Baked tofu and bean balls

These balls are ideal for either Loinfruits or as party finger food. They bake to a lovely dark golden colour. To ensure that they were easy to remove from the tray once cooked The VegHead cooked a batch in a large muffin (or "cup cake") tray - and used a load of the happy little paper cup cake whats-its. The Loinfruit saw the uncooked balls sitting in the gaily coloured trays before they went into the oven and there was a near riot in the kitchen ....

"Look! It's cakes for dinner!" , said The Loinfruit
"Oh no it is!", said the Nasty Ogre, cruelly crushing their happiness *

Ingredients:

• 1 block of medium tofu
• 1 cup of giant Baked Beans
• 2 slices of bread, finely crumbed
• 1/3 cup of cashews, finely crushed
• 1/3 cup of sunflower seeds, finely crushed
• 1 tablespoon of finely chopped fresh dill
• 1 tablespoon of finely chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 tablespoons of light tahini
  
• 1 tablespoon of tamari
• pepper to taste

To do:

• Mash everything together to an even mixture
• If too wet, crumb another slice of bread and mix through thoroughly
• Form into firm balls of approximately 5cm diameter, place into prepared paper cups
• Bake in a hot oven for 35 minutes

(*) "The Nasty Ogre" is a.k.a. "The VegHead"

Turmeric Tofu Quiche

The VegHead reckons that scrambled tofu with fresh turmeric roots is about as close you can to breakfast perfection this side of another hour in bed with SheWhoMustBeFed. This quiche is a slight variation on the same theme (scrambled tofu that is).

Ingredients:

• Make a pie dough and line a quiche dish with it (preferably a two piece dish with separate sides and base).
• One packet of silken tofu
• One packet of medium firm tofu - mashed
  
• Cornflour or egg replacer
• 1 cup of mushrooms, chopped
  
• 1 cup of roughly grated courgette
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
  
• few slices of onion
  
• 4cm of a finger thick fresh turmeric root, grated using a ginger grater
  
• fresh italian herbs to taste
• pepper to taste
  
• oats (to sprinkle on top)
• olive oil
• tamari

To do:

• Lightly saute the onions, garlic, firm tofu and mushrooms in the oil and tamari
  
• Add the herbs and grated fresh turmeric
• Meanwhile, thoroughly mix the flour into the silken tofu using a fork
• Add to pot and mix thoroughly
• Mix in anything else left
  
• Spoon into the pie dish and sprinkle generously with oats
• Bake on high for 40 minutes or longer if need be.
  

Cavolo Nero and mushrooms in sesame

Cavolo Nero is a cabbage, but oh what a cabbage it is. Nero refers not only to the black verdancy of the leaves, but also points to the place it holds in the Royal Court of Cabbage. No mere, sulphurous, dense ball of pale cabbage commonry, Cavolo Nero's leaves are long; and the thin, crispy flesh is densly crinkled. If you cannot get any local, organic Cavolo Nero in season, then you can use Kale instead. However your life will be a little sadder for the substitution.

This...is a stir fry. Considering the fact that stir fries are meant to form a solid foundation to the average VegHead's menu we don't actually cook that many of them. But hey...you go with the flow of what's in season and what's in the larder, and Cavolo Nero is a stir fry kinda guy...

What was in the fridge..

• One firmly packed cup of chopped Cavolo Nero. Strip the stalk off each leaf as far as the point where it disappears anyway, slice into smallish pieces, wash and thoroughly drain before using.
• One glove of garlic, crushed
• A few slices of onion
• One cup of chopped mushrooms. shitake would have been my first choice, alas the larder was shitakeless. Firm, small fresh champignons therefore gave it their all.
• Half a packet of firm beancurd; cut into small cubes
• Chopped fresh coriander
• Tamari to taste
• Ground pepper to taste
• Peanut oil for stir frying
• Dark sesame oil
• Crushed roasted almonds
• Brown rice noodles
  

What to do..

Stir fry in this order:

• onion, garlic and pepper
• tamari, beancurd and mushrooms
• cavolo nero

Meanwhile....prepare the brown rice noodles as per packet intructions. In my case; soak in boiled water for 5 minutes then rinse in cold water and drain.

• add the cooked noodles to the stir fry. Toss with gaiety to ensure the noodles don't form one fat lump all by themselves. Its a bit like a party where there are two social groups - your work friends and your "other" friends - unless you make them mingle they'll all have a good time but they won't socialise with each other.
• Drizzle with a little dark sesame oil
• Garnish with a generous toss of the coriander, and also the almonds
• Best served on a prewarmed plate. For some reason noodles go cold on a plate almost quicker than anything else.

Served two..

Tofu Katjang Tana Soup

This is from the archives...according to my notes this was invented 21st February 2000. A ‘Frente’ CD was playing during the cooking.

Ingredients & Preparation

• Tamarind pulp – ½ cup
• Vegetable Oil (canola, peanut, walnut are suitable. Not Olive oil)
• Fresh Ginger – approximately the size of the top knuckle of your thumb. Peel and finely chop, or grate if you have a ginger grater
  
• Fresh coriander – 6 stalks. Finely chop
• Salt free peanut butter – 2 tablespoons
• Coconut cream – 1/3 can
• Water – 1 ½ cups
• Firm tofu – 1/3 block. Cut into 1” cubes
• Shittake mushrooms – 4. Sliced finely
• Medium size baby bock choy
• Palm sugar – 1 tablespoon
• Chilli paste – to taste

Method

• Combine all liquid ingredients and melt palm sugar over low heat
• Add mushrooms, coriander, tofu, and chilli
• Cook for 10 minutes over low heat. Stir occasionally, ensuring that tofu is coated evenly with liquid. Do not allow to boil.
• Add Bock Choy and cook for an additional 5 minutes

Serving

• Serve over rice noodles or rice
• The quantities listed should satisfy two people
• Wine always improves a meal