Crispy Oven-Baked Tofu

I have never been one who enjoys tofu. It's squishy and flavorless, but this recipe has totally changed my mind about it! It does take a little advanced preparation, but it's worth it. I have adapted the recipe from Cookie and Kate's blog and just used the flavors I like. If the tofu in the shop looks dubious, just remember that you're going to squeeze out a lot of the water and cook it at really high heat. I personally prefer the packets of tofu labeled "soya paneer."

 

Crispy Oven-Baked Tofu

1 block tofu
1 tsp ginger paste
1 Tbs soy sauce*
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp olive oil
1 Tbs corn starch

Begin by slicing the block through the middle parallel to your cutting board. Then slice lengthwise and width-wise (like a grid) to create small blocks of tofu. On a plate lined with folded paper towels or a tea towel, spread out the small cubes in a single layer. Add more paper towels or the other end of the tea towel to the top. Place another plate on top and weigh it down. I like to put a cast iron skillet on top. Let sit for 30 minutes to squeeze out moisture. 

Mix the other liquid ingredients in a bowl. After draining add the tofu to the bowl. The longer this marinates the better the flavor. I usually leave it 10 minutes to a few hours in the fridge. Just before baking, toss in the corn starch until all the powder is absorbed. 

Preheat oven to 200 C. On a foil lined baking sheet spread a little oil to prevent the tofu sticking. Spread the tofu out on the pan and put in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Toss the baked tofu half way through cooking to promote even browning. Enjoy hot and crispy! 

*Use gluten-free tamari to make this gluten free. 

If you want to use this tofu in another dish, then you may just want to stick to the oil, soy sauce, and cornstarch. The original poster suggests it can soak up whatever sauce is in the main dish better that way.

Ham and Cheese Sliders

The slider craze is everywhere in the US now. They are mini-burgers and sandwiches with various fillings and toppings. When I was last in the US, I had these delicious Ham and Cheese Sliders and recreated them here very easily. This recipe is based on this one from Dinner at the Zoo.

Ham and Cheese Sliders
1-2 long baguettes, cut into small sandwich sizes of your choice*
300 grams ham or enough to stuff each small sandwich
Thin cheese slices**, enough to stuff each small sandwich
2 teaspoons mustard (Dijon, Honey, or Spicy Brown)
2 teaspoons poppy seeds (optional)
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
3/4 teaspoon onion powder
6 Tablespoons melted butter

Preheat oven to 170C. In a small bowl, combine the ingredients from mustard through melted butter and stir until well blended. Lay the bottoms of each sandwich across the bottom of a greased baking dish. Add ham and cheese to each sandwich, and then top with the remaining bread tops. Using a brush or spoon, apply the glaze over the top of each sandwich. It will also drip down the sides. Cover the pan with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the foil from the top and put the pan back into the oven for 3-5 more minutes until the tops of the sandwiches are brown and toasty.

Enjoy your delicious sliders warm!

* You could also cut the bread in a few long lengths that go all the way across your baking pan and slice them into smaller sandwiches after baking.

** I think any cheese that pairs well with mustard would work here. I used sliced processed cheese, but I think the local cheese or something like brie would also work beautifully.

Also, I'm not sure what the point of poppy seeds is other than looks, and don't think the recipe would be missing anything if you didn't have them.

Caramelized Onions

A few years ago, Megan's husband used to make this delicious crusty French boule bread to bring to gatherings. Well, this recipe is unfortunately not about artisanal bread -- you can buy Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day for that -- but it is about this delicious caramelized onion topping that "Bob" would occasionally bake on top of smaller boule loaves. These onions are divine. Amazing baked into bread, spread on a little crostini with a slice of cheese, on top of steamed vegetables, pretty much just amazing. I love them! They also make your house smell wonderful when you're cooking them.

Caramelized Onions
3 Tablespoons olive oil
2-3 onions, finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon white wine (omit if you don't have it)
1 teaspoon cider or red wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon dried thyme
4 Tablespoons water
Pepper, to taste

Heat the oil on medium-low. The key to caramelizing onions is low heat, time, and moisture. Add everything the pan at once. Cook for about 25-30 minutes on low until the onions have a nice golden brown color. If the pan is getting dry, add another spoon of water to keep them moist and prevent burning.

This the perfect relatively hands off recipe that you can do when you're washing dishes or working on something else in the kitchen. A little work for a lot of flavor!

