I also mentioned that tofu might reappear when I make something a little more, shall we say, repeatable.  Last week I told you about my friend, Emma, and her soy internship.  In addition to using TVP, she also developed recipes using silken tofu.  One of those recipes was Creamy Polenta with Apples and Swiss Chard.  I will definitely be making it in the near future, but for this week I took her polenta base and added something a little different. 

Edit: Does anyone have any idea WHY the above paragraph is in white???? Everything else came out normal and I did  nothing (that I know of) differently to that paragraph. Maybe it has to do with all the links? Please let me know if you know how to fix it.  I've also noticed a lot of spacing issues that aren't posting they same way I type them... But, back to the polenta...

Tofu Tuesday: Mom's Chocolate Mint Bars

Tofu Tuesday: a quest for tasty tofu recipes

Chocolate can fix a lot of things.    

Even tofu. 

Chocolate deserves an extra bonus for making even tofu tasty.  Seriously, you would never guess there's tofu hidden in all this silky, melt-in-your-mouth goodness.  Even the hardest critic will lick their plate clean, for real.  This one's a keeper.  (About time, huh?)

Tofu Tuesday: Breaded Tofu Triangles and Balsamic Ketchup

Tofu Tuesday: a quest for tasty tofu recipes


Oh great, this is only the third Tofu Tuesday and I'm already getting sick of it.  But, seeing as I'm working on patience, I don't have another topic starting with T (yet), and I've got a few more recipes to try, I'll stick with this tofu thing a little longer.  But really, if you have any ideas for a different series please let me know.

Tofu Tuesday: Say Goodbye to Soggy

Tofu Tuesday: a quest for tasty tofu recipes


Just a warning, this one's kind of long.  But stick with me there's a lot to learn and it actually is interesting despite the fact that it's tofu.  Prepare to discover something new.  If nothing else take a look at the pictures and see if you can guess what's going on.


I think what gets me about tofu is the texture.  I'm a texture person and tofu is just so, I don't know, soggy?  It could be I'm buying the wrong kind, not pressing it long enough, or haven't found the right way to prepare it.  While it's not difficult to change the outside texture of the tofu, the center is often still "raw" so to speak.  I don't want to eat a nicely crusted piece of tofu that is still soggy and tofu tasting in the center. I don't want to take a forkful and think, "oh this is just a slab of tofu trying to be something else." No, I want to take a bite and think about the flavors in the dish without even noticing that I'm eating tofu.  This will take some trial and error.  I'm looking for a fail-proof method but also want to try out recipes for different marinades, sauces, coatings etc. As of now, I'm going to try both at once to speed up the process.  I can only take so much tofu.  (Who knows, maybe all these tofu experiments will bring me full circle back to meat.)  I'm also cutting recipes in half so I don't have as many leftovers.  Feel free to double the recipe if you're using the whole block of tofu,  plan to feed a few people or want leftovers.

Tofu Tuesday: Garlic Curry Tofu Spread

Tofu Tuesday: a quest for tasty tofu recipes

Tofu is one of those foods that doesn't exactly make you think "oh yum".  I've tried plenty of not so great recipes using tofu, but I've also found a few really good ones.  I'm on a quest for more recipes using tofu that actually taste good.  Don't be scared, I'm the one trying them out and eating them, I won't make you eat any of it unless you want to.  Let's give it a chance though, this is not "Tune out Tuesday".  Everyone deserves another chance, no judgments.  That being said, if this gets really boring and we just can't  seem to make tofu tasty then I'll pick another topic.  You can't say you don't like it until you try it, so let's just try.

Before we get too far, there's a few things we should learn about tofu.  Tofu is made from soybeans/soy milk kind of like cheese is made from cow's milk.  See, its not that scary, its all about your perspective.  There are several types of tofu but let's just start with the two types you're most likely to run into: silken and water-packed.

Water-packed tofu comes in those little white tubs in the refrigerator section.  Its a block of tofu packed in (wait for it.... ) water.  It comes in varying degrees of firmness, usually labeled firm or extra-firm.  An Asian grocery store I frequent also has medium firm and soft/silken in the water-pack packaging which still confuses me.  I would buy them and try them all side-by-side to solve this problem, but that's a lot of open tofu at once.

The other variety of tofu is called silken.  It often comes in vacuum-packed shelf-stable cardboard boxes.  But the grocery stores usually put it in the refrigerated section anyway so you don't freak out.  Silken tofu has a creamy custard-like texture.  It  also comes in firm and extra-firm varieties.  In my mind silken should be soft not firm or extra-firm, but I guess I still have a lot to learn about tofu.

Silken and water-packed are typically not interchangeable in recipes.  This is why some recipes turn out terribly and people decide tofu is gross.  If you use extra-firm water-packed  tofu in a smoothie instead of silken you could end up with a smoothie with chunks of floating tofu, ummm no thank you.  As this tofu quest continues we'll figure out more about what type is best for each recipe.

The first tofu recipe I'm posting is a Garlic Curry Tofu Spread.  At first I was thinking of this as a dip, but after making it I think it would be better spread on crackers or a wrap.  I was intrigued by the combination of ingredients (did I mention I like to try really weird stuff?).  I made a few changes to the original recipe based on what I had on hand.  The original called for natural peanut butter (the kind you stir that has only peanuts and salt) but I used a basic crunchy peanut butter.  Natural peanut butter has a much stronger flavor and would have made this spread better.  I noticed a slight peanut flavor immediately after making the dip, but it was overpowered by garlic the next day.  I always thought granulated garlic was stronger than powdered and couldn't remember the conversion.  I looked it up before hand and found out you should actually use twice as much granulated when substituting for powdered.  I would not suggest that in this recipe.  It had way to much garlic flavor.  When I was laying in bed in the middle of the night trying to sleep, I could still taste the garlic (and yes, I  had brushed my teeth).  I  also cut back on the mayo since all we had was a little condiment packet.  (I've learned the hard way not to sub Miracle Whip for mayo in recipes).

I tasted this right after I made it and again after it sat in the fridge overnight.  At first I got tofu flavor followed by strong curry and then a hint of peanut, that's when I decided it needed to sit a while for the flavors to blend.  The next day the tofu flavor was gone but it was extremely garlicky along with a strong curry flavor.  I tried adding more peanut butter to balance out the flavors and that made a huge difference. This spread is good if you're looking for something to change it up, but it wasn't for me.  If you do decide to make it I would suggest using less garlic and more peanut butter (or natural peanut butter).  Then again, I think just about everything is better with more peanut butter.

Garlic Curry Tofu Spread
slightly adapted from Smucker's

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp crunchy peanut butter (see comments above)
2 tsp light mayonnaise (this is the amount in one of those (12.4g) condiment packets that comes with sandwiches)
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp granulated garlic (I would suggest starting with half this amount, see comments above)
1 tsp curry powder
1/8 tsp turmeric
3/4 cup (6oz) firm tofu, drained (I used water-packed)
1/4 cup shredded carrots
1/4 cup chopped red pepper
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
* Place peanut butter, mayonnaise, mustard, garlic, curry powder, turmeric and tofu in food processor.
* Process until smooth and creamy.  This may take several minutes.  If the spread still has little white tofu bits then keep processing.
* Transfer spread to a bowl and stir in carrots and red pepper.  Season to taste with salt and pepper. Refrigerate overnight before serving.

Food for Thought: "Be curious, not judgmental." - Walt Whitman