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.

World Food Night: The Eating

Unsurprisingly (or maybe a little bit surprisingly, given the specific foods I don't like), I LOVE a good food event. So finding one where the whole country could get involved got me a little bit excited. A while back I posted about World Food Night, and I am finally getting the chance to tell you what a rewarding and delicious experience it was!

As I mentioned previously, the concept of the genius World Food Night, organised by Refugee Action, is that everyone you invite to dinner pays for it, which then gets donated to Refugee Action to help starving people all over the world. You pick recipes from their awesome map, which is also filled with inspirational stories about where the people giving these precious recipes got them from.

I got a bit greedy. I'm sorry, I really am, but I couldn't pick just one. So I may have made three separate dishes. Oh, and I made a dessert too. This greed paid off however, because the stuff we couldn't manage to eat served for dinners for a whole week. I even froze some of it, so technically I'm STILL eating it. Hooray for world food! It was always my favourite aisle in Tesco.

So what did I make? The Cheese and Onion Pie from Lancashire and the Diruni Potato Cakes from Russia were gorgeous, had ample amounts of carb (and dairy of course, in the cheese) and were easy to make (get recipes for both here). But you know how ridiculous I am at sticking to recipes, so for the Sichuan Hotpot from China, I mixed things up a bit, and I have to say, the result was pretty beaut.

Sichuan Hotpot

(adapted from the World Food Night recipe, found here)

1) Marinate the tofu. Add the tofu to a large sealable container and toss in the soy sauce, Chinese five spice and garlic. Close the container, give it a good shimmy (you don't want to give it a vigourous shake as such, because this might break apart the delicate tofu) and leave for at least four hours.

2) Bring a huge pan of water to the boil, and add all the beans and the peanuts. Leave it simmering while you get on with the rest.

3) In a wok, heat some oil and add the garlic, ginger, spring onions, and chilli. Stir fry, and after a couple of minutes add the chilli sauce/paste. Finally add the broccoli and pepper, stir fry for a couple more minutes, then add to your bean broth, along with the red wine vinegar. Turn the heat right down under the pot, and let it all mingle beautifully while you prepare the last few bits.

4) Make the peanut sauce. In a very small pan or mini stock pot fry the extra spring onions in oil. Add the garlic, ginger, coriander and chilli flakes, and then the peanut butter, lemongrass paste, creamed coconut, and after mixing, the soy sauce. Mix all together so it turns into a sauce, and turn the heat right down. If you find it clags ups before you're ready to serve, add a bit of water and mix it in well.

5) Make the tofu. Heat a pan with oil and coat the tofu in the flour. Carefully add it to the pan and fry for a few minutes on one side, then turn over with a spatula to do the other. Be careful not to overcrowd the tofu  - do it in batches if you need to - and also beware of angry, spitting oil!

6) Serve, serve it now! Bring the hot pot to the table (but please be careful not to burn anything or spill boiling broth all over yourself - I nearly did this. It's VERY hot!) and serve with brown rice (or white if you rather), and the peanut sauce to drizzle over as you wish. The tofu can either be dipped in, scattered on top, or dunked inside and mixed with everything else, although you may lose the crispness this way. DE-BLOODY-LICIOUS.

I was about to say 'the best thing about this dish' - but there are too many best things about it. Here are all the amazing things about it:

1) It helped to raise money for starving people all over the world
2) It was a wonderful experiment of trying something new and using different methods
3) As well as being ridiculously nice, it also felt kind of wholesome - the vegetables, the warmth of the hotpot, the wholegrain rice and beans - it definitely gave an impression that we were putting something very good for us into our mouths
4) It was a very communal thing to eat - people helping themselves to the different bits was great
5) The leftovers made my life. The very next day I quickly boiled some noodles and made it into a ramen, which was unbelievably good, and I've frozen some to use as an Asian stock for something, too.

A very quick paragraph on how I made my dessert, as there is ALWAYS room for dessert. I first came up with my Caribbean Trifle when I got back from Grenada for the first time, and had some leftover Jamaica Ginger Cake (one of my favourite shop bought cakes, by the way). I always go on about mixing things up and substituting things in food, and this has become a staple example of me doing that. Slice up a Jamaica Ginger Cake and arrange it at the bottom of a deep bowl or trifle dish, scatter with some chopped mango (and banana and pineapple too, if you like) and pour over a more than generous helping of dark rum (spiced rum would also be wonderous). Next it's a carton of fresh vanilla custard, which you might want to spice with some ginger or nutmeg. Whip up some double cream which has been mixed with a little sugar, about 3tbsp dessicated coconut and even more rum, at least a shot, then layer on top of the custard. Finish with more mango and a lavish grating of dark chocolate (preferably from the beauteous Grenada Chocolate Company). Yes, there might be a bit of calorie in this dish - but we're looking for culture here, right? Just maybe try and beware getting a third helping.

