Saturday Night Makeaway: Thai Tofu Curry

I don't think I'm the only one in this country who relents to that naughty tradition of ordering takeaway when it gets to the weekend. The connotations behind it are simultaneously celebratory and relaxing; you've made it through the hard and tiring working week and are completely entitled to a reward, and for someone else to do all the work. HOWEVER, whilst this does make perfect sense and I'm guilty myself of agreeing and acting upon the notion, when you think about it logistically it seems a bit silly. Would it not be more logical to treat yourself to a takeaway on one of those terrible working days, when you've got home late and the thought of cooking is the last thing on your hungry, tired mind; and cook up a beautiful storm when the weekend is yours - when you have the time, energy and attitude to experiment in the kitchen and put some soul into something delicious and homemade?

It seems sensible to me, so I excitedly employed the philosophy this Saturday night. The cuisine of choice was Thai. My favourite Thai takeaway and restaurant ever ever ever, Yelo, closed down around a year ago for reasons, as far as I'm aware, are unknown. It was an awesome little hidey-hole in the ever popular and hipstertastic Hoxton Square, which was surprisingly cheap for the hopelessly trendy area it was in. Most importantly, they gave amazingly delicious and quality Thai dishes and delivered them to our humble little flat in Bow for free. Needless to say, it was devestation all round when I discovered they had gone, as quietly and sneakily as we found them.

Besides the exquisite flavours, one of my best things about Thai food is I never have to worriedly state my 'allergy to tomatoes' and wait in fear, expecting the things to have made it into the dish somehow anyway - because they're a rare addition in this cuisine. So my Saturday Night Makeaway was a bit of an homage to the mindblowing tastes, favourite restaurants and fearless eating that Thai food has brought to me.

When making a Thai curry I will nearly always make the paste from scratch; I'm not a fan of shop-bought sauces (except pesto!) and find that blitzing up garlic, onion, green chilli, ginger, lemongrass, lime, coconut, basil and coriander is one of the most rewarding things you can do - not just for the ridiculously fresh and beautiful taste but also the aromas you release into the house. That said, for this particular recipe I had JUST discovered a wonderful little pot of green harissa from Unique Foods, and was super keen to use it in something. So this time around, my paste was essentially pre-made - but like I said, all you need to do is blitz the above ingredients if you want to make your own.

Thai Tofu Curry

1) Marinate the tofu: just cube your tofu and place it into a large, sealable dish, then chuck in all your other ingredients and give it a shake. I think it's important to do this at least 6 hours before you're going to be making your dish, but I equally know this isn't always possible (this Saturday included). When his happens, I always stick the tofu in the oven while I'm making whatever it is I'm making - this helps the flavours to sink in and also crisps the tofu up a little bit.

2) If you're putting your tofu in the oven, do it now, just as you're starting. Heat some oil in a wok, and chuck in the spring onion. Keep a good few pinches of the onion back so you can use it as garnish at the end. Then add in the herbs, and make sure you include the stalks. Typically, I would be inclined to use coriander in a Thai dish, but never be afraid to improvise when what you expected isn't available. The combination of parsley and basil worked gorgeously for this. Next is the ginger - I use the Lazy jars because they come in white wine vinegar which adds to the dish. Then your garlic, chilli, lime, and finally the pastes. Give it a good mix and add the coconut milk. Stir, turn down the heat, and don't let it boil!

3) Meanwhile, heat another pan with a small amount of oil and then add your vegetables. Stirfry for a good few minutes so they get a little crispy, then add to your coconut wok. Get the tofu out of the oven - eat one now, as they're too good by themselves - and then add them to the wok as well. Leave for a few minutes so it all heats through.

4) Make the garnish: put your reserved spring onion, basil and parsley in a bowl and add the peanuts. I crushed mine all together with my mojito muddler.

5) All done - serve the curry with rice and sprinkle the garnish with extreme generosity.

I guess the good thing about Thai takeaways is that - usually - they taste much fresher (and even healthier) than your other typical takeouts. But the good thing about a homemade Thai is that it tastes even fresher than that. AND - it was made in the same OR LESS amount of time than it would take for a takeaway to arrive. Sounds like a pretty rewarding Saturday to me...

