Servings
Ingredients
- 1.5-2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons ginger peeled and grated
- 4 clove garlic minced
- .25 cup peanut butter smooth, not chunky
- 2 teaspoons turmeric ground. spice aisle, or get the .79 version in the
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1-2 teaspoon hot chili paste to taste
- 1 jalapeno (optional) or other hot pepper, minced to add heat
- 1 can coconut milk light or regular
- 3 tablespoons lime juice
- 1.5 teaspoons lime zest see description
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 package firm tofu 1
- 3 carrots peeled, cut to .25-.5
- 1 red bell pepper cut into .75
- 1 cup water
Directions
My brother’s wife was talking on facebook about how to cook tofu. It can be a little intimidating, especially if you’re approaching it from a “I heard this was good for you” angle, and are unable to operate your fingers to type out “google.com”. Anyway, I did a variation on a recipe found at epicurious.com. It’s a very flexible recipe like the mac an cheese I put up before, so try different veggies or meat or whatever. It’s also a vegetarian dish, for all you hippies.
First prep your ingredients. If you’ve never used tofu before, open it up and drain it, take a look at it. Cut off a little bit and eat it. It doesn’t really taste like anything, it’ll pick up the flavor of whatever it’s it.
You’ll want to get a plate, and put 4-5 paper towels on it. Then put your two blocks of drained tofu on that fucker, and put 4-5 more paper towels on top of the tofu, then put a few plates or something heavy on top. you’re pressing excess moisture out of the tofu to firm it up a little. Leave it there, if you see the paper towels are soaked, swap em out for new ones and set up the whole thing again. It’s easy.
While that magic is happening, chop your carrots, bell peppers, and any other veggies up. If you’re adding much more than a cup of additional stuff, scale down the other things slightly. You don’t want to spread the curry out too thin.
A note on ginger: You’ll get it out of bins at the store, and it will look all gnarly. You have to eyeball the amount you need, but, once it’s peeled, about a thumb-size piece of ginger will grate out to a half-tablespoon or less, depending on how you fuck it up. Get a little more than you think you need. More ginger never hurts.
Next up get your limes, and grab a grater. You want to scrape about a teaspoon and a half of the green skin off. You can use a grater or a specialized zesting tool, but I fucking hate those and they never work. If you don’t have either, grab a steak knife, an scrape the stuff off by holding the knife at a 90 degree angle to the skin of the lime. You’ll probably have to zest 2 limes to get that much. Then put the lime down and roll it under your palm, pressing pretty hard. This will soften it up for juicing. If you have a juicer, good job. If you don’t, cut it in half and just squeeze the shit out of it into a bowl. Really go to town Swede-style. Repeat with all three. You should have the right amount. It’s a forgiving recipe though, so if you’re off a little don’t fret, padawan.
I like to premeasure my spices and shit out, but you don’t have to. You’ll need a pretty big and deep pan, I like to use a stewpot because it splashes around less. Add your olive oil to the pan and heat to medium-high. That’s like a 6 on my electric range. Add the ginger and garlic (optionally, half a chopped onion or shallot, I hate those), cook about 5 minutes. Add your chili paste, turmeric, cumin, peanut butter, and jalapeno (if you chose to add one), and stir together for a minute or two. Stir in the cup of water, then add the coconut milk, lime juice, zest, and brown sugar. It will have stopped simmering by now, stir everything together and let it come back to a simmer. Taste it, see if it needs any salt. Use kosher salt, by the way, or sea salt. It really does taste better.
Once it’s simmering, throw your carrots, tofu, bell pepper, and whatever other veggies you’re using, and simmer for about 20 minutes. You’ll know it’s done when the carrots are tender. Give it a gentle stir every now and then.
At the point when it’s starting the final simmer I like to bust out the rice cooker and stick some jasmine rice in there. Rice is awesome with curry. When everything’s ready, scoop out a pile of rice, and dump a big ol ladleful of curry on top. Proceed to town.
This recipe is easy as hell, and the various ingredient preps make your house smell awesome. Plus, taking one fucking night off from 50lbs of meat jammed into your face hole will not kill you. Quite the opposite, I think.
