Coconut Udon Tofu Stir Fry

This stir fry is amazing.  I wasn't feeling all that great today- my stomach had been hurting and I have this aweful taste in my mouth.  So I didn't eat very much for my lunch, and by dinner I was so hungry that I didn't really care how much my stomach hurt, I was eating a lot.  So I made this stir fry, which turned out to be just the thing that I have been craving for a long time.  It's been ages since I have made udon noodles, and these seemed to turn out really well.  I thought it was just slightly sauce heavy, and M agreed, so go a bit heavier on the veggies if you want.  And I always love the tofu, as usual...

A Noodle Dish

Adapted from Eat Air

Serves 4

12 oz fried tofu, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 heat broccoli, cut into florets
5-7 green onions, white parts thinly sliced, green parts chopped into 1 inch pieces

4 small carrots, cut on the diagonal

1 red bell pepper

2/3 cup edammame
1 tsp ginger, grated
2/3 cup reduced fat coconut milk
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp basil

1 tsp curry paste

1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp vegetarian oyster sauce
2 tbsp corn starch
Udon noodles, cooked, to serve

Peanuts, to serve

Mix together the coconut milk through the corn starch in a bowl and set aside.

Heat a wok over medium high heat with a bit of water. Add the carrot and sauté for a couple minutes and then add the broccoli and ginger. Cook for 3 more minutes and add in the bell pepper and green onion. After another minute add the edammame, and then stir fry another couple seconds. Add in the sauce and cook for another minute. Add in the tofu, heat through, and serve over udon noodles topped with peanuts.

"Beef" and Broccolini Stir Fry

It's so cold and wet.  M and I went shopping today, and I'm still frozen solid like an ice cube, even though we got back hours ago.  What miserable weather.  I wouldn't really mind all that much, but it seems to be cold, cold, cold everywhere.  It's impossible to find anywhere to thaw out.  Unless I'm buried underneath a pile of blankets in bed.  When means that I have a very hard time getting up in the mornings.  I just feel bad for New York City, because they just got a huge snow storm.  That's winter for you!  Only, where I live, it doesn't really snow, it just gets really cold.

But there's nothing like a nice and warm stir fry to warm me up, and this one certainly fit the bill tonight of being quick and hot.  It's nice and simple, and the sauce turned out great.  The funny thing was that I had no clue what I was doing the whole time I was making the dish.  But it still turned out to be exactly what I had been craving, especially becasue the last stir fry I tried to make was absolutely disgusting.  I am very grateful that this one turned out so good and kind of wish that it make a bigger batch.  Oh well.  It was quick, filling, and stellar cooking.

"Beef" and Broccolini Stir Fry

1 very small onion, sliced

2 small carrots, sliced on the sharp diagonal

1 lb white button mushrooms, quartered

1 bunch broccolini, stalks cut in half. stems and florets separated
2/3 cup edammame
3-4 cups vegetarian beef
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp corn starch
1 tbsp Better Than Bullion Vegetarian Beef flavouing

4 tbsp soy sauce

4 tbsp mirin
1 1/2 tbsp chili garlic paste
Cashews, to serve

Mix together the  honey through the chili garlic paste in a small bowl.  Set aside.

Heat a wok over fairly high heat with a bit of water.  Add the onion and broccolini stems and stir fry for 2 minutes.  Add the carrots.  Stir fry for a couple more seconds, and then add the mushrooms, and stir fry for another minute.  Add in the broccolini florets, and cook for 5 more minutes.  Add the sauce, edammame, and beef, and cook until heated through.

Serve over rice, topped with cashews.

Traditional Look, Spectacular Taste

It's almost the holiday season.  And I have two weeks of school left.  And I have one week of insaneness until final exams.  That about sums up my life to the T.  I had to write three essays and take two tests on Thursday, and that was quite a pain.  Yesterday, when I was chopping an onion for dinner, my hand started to sieze up because of all the furious writing I had been doing.  I feel like I am so tired - I have almost fell asleep standing up, which is rather pathetic.  I honestly wonder how people pull off all-nighters, because I think 10.30 is my cuttoff point.  But then again, I'm just unusual in that respect.  School is the reason that this blog is getting neglected, and it's getting quite depressing.   I would much rather read and write about food that Louis IXV.  Cooking is much more exciting.

Especially when I stumble across a gem of a stir fry like this one.  It's fantabulous.  Absolutely one of the best stir frys that I have ever made.  No clue why, either, which kind of stinks, but I ended up hogging most of it for myself, and would not let M eat the leftovers, because it was just THAT good.  This is actually pne stir fry I might make again, because I rarely repeat a stir fry.  It will hold a special place in my heart, that is for sure.   It has just the right combination of sauce ingredients and veggies, and is quite warming and will perk up any day.  I wouldn't mind having some right now, and it's seven in the morning.

I say it looks traditional because it really does.  That's the first thing that popped in my head when the plate came in front of my nose at dinner.  I guess that's because it has all these old-school stir fry veggies, and the "beef" only helps that image.  But really, I think that it does not really matter what it looks like, and the taste blowed me out of the water. 