I love doing stuff for other people, and helping to make a difference. But it's so much better when it's this fun and filling.

Although World Food Night has passed, I had to hold my own one late due to certain things that were going on. It's not too late to hold yours! All the details on their website.

Hola Pimiento: The tomato fearer's Patatas Bravas

As a tomato-fearing vegetarian who doesn't like eggs nor olives, Spain is one of the countries I find it hardest to crack. It's the most appealing of things to get together with some close friends and find a cosy, hidden little restaurant for tapas...oh. I'll have the bread please. And lots of Rioja.

I always argue that within the cuisines where meat dishes may be the most well known, there is always a delicious, tomatoless veggie option to keep the world going round, something that for some reason, a lot of people refuse to believe. Spain is the country I have struggled most with in this regard, so it's the one I wanted to visit first (visit metaphorically - I'd be a much happier tomatophobe if I'd actually got to go there). So, all thoughts of La Tomatina in the recycling bin, I put on my thinking sombrero to make...

Patatas Bravas (with roasted tofu and cheese sauce)

Patatas Bravas is one of the tapas dishes I can just about salvage in a restaurant, by asking them to serve it with aioli as opposed to the traditional spicy tomato sauce (easier than, 'can you take the fish out of this calamari', or 'have you got this chorizo in vegetarian?'). What I aimed to do with this detomatation was swap the offending fruit with a happy red pepper, and hence stick to the traditional bright red and spicy elements that should technically come with this dish.

To serve, rather than experimenting with all the other tapas (because, you know, one step at a time) I decided to make roasted tofu, breaded with semolina, and a cheese sauce that, due to lack of supplies, I made with a wholemeal flour - this actually worked out pretty nicely!

1) Marinate the tofu. I only had an hour or two to do this, it would have worked much better if I'd been able to do it in the morning or the night before. Essentially you're making a dressing: mix the the garlic, lemon, mustard, and herbs together well, with a tablespoon of olive oil, then taste to see if it's to your preference. I threw in a bit of white balsamic for good measure. Drain and cut the tofu into four pieces - first in half, and then slice the halves. Skewer with a cocktail stick then spread with the marinade, cover and leave.

2) Pre-heat the oven to 175C. Boil water in a large saucepan. While you're peeling and cubing the potatoes, stick the peppers in the boiling water, whole. I cubed the potatoes unevenly - I prefer it like this. When they're done take the peppers out (be careful!) and put the potatoes in for about 10 minutes. If you want to skin the peppers, which is very much recommended, do it now.

3) Pour all the potatoes into a well-oiled roasting tin, and coat with 1tbsp of the oil, plus salt, paprika and pepper, then toss to coat. Stick in the oven for about 45 mins. Make the coating for the tofu and then stick them in too: spread the semolina on a plate with paprika, cayenne if desired and salt (I used celery salt). Coat the tofu pieces and then roast, about 35 mins.

4) In a saucepan heat the rest of the oil. Fry the onion which has been chopped. While this is softening, chop all the peppers, trying to retain all the juice, and crush the garlic. After about 5 minutes, add these to the pan and stir. Add the chilli flakes (more or less if you like, according to your taste). Simmer for about 5 mins until it's all softened, then add the basil and blitz up in a blender. I like to keep it chunky, but go with what texture you like. Keep on a very low heat to keep warm.

5) The cheese sauce takes no more than 10 mins, so start it towards the end of the roasting time. Put the butter and flour in a small pan over a low heat, and mix continuously with a wooden spoon until it comes away from the edges and forms what almost looks like a dough. Take off the heat and add a little bit of milk, stirring constantly. Gradually add all the milk then put back onto the heat, adding the grated cheese, and stir until thickened. Taste to see if you want to add any seasoning.

6) Serve! I plated the potatoes and tofu next to eachother, and drizzled the cheese sauce over and around them, with rocket. Snip some more chives and grate a little bit more smoked cheese to top.

Served: the tofu and sauce lasted two portions, but there was plenty Patatas Bravas to make something for two people the next day.
Took: quite a long time. Prep was easy, about 15 mins, but roasting time and multitasking means this isn't something I'd want to make on a school night
Things that went wrong: tofu should have marinated longer, no question. The thing I expected to go wrong - the use of wholemeal flour in the cheese sauce - actually brought a really nice flavour.

Experiment: éxito! I don't know if I stuck to a strictly Spanish cuisine... but it still went very well with a glass of Rioja.