Serves: three
Took: 30 mins (plus the marinating, which took less than 5 minutes)
Things that went wrong: The VT-BF complained that we didn't get takeaway. I didn't care.

There will always be Brick Lane: Valentine's at City Spice

One of the biggest tests I put to restaurants is to provide me with a completely tomatoless dish, that, maybe after a moment of bewilderment, is put together with enthusiasm and perhaps a little creativity. That's if there's not something suitable and wonderful on the menu already. I don't believe anyone should have to put up with something that's been thrown together with resentment or a second class finish rate, because my (or your) ridiculous needs are annoying. If they are in fact so annoying that simply nothing can be made for me in a style that's going to be nice to eat, I'd rather be told by the restaurant that actually, I'd better go somewhere else.

So with all this said, why - why - do I keep returning to Brick Lane? I have had more fresh tomatoes coming up next to me bhajis than I've chosen to believe. There is certainly an undeniable charm to the place (charm in the sense where there are people shouting at you from all angles to convince you to come to their restaurant), a neon horizon that welcomes you vividly to East London, and I guess you just can't beat a rice, naan, starter, main AND bottle of wine for a tenner (or £12 on  busier night).

It's not necessarily the best place for my nerves, though. I always get an intense trepidation that actually, despite my explanations, there's a big squirt of tomato puree swimming around in that earthy-coloured sauce. I worry that each dish is made in a huge vat and there's no resource, space or desire to make me something from scratch if the original recipe contains those juicy fiends. One day, my mind was put at ease slightly...

A group of friends and I got in the middle of what was very nearly a full-on fight between two Brick Lane restaurateurs, wrestling for our custom. One promised a cheaper deal, the other promised more - and better quality - wine. Being an already tipsy mix of English, Irish, Brazilian and French people, we opted for the deal with the wine and promptly chose our starters, mains, rices etc. There was no tomato served with my bhajis... I was in a place which heeded my plight and I appreciated that. Three bottles of wine later and after several debates with various people in the restaurant, the waiter offered to take us down into the kitchen! This statement, in my opinion, deserves much more exclamation marks, but grammatically I can only give it one. A Brick Lane kitchen! I'd heard rumours, the ones we've all heard that we don't want to believe. Greasy spaces, old, non-fresh ingredients, I'd even heard about one massive long kitchen that spanned underneath the whole of this East End street... and am delighted to say that none of them are true. The kitchen was relatively small, super clean, and vibrant with fresh ingredients and spices. The waiter challenged me to taste all the spices and guess them (I got them all right, FYI) and I got a little taste of a freshly made gulapjamon. I even stepped into the fridge. This, tomatophobes and tomatophiles, was a place which could very easily - and happily it seemed - adapt well-known recipes in a fresh way and serve them up to needy customer like myself. People - Brick Lane is the dealtastic, fountain of Indian food that we all dared to hope it might be!

This why me and the VT-BF chose to go back on Valentine's Day. The beginning of 2014 had not been kind financially and we were ready to treat ourselves to some cheap but nice food. Coming from the Shoreditch end, we settled for the very first deal that came to us, which was from City Spice, as the VT-BF was too hungry for banter. We've been to this one a few times and really enjoy it - the set menu isn't limited to your usual dhansaks, masalas etc, and the owner is great - I think he's been there over 20 years.

Unfortunately - and I use that word with all passion and seriousness - the food wasn't quite up there this time.It was the one occasion we chose to omit the onion bhajis so I'm happy to accept some of the blame. The fried potato cakes came up with a nice chunk of fresh tomato and tasted a bit school dinner. The aubergine dahl that I got was pretty nice, as was the beautifully fragranced pilau rice, and there weren't too many complaints to go with the VT-BF's Butter Chicken, but the wine wasn't up to scratch (I know you can't really expect it to be - but 'actual nice quality wine' was one of the conditions of that night's offer!).

But do you know what, it was Valentine's Day, we've had nice wine there before... I'm not usually so lenient but I'm happy to suggest this one time was a slight glitch. You should still go to City Spice, and all the other restaurants in Brick Lane, because... you just should. And that's a valid reason, it really is.

Would I recommend this restaurant? Yes, I got a tomato with my second rate potato, but this is one time I don't care quite so much. Yes, go - go now!