Traditional-Looking Vegetarian Mutton Stir Fry

Serves 4-6

Adapted from The Book of Yum

4 carrots, coined
1 tbsp grated ginger
5 cloves garlic, pressed
1 lb crimini mushrooms, sliced

3 cups broccoli florets

2-3 cups green cabbage, shredded
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 cup-ish edammame
2 large baby bok choy
12 oz fingerling potatoes, cut in half and boiled for 9 minutes, until tender
1 lb. vegetarian mutton, defrosted and cut into bite-sized pieces
Sauce:
3 tbsp agave nectar or honey
2 tbsp chili garlic sauce
¼ cup hoisin sauce

2 tbsp cornstarch

2 tbsp Better Than Bullion Vegetarian Beef Bullion
¼ cup soy sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix together the sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.

Heat a wok over high heat with a bit of water. Add the carrots, ginger, and garlic, and sauté for 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and sauté for another minute. Add the broccoli, and then after a minute add the cabbage and green onions. Sauté for a couple more minutes and add the edammame and bok choy. After another minute add the sauce, potatoes, and mutton. When the sauce has thickened and the stir fry is hot, serve over rice.  Add extra salt and pepper, if desired.

Sweet Italian Stir Fry

Yay!  It's Friday, and I am about to die.  One more week until finals.  But it's the weekend, so I can put all of that behind me.  Sometime soon, M and I are going to stop shopping for dishes and actually buy some- probably from the Asian Market.  They are so pretty.  The shop has these really cute tea kettles that have clocks on them and say "tea time"!  I love it!  And Target has some pretty cool dishes, too, which is awesome. 

This stir fry is unique for several reasons, and turned out really good.  One thing that was kind of weird was that I actually didn't mind the whole tomatoes in there.  I used to hate non-crushed tomatoes, but I guess I'm getting over that.  That was one different thing.  The other was the cheese on it, which, I've never had cheese on a stir fry before.  It was rather good.  And, of course, the Italian aspect was unusual too.

Sweet Italian “Goose” Stir Fry

Serves 4-6

Adapted from I Eat Food

2 tbsp Italian seasonings

1 tsp chili sauce

1 ½ tbsp “chicken” bullion
2 tbsp stir fry sauce
½ cup mirin
1 ½ tbsp corn starch
1 large onion, chopped
24 crimini mushrooms, sliced
1/3 large head cabbage, shredded
5 cloves garlic, pressed
1 lb giant green onions, or regular green onions, or leeks
1 bell pepper, chopped
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1 lb smoked vegetarian goose, cubed
1 cup edammame
1 bunch spinach, stemmed and washed
Freshly ground black pepper and salt
Grated vegan cheese
Mix together the Italian seasonings, chili sauce, bullion, stir fry sauce, mirin, and corn starch in a small bowl and set aside.
Heat a wok over high heat with a bit of water. Add the onion and sauté for 2 minutes, and then add the mushrooms. After a minute add the cabbage and garlic. When that shrinks a bit, about another minute, add the green onions and bell pepper. Keep sautéing for another 7 minutes or so, until the veggies are pretty much tender. Add both fresh and dried tomatoes, “goose”, edammame and sauce. Heat through and add the spinach. Sauté until the spinach wilts.
Serve over udon noodles or other noodle, and top with salt and pepper and cheese.

Sweet and Salty Five-Spice Tofu Stir Fry

There'e nothing to warm the soul like a giant pile of veggies covering a small nest of noodles, and that's exactly what so many of my stir frys turn out to be.  This is just another one of those, only this is my first stir fry with five spice tofu.  It's really good stuff- I love the texture.  Although, for some reason this dish tasted quite salty, and I think the tofu was the culprit.

It all stemmed from an extra bundle of asparagus that was lying around, and really needed to be used up.  I also got an insiration to add edammame, which is something that rarely happens, and the concoction turned out rather tasty.  Not to mention the ingredients were easy to prep. 

Honestly, now I know what sleep deprivation feels like.  I've got two major tests tomorrow, and that's so not cool.  I don't know how so many of my buddies are living off of only a couple hours' sleep every night, but they are.  I suppose it's because they don't cook!

Sweet and Salty Five-Spice Tofu Stir Fry


Serves 4 - 6

Adapted from 101 Vegetarian Cookbooks

Zest and juice of one lime

¼ cup hoisin sauce

2 tbsp miso paste

¼ cup soy sauce
3 tbsp mirin
Chili sauce, to taste

Sea salt, to taste

2 cups cauliflower florets

2 carrots, coined

1 tablespoon ginger, grated
1 bunch of asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bunch green onions, sliced
1 package oyster mushrooms, large pieces chopped
2 cusp red cabbage, shredded
1 cup edammame
2 packs 5 spice tofu, chopped

2-3 heads baby bok choy, cut into ribbons

2 handfuls fresh basil, slivered
Toasted cashews

Mix together the lime through the salt in a small bowl.
Heat a wok over high heat with a bit of water. Add the cauliflower and carrots. After 2 minutes add the ginger, asparagus, and garlic. After another 2 minutes or so toss in onions and mushrooms. When that is heated through add the cabbage. When the veggies are almost tender add the edammame, tofu, bok choy, and sauce, and cook until bok choy is wilted. Stir in the basil.
Serve over noodles of some sort… topped with cashews.