Tofu gets a bad rap. Worse yet, it also gets abused so frequently that one can understand why – tofu is not (a) a substitute for meat (b) a substitute for eggs, (c) a substitute for anything else, or (d) particularly forgiving. Treating tofu like the good little flavor-sponge it is can yield tasty results, but sometimes it’s fun to take it in a different direction entirely. This ridiculously simple (but, alas, not very quick) recipe is great for any tofu you’d like to use as a meal on its own, or for incorporation into other dishes as a side, texture, or whatever. The sauce and egg steps are optional, but make a delicious meal.
What to do:
Cube a block of extra firm tofu (at room temperature), and dice a small shallot.
This will probably only work in a very well seasoned cast-iron pan, so get one heating on high. Fry the shallot (don’t add any oil unless you absolutely can’t avoid it). Now, reduce the heat to medium-low and add the tofu so that it all lays flat on the pan.
Leave that alone for about five minutes, and make sauce:
Add about 2 tbs. Bragg’s (soy sauce might work too), some sriracha, a couple splashes of oil, and a quarter cup of water (or stock) to a glass. Grind in a bit of coriander and some mustard seed. Stir like hell.
Now, toss your tofu around so that it’s all been flipped – what was on top is now touching the pan. Leave it another five minutes or so and repeat, except this time do a half-flip, so the sides get some heat. And, again. 4 of the cubes’ eight sides should be nice and brown. Stir your sauce again, and toss it in, turning the heat back up to high. Stir the tofu around in the sauce, and let it reduce away (this shouldn’t take very long at all).
Now, remove the tofu to a bowl, and add a bit more oil to the pan. Crack your egg and fry it up to your preferred texture (I suggest a runny yolk, it works nicely). Serve the tofu with pickled tindora and the egg. Delicious and healthy!!!

Summer for me is all about fresh fruit and vegetables, and cooking things lightly if at all. This is a lovely salad that is best with the freshest veggies you can find, in whatever proportions suit you on that day. The ones listed below are just the ones I used today, though in the past it’s included spinach, onions, watercress, apples and chives, in addition to and instead of those. You can also skip the polenta, which I just like for a different texture, or add croutons instead right before the vinegar step for yet another.
Sample Ingredients:
Carrots
Tomatoes
Hungarian Peppers
Cucumber
Lettuce or other greens
Polenta cake
Fresh basil
Crumbled goat cheese
White wine vinegar
Marsala
Olive oil
Mustard Seed
Salt, Pepper
Wash and dice all your veggies, and cut the polenta cake into 1/4 inch cubes, keeping the lettuce separate from the other ingredients. Heat the mustard seed in some oil (not too much! I used about 1 tablespoon) in a pan with salt until they start jumping about. Now add your polenta, and cook it for about a minute over high heat. Next, add your veggies and basil (not lettuce/greens), stir-fry for about a minute, and then reduce the heat to medium and cook till they’re all the texture you like. Meanwhile, mix the vinegar and a little bit of Marsala in a glass, with a few shakes of salt and drops of oil.
Remove all that to a bowl, and toss the lettuce on top. As it begins to wilt, turn the heat back up to high in your pan, and deglaze it with your vinegar mixture. When that’s reduced by about a quarter to half, pour the hot liquid over your lettuce and toss in the goat cheese. That will kinda melt in; taste it now and add salt and pepper as you like.
You could add hard boiled eggs too, if you wanted to, or bacon might also be nice. As I said, this is really just a template, the basic idea being that the lettuce isn’t really cooked itself at all, but just wilted by the heat of everything else. Actually none of it is full cooked except the polenta and sometimes I caramelize some of the veggies, but really it all means that you’ve got warm salad with little bursts of cool lettuce where the heat didn’t get to it, which is really nice.

For some time now, I’ve been craving salsa verde. I don’t really know why, or even what I wanted to do when I find it, but there was a clear deficit of the stuff in my life. Store-bought salsas are pretty much invariably disappointing, and the green varieties double so. They usually at double the cost too.
Traditionally, salsa verde is made with jalapenos, tomatillos, cilantro, and lime juice. I don’t like jalapenos (or, at least, I prefer other sources of heat), the cilantro at the store wasn’t so great, and I forgot to buy lime juice. As usual, I was not about to let this deter me.
I used:

• 3 tomatillos
• 1 cup (or so) fresh basil
• 3/4 cup Vidalia onion
• 2 Serrano peppers
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 3/4 tsp celery salt
• 3/4 tsp turbinado sugar

First, preheat your broiler, with the top rack as far up as it goes. Now remove the papery husks from the tomatillos, and wash the sticky stuff from them. Now, slice them in half, and place on a cookie sheet with your peppers and unpeeled garlic. Put in the broiler, about 1-2 inches from heat. They should stay in until the tomatillos are slightly charred and falling apart, which takes about 10 minutes, but you should turn everything once halfway through.
While those are cooking, chop up your onion and measure the spices.
Once everything’s cooked, take it out of the oven, peel the garlic and stem the peppers. Now, put everything into a blender or food processor and liquify. Adjust with salt, sugar, pepper, and whatever else you like, until you’re happy. Remember – the flavors will be stronger once it has cooled and congealed a bit!
Serve with chips or on enchiladas or wherever you might want a very flavorful, slightly sweet but mostly tangy, heat. It also works very well as a pesto substitute if you use more basil.