Tofu and Veggie Fried Rice

We made way too much pilaf for Sunday's Armenian-style horovatz, so I decided to make fried rice with all of the leftovers, also incorporating the leftover beet greens and stems. Feeling a little sluggish after a weekend of drinking and meat-eating, I decided to do a non-traditional spicy tofu and veggie fried rice with a little egg, loosely based on a couple fried rice recipes from Jaden Hair at Steamy Kitchen. My recipe after the jump!

Orange Pan-Glazed Tofu

Colleen sent me this tasty looking orange pan-glazed tempeh/tofu recipe a couple weeks ago, but I didn't get around to giving it a try until this week, and she's busy hiking the Inca Trail... good news is, the recipe is great, so I'm happy to make it for her when she gets back. I bet at that point, she'll probably be ready for a break from Peru's national dish, guinea pig.Crispy tofu coated in a sour, sweet, gingery glaze was delicious served with rice (to which I added some lime juice, cilantro and minced scallions) and roasted broccoli. The only change I made to the recipe (because it seems like I'm incapable of making a recipe word-for-word these days) was to add a couple big squirts of Sriracha to the glaze prior to adding to the tofu, because I like it spicy.

Aspirations: Cooking with Szechuan Peppercorns

So this post isn't about a dish that I cooked myself... it's more of an aspirational ode to Szechuan peppercorns. I aspire to acquire some Szechuan peppercorns and cook up some lip-numbing, tongue-tingling, spicy-as-hell Chinese food at home in the near future.

My aspirations sprung forth thusly: this past weekend, Tim and I got take-out from a Chinese food joint not too far from us that we had heard cooks up some relatively authentic spicy Szechuan dishes. In our infinite wisdom, we decided to order four dishes off of the "Ma La" (read: super-freakin'-spicy) menu, rather than try one or two spicy dishes and balance them out with a non-spicy one. We ordered ma la wontons, dan dan noodles, mapo tofu and a spicy eggplant.

My favorite of the dishes was the mapo tofu. Zippy, peppery sauce coating smooth, creamy chunks of soft tofu, nuggets of ground pork, with the occasional fermented bean or two. This dish is a relative of a spicy pork and tofu dish that Jennifer has cooked for us in the past, but the addition of the Szechuan peppercorns gave it an entirely new kick. The peppercorns literally make your mouth tingle and go numb... it's a totally different type of spiciness than you are probably used to from chile peppers and the like. But awesome. Less burning and more anesthetizing.

In the end, we came out mostly unscathed... mostly. Tim says he still can't feel his tongue, but I have found a new obsession in the Szechuan peppercorn. Expect a post on homemade mapo tofu soon!

Tofu? TOFU?!

This recipe for Mexican Chocolate Tofu Pudding from the NYTimes columnist Mark Bittman is super easy (no cook- just blend) and you would never know that it was non-dairy and made from silken tofu. Give it a try...