Jerk Tofu & Pineapple Fried Rice

After two weeks of the flu, I'm ready to do more in the kitchen than retrieve instant soup from the microwave. And since it's getting colder- less than 80 degrees (yeah, California's a biotch), I thought I'd make something that'll warm you up!

Our habanero peppers are in peak ripeness, and what better way to use them than in a dish that invokes thoughts of warm breezes and sand between your toes? Ok, not much of a stretch since I'm in Cali, but not everyone here lives near the beach! Really!

Anyway... the jerk tofu is rather spicy, so if you want to tone it down, use less habanero.

Jerk Tofu
Ingredients:

14oz. block of frozen tofu, thawed (you can do 2 packages, but there won't be a lot of sauce left over)
1 C. orange juice
juice of 1 lime (about 2 tablespoons)
2 T. soy sauce
2 T. olive oil
2 T. brown sugar
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 tsp. ground allspice
1 tsp. fresh minced ginger
1/3 C. nutritional yeast
2 T. balsamic vinegar (I used a blackberry ginger flavored vinegar, which was a gift- Thanks, Annie!)
1/2 C. chopped green onions
pinch of ground black pepper
1 habanero pepper
all-purpose flour for dredging

Spinz:
Drain and gently squeeze out as much water from the thawed tofu. Slice into 1/2" pieces and place onto a towel to further drain. Throw all other ingredients into a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Be careful with handling the habanero- don't get any juice on your hands! Marinate the tofu for about an hour. Scrape off excess marinade and lightly coat with flour. Fry in a little oil in a skillet until both sides are golden and crispy. Save the marinade and heat until thick and bubbly. You can use this to drizzle onto your tofu as a sauce.

Pineapple Fried Rice
Ingredients:

Olive oil (or other veg oil)
Rice (amount of choice)
Vegetable Broth (low sodium)
Chopped pineapple
Green onions, chopped
Garlic, minced
Cilantro, chopped
Soy sauce
salt

Spinz:
Theres no measuring here- go on taste and instinct! Steam your rice with the vegetable broth instead of water. If you have leftover rice from take-out, you can use that, but add a veg bouillon cube to your skillet before adding the rice (low sodium or unsalted preferred). Put the pineapple in a towel and squeeze out all of the juice (you want it to be dry so the moisture doesn't turn your rice into mush). Heat the oil in your wok or large skillet until hot. There should be enough oil to coat all the herbs and to slightly coat your rice. Add the onions, garlic, cilantro, and pineapple and stir fry for a few minutes. Add your rice, add soy sauce and salt to taste, and mix well. Be careful not to burn the bottom.

Serve with fried plantains and greens.

New England Clamless Chowder and Fried Chickn

This soup was inspired by the current issue of Veg News, and the chowder recipe by Allison Rivers Samson (my hero when it comes to cashews). It's a creamy, decadent, soup with mushrooms to take the place of the clams. The cashews give it an unbelievable richness, but could be left out if you want to go lower-fat. To me, it's very much like clam chowder, but it doesn't have that clammy-seafood flavor (which is fine with me). My friend suggested adding a little vegetarian fish sauce (found in Asian markets), which sounded intriguing. So she added some to her bowl, and liked it, but made the comment that the salt would have to be reduced in the recipe to compensate for the salt in the "fish" sauce.

The base of this soup (cauliflower, potato, cashews, onions, & broth) could easily be made into any creamy soup you can imagine!

I cheated again with another Asian faux meat (been doing that a lot lately)... for the Fried Chick'n, I used these ingenious drumstick-shaped faux meat on a stick. They come in packages of 6 or 12. One note of caution: Make sure to read the ingredients label- some of these faux meats contain eggs or whey(milk product). I simply battered them in a mixture of flour, cold water, paprika, salt, pepper, and garlic powder (resembling thin pancake batter). Then, dredged them in panko bread crumbs and fried them in a little oil at the bottom of a big skillet- turning them once to fry both sides). I must say, these are VERY much like real chicken, it's a bit scary.




















Accompanying them, are some delicious crispy roasted kale - stripped leaves tossed with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, then roasted in a 400 degree oven for 5 minutes (careful not to burn).

Chowder

This makes about 6 servings

Ingredients:

3 medium potatoes (about 3 C. chopped)
2 C. chopped mushrooms (the original recipe called for oyster mushrooms, but I used plain old white button mushrooms)
oil for saute & roasting
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium head of cauliflower (about 3 C. chopped)
1/4 C. broth powder
5 C. water
1 C. raw cashews
salt, pepper to taste
vegetarian fish sauce to taste (optional)

Spinz:

In a sauce pan, put half of the chopped potatoes (1 1/2 C.) with enough water to cover. Cover the pan and boil until potatoes are tender.
Heat your oven to 425 degrees, and toss mushrooms in a little oil, salt , and pepper, then spread onto a sheet pan and roast for about 5-6 minutes.
In a large soup pot, add a little oil and saute the onions on med-high heat (do not brown) for a few minutes. Add garlic and saute for another minute or so. Add the cauliflower and remaining potatoes, and broth powder, and toss together. Add the water and let simmer until everything is tender.
In a food processor, process the cashews until you get a fine crumble. Add about 1/2 C. of the broth in the pot to the processor and spin until smooth and creamy.
Add the cashew mixture to the soup and mix well. When veggies are tender, turn off the heat and puree the soup until smooth, using a stick blender. Mix in the remaining cooked potatoes (drained) and mushrooms, and season to taste.