Honey Garlic Tofu with Quinoa Pilaf

Honey Garlic Tofu with Quinoa Pilaf

One of the fastest and easiest ways I found to cook tofu was to fry it, and sauce it. This honey garlic tofu was a play off of those sesame chicken dishes I used to eat a lot in university.

ingredients:

1 block firm tofu
2 tbsp corn starch
pinch of salt
pinch of ground pepper
oil

1/4 cup soy sauce
2-4 tbsp honey
2-4 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp ginger
sesame seeds

directions:

1. Cut firm tofu in half, or use the whole block, depending how many people you are feeding. Cut into small cubes, about 2 centermetres each. Dredge the tofu cubes in a mixture of corn starch, salt and pepper. The corn starch coating will help create a crust on the tofu, and help the sauce adhere to it.

2. Pour a little oil into a frying pan or wok, and toss in the tofu. Mix and flip the tofu around to make sure all sides get cooked. You don't want uncooked corn starch.

3. In a small pot, combine soy sauce, honey, garlic, and ginger, and boil. Then simmer and reduce it down into more of a sauce if needed. If you want, you could add corn starch to thicken it up. If you are really pressed for time, or don't feel like making sauce, just use store bought. You can use honey garlic sauce, or even BBQ sauce.

4. Toss fried tofu cubes with sauce and make sure everything is evenly coated. Drizzle with sesame seeds for a little crunch, and to make it more presentable.

Summer Rolls and Curried Noodles

Summer Rolls and Curried Noodles

Making fresh rolls, instead of spring rolls or egg rolls is incredibly easy as the rice paper cooks so quickly. The only hard part is wrapping them. But honestly, it is A LOT easier than making sushi or something like that. So it is worth a try making theses at home.

ingredients:

rice paper
shrimp
cucumber
carrot
vermicelli noodles
garlic

rice noodles
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp white wine vinegar, or rice vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
bean sprouts
onions

directions:

Fresh Rolls:

1. Slice cucumber and carrot into thin strips. Slightly sautee shrimps with garlic in butter in a frying pan until they are cooked through. Keep shrimps whole, or consider slicing them in half for your rolls.

2. Spread out your fillings in bowls to get ready to prepare the rolls. Make sure you have a flat surface like a large plate or cutting board that you can put your rice paper out on.

3. In some boiling water, submerge each rice paper one by one. Will only take 1 minute to cook. After the rice paper is cooked and malleable. Put it on a flat surface and spoon in some of the carrots, cucumber, vermicelli noodles, and shrimp. Fold sides and bottom in, and roll up.

4. Take rolls and dip them in your favourite plum sauce, or sweet chili sauce.

Curried Noodles:

1. Bowl some rice noodles in a pot until they are cooked through.

2. Mix curry powder, white wine vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar into a bowl or measuring cup and set aside.

3. Cut onion into small slices, and start frying them in a pan. While the onion is cooking, chop bean sprouts in about half or smaller pieces. When translucent, add in your noodles and bean sprouts. As they are cooking pour in your mixture of curry powder, vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar. Mix around until the noodles are all coated. Remove once the bean sprouts are cooked through.