Tofu Lettuce Wraps

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!  The luck of the Irish is not with me today, in spite of the fact that my heritage is Irish and Welsh.  Nope, just wrote almost this entire post and then accidentally erased it (darn you insert photo for being near the new post button).  I realize this could be corrected by doing this in a word format, and then possibly copying/pasting, but I’m not sure how the format will work from one source to the other.

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while now, and had hoped to get another recipe or two up, but based on the fact that I just had an hour of work erased, I’ll be lucky to get this one up.  With the help of some sangria, I’ll be lucky if this isn’t riddled with typos, but at least those will be fun to make!

One of my favorite things about these lettuce wraps is the filling usually lasts for 2 days.  On the second day I like to add broccoli and some crushed peanuts and serve over rice.  It makes it seem like you’re eating a whole new dish instead of leftovers.

For some of the ingredients used you will have to visit the “Ethnic” aisle of the grocery store.  We use the Hokan brand for the Five Spice powder, water chestnuts, and Hoisin sauce and we use the San-J brand of soy sauce.

Tofu Lettuce Wraps

Prep/cook time:  Combined total of about 40 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 block extra firm Tofu (we like the Marjon brand)
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 1/2 tsp Five Spice Powder, separated into 1 1/2 tsp and 2 tsp.
• 1 bunch scallions (also known as green onions)
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 can water chestnuts
• 1/2 cup matchstick carrots
• 1 1/2 Tbsp vegetable or peanut oil
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 2 1/2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
• 2 1/2 Tbsp Hoisin Sauce
• 1 head Iceberg lettuce

Optional Ingredients for Topping

• Peanut Sauce
• Asian Hot Sauce (Thai Kitchen or Sriracha)
• Cilantro
• Fresh Lime Juice

Tools

• Cutting Board
• Knife
• Glass casserole dish
• Skillet
• Cooking Spatula

What To Do

1. Preheat oven to 275.
2. Drain tofu.  Tofu is usually packed in some water.  For this dish, you do not need to remove all of the water.  Just drain the water from the package, and lightly squeeze the tofu to drain additional water.  You can do this by pressing the tofu between your palms and alternating sides along the cube.
3. Cut the tofu cube in thin slices along the width, like so:
4. Take half of the “loaf” and cut in thin strips.
5. Cut into small squares and place in the glass casserole dish.
6. Repeat step 4 and 5 with the other half of the tofu, and put the casserole dish in the oven for about 20 minutes.
7. While the tofu is cooking…
8. Clean and dry vegetables.
9. Remove paper from garlic and mince finely.  Place in skillet.
10. Prep scallions by cutting off the stems and the top 1/4 inch of the greens.
11. Remove the whites from the greens.  
12. Discard any part of the greens that are limp, and remove any outside layer of the whites that is fibrous or looks dirty.
13. Dice the whites into small rings and add to the skillet with the garlic.
14. Slice the remaining greens into thin rings and set aside.
15. By this time, it’s probably been 20 minutes since you put the tofu in the oven.  Remove the tofu (keep the oven on) and sprinkle 1 1/2 tsp Five Spice Powder over the tofu.
16. Use the spatula to stir the tofu to make sure it gets well coated with the Five Spice Powder.  You may need to scrape the pan to help stir all of the tofu. Once the tofu is stirred, and coated with Five Spice Powder, return it to the oven.
17. Now, take the red bell pepper, and cut along the outside of the green stem (you’re cutting into the red pepper).
18. Then, flip the pepper over, and cut straight lines, separating the pepper into the different segments (most will have 3-4 segments).  The pepper I used has 3 segments.
19. Pull the segments apart to expose the seeds.
20. Remove the seeds and any of the whiter skin on the interior.
21. Cut the bell pepper by removing the curved top and bottom.  Cut the majority of the pepper in strips.
22. Dice the smaller pieces of red pepper and set aside.
23. Open the can of water chestnuts and drain the water.  Dice the water chestnuts into small pieces.  Set aside.
24. Take the matchstick carrots and cut smaller.  I recommend doing this by placing the carrots in a small pile on your cutting board.  Cut in 2 sections one way, and then do a crosscut with 2 sections as well.  Set aside.
25. Prep your lettuce by washing and draining.  You can either cut the stem out of the lettuce, peel the leaves off, or use my preferred method of hitting the lettuce just next to the stem on the counter edge, and pull the stem out.  I recommend placing the prepped leaves in a bowl and sticking in the fridge until the dish is ready to serve.
26. Add oil and crushed red pepper to the skillet (with the garlic and scallions) and heat on medium heat.
27. Let this saute for about 2 minutes, stirring / tossing consistently.
28. Add red bell pepper, carrots, water chestnuts, remaining Five Spice Powder and ginger, and stir.
29. Remove tofu from the oven (turn the oven off, now), and put in the skillet.
30. Add soy sauce and hoisin and mix thoroughly.
31. Remove from heat, and stir in scallions.
32. We like to serve this dish by putting all the ingredients on the table and building them as we go.  If you’ve never built a lettuce wrap before, you take a small amount of filling and put in the “cup” part of the leaf.  Top with your preferred sauce, and fold the sides in like a burrito.  Keep lots of napkins nearby for this one!

And enjoy!

Farfalle with Arrabbiata and “Buffalo” Mozzarella

I have high expectations for myself tonight.  My goal is to get this recipe posted up as well as one for the pasta salad I brought into work today for a potluck (had someone ask for the recipe, and it’s not the first time – that usually gets good reviews).  We’ll start with the one and see how it goes.

I’ve actually started writing this blog twice.  The first time I started writing it was the night I was making the dish and had a bit of a catastrophe in the kitchen (more about that in a minute) and then the other morning I was going to write it up, but I ran out of time after I had started my intro and then accidentally hit the backspace button while not in the text field.  Lesson learned on that one.

So, third time’s a charm, right?  Let’s hope so.

Before I get started on this recipe, let me apologize.  I had started with the camera in tow, and got some decent pictures to start, but then, when I was blending the tomatoes I had an incident which made it look like someone went on a murderous rampage in my kitchen.  Blended tomatoes sprayed EVERYWHERE.  I was covered in them, the kitchen, the cutting board, parts of the floor…  It was disastrous.  Thankfully Carl came to my rescue and was able to salvage the tomatoes off the cutting board while I had a minor breakdown (no tears, but some pouting and generally being pissy about not being able to take the pictures).  I almost called off the blog, but Carl convinced me not to, and I decided to do it for whoever might want to try this recipe, because let me tell you… This dish is DELICIOUS.  It is not for the faint of taste bud, or someone who thinks ketchup is spicy.  An Arrabbiata sauce is a spicy red sauce.  Arrabbiato is actually Italian for angry.  So it’s only fitting I had my kitchen look like that scene from Kill Bill when Uma Thurman faces off against the Crazy Eighty-Eights.  If it had been done in color.  And without further ado:

Farfalle with Arrabbiata and “Buffalo” Mozzarella

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes (ish)

Ingredients

• 7-8 cloves of garlic (have you started to notice a theme yet?)
• 1/4 onion
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tbsp crushed red pepper (you can get this in the spice aisle – the same stuff that you put on pizza at a restaurant.  We’ve found the Badia brand in the Ethnic section of our grocery store is good quality for the price).
• 1/2 tsp rosemary
• 1 tsp oregano
• 2 cans of Hunt’s Spicy Red Pepper Tomatoes
• 1 tsp red wine vinegar
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1 box farfalle pasta (aka bow-ties, because bow-ties are cool.)
• 1 – 16 oz package of Buffalo Mozzarella (we use the Belgiosio brand – it’s a big log of cheese cut into slices).  You could also use Mozzarella “Pearls” for this dish, but we find that cutting the cheese ourselves makes us laugh when we say that, and it is cheaper in the long run.  Also, random fact:  Buffalo Mozzarella from Italy comes from Water Buffalo milk.  We haven’t gotten that down in America, so ours comes from cows.  I’d love to try the real stuff some day, as I’ve heard it’s exquisite (I mean, it comes from water buffalo teets!  It’s gotta be good for people to keep milking them, right?), but this is what we get here in the States.

Tools

• Cutting board
• Knife
• Can opener (don’t waste your money on an electric one unless you have arthritis, especially if you live in a place that has hurricanes, because you’re boned when you have no power.)
• Stick Blender
• large saucepan
• mortar and pestle
• stockpot
• colander
• spoon for cooking

What To Do

1. Fill stockpot with water and put on medium high heat.
2. Open cans of tomatoes and blend with the stick blender.  Ok, this is where I messed up.  Hold the can with one hand, and sink the blender into the tomatoes (cover the bell shape) THEN turn it on.  Run it all the way down once.  This one motion will blend the tomatoes well enough.  If you like your sauces very smooth, do this twice.  Make sure the bell is completely immersed in the tomatoes before you turn it on.  Unless you want to clean up a big mess.  Carl is not available.
3. Grind the rosemary and oregano together in the mortar and pestle, applying pressure and working around in a circular motion.  I recommend you turn the pestle (wand part) in half circle motions while doing this (it makes it go faster).  Set to the side.
4. Peel and mince garlic (like we did in steps 3 and 4 of this recipe).
5. Put garlic in saucepan (no heat yet).
6. Slice onion in thin slices, like so:
7. Dice the onion by doing a small radial cut.  (Similar to what we did in step 7 of this recipe, but smaller: ).
8. Put onion in saucepan (still no heat).
9. Add crushed red pepper to saucepan.
10. Cover with olive oil, and apply medium low heat to saute.
11. Saute (stirring the whole time) for about 3 minutes, then add the ground herbs from step 3.
12. Saute for about 1 more minute, then add tomatoes, red wine vinegar and salt.
13. Stir and reduce to low.
14. By now, your water should be boiling.  Go ahead and add the farfalle to the boiling water.
15. While the pasta is cooking, and the sauce is simmering, cut the cheese (hee-hee.  I’ve got the sense of humor of a 4 year old.)  Do this, but parting the log (pre-sliced) down the middle.  Cut in quarters one way, and then turn and do a cross cut in quarters.  This will leave you with pieces on the larger side of bite sized chunks.  Stir the pasta and sauce before you cut the other half of the log.
16. When pasta has cooked to your preference (warning, the box will say it’s done sooner than it is – the folds in the bow-tie make it take longer – so be sure you test it before you drain it), drain the pasta in the colander.
17. Put pasta into dishes, add cheese to the top, and cover with sauce (the cheese will get melty and delicious at this point), and serve.

Enjoy!  Let me know if you try this recipe and like it.  I’m going to try to get that pasta salad recipe up next, and I’ve had a request to post a basic marinara so I’ll do that soon, too.  I’d also like to get some additional foods on here (salads, sides and deserts).  Ah, if only there were enough hours in the day.