Hummus

The perfect pick me up snack for an afternoon slump. My favorite hummus recipe is Emeril Lagasse's, but I've tweaked it some more to make it even cheaper to make locally. You can occasionally find good quality, shelf-stable tahini here, but more often you can find small pots here with a shelf life of less than 2 weeks in supermarket freezers. For that reason, I have figured out how to make it work with toasted and ground sesame seeds. Play with this one, adding roasted garlic, roasted peppers or eggplant, etc. to see what flavor you like best. I'm a purist so I just go for plain old hummus.

Hummus
2 cups cooked chickpeas
1 teaspoon cumin powder
3 garlic cloves
Juice of 1 lime
2 tablespoons ground toasted sesame seeds
1/4 cup olive oil
Drinking water
Salt, to taste

Place all the ingredients in a food processor or blender. Start with 3/4 teaspoon salt. Blend until smooth, add additional water until you have something slightly softer than what you want the dip to look like. It will firm up some upon chilling. Add additional salt as needed, noting that home cooked chickpeas are far less salty than those from a can. Place in an airtight container and drizzle with a little extra olive oil.

Pani Puri

This is a fun one! It may not be a recipe that you can implement unless you're in this part of the world or you have an Indian grocery store in your vicinity. My family loves Indian food, even the street snacks, and while my husband with his stomach of steel can actually come out unscathed after eating from a pani puri cart, I fear that I would not. That means I basically never get to eat these fun snacks. On top of that, even those sanitary restaurants serving them tend to make theirs on the side of too spicy for my children. I was introduced to the possibility of making these at a friend Esther's home and have been looking for the puris ever since, while trolling Padhus Kitchen for ideas. You can buy them ready-made in some bakeries, but here's a little packet you can make at home. You will find these usually in the section with lentils, uncooked papad packets, and little fryable things that look like pasta. The unfried puris look something like this.

Pani Puri
500g potatoes, peeled and chopped
1-2 green chilies, seeds removed and chopped finely
1/2 teaspoon red chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin powder
Pinch of chaat masala (or some black salt)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 bunch fresh coriander/cilantro, finely chopped
Salt, to taste
Sev or bhujia (little crunchies)
3/4 cups sprouted moong dal or cooked chickpeas (optional)
1/2 packet unfried puris or 1 bag ready-made puri
Jal Jira masala

Boil potatoes until fork tender. While they are boiling, heat 1-2 inches of oil in a frying pan over medium high heat. Drop the heat to medium, and add a few of the unfried puris at a time. They will puff, but you'll need to turn them to cook both sides. Once puffed and brown, remove from oil and drain on a paper towel. Mash the cooked potatoes, adding the green chilies, chili powder, cumin powder, chaat masala, onion, and cilantro. Add the salt to season, starting with just shy of 1 teaspoon. Add more until the potatoes have enough flavor to stand on their own. According to packet directions, mix the jal jira masala in drinking water. You'll want to make at least 250 ml for this many puris. The little unfried puri packet actually comes with its own water masala that you add to 1/2 liter of water.

It's a messy job, but when you are ready to eat, assemble like this:

1. Take a fried puri and poke a small hole in it with your finger. 
2. Poke some of the potato mixture into the hole. Fingers seem to work best here...see why the street version can be ugh! 
3. If desired, poke in some chickpeas or sprouts and some of the bhujia.
4. Finally, dip the stuffed puri into the spiced water mixture so it gets a little pool inside. 
5. Pop into your mouth and repeat.

There you have it! Street food under sanitary conditions. And no, I would never go through all this trouble for a snack. We ate it for lunch.

Ranch Party Dip

Ahh, the classic crudite platter with ranch dip. That is a party food staple that could mean reliance on imported ingredients from home, but have you ever taken a look at how little there is in ranch dressing? It's incredibly easy to make, and not terribly expensive either. One thing you do have to have is good mayonnaise to make this taste right--none of that stuff that smells like sour sugar or straight oil--so don't skimp in that department.

Ranch Party Dip
2 small boxes fresh cream (made into sour cream)
2/3 cup mayonnaise
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried dill (2 Tablespoons fresh)
1 teaspoon dried parsley (2 Tablespoons fresh)
1 teaspoon salt
Black pepper, to taste

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and stir until well combined. Chill and let meld a few hours before serving.

Note: You could also do this with plain yogurt if you'd like more of a buttermilk ranch type flavor. Just drain the yogurt over a cheesecloth overnight in the fridge. The key here, whether using yogurt or sour cream, is to keep the main dip base thick and not watery.

Fall Fruit Chutney

I've been wanting to post this recipe for a long time, but I never got a picture of the cheese I wanted to go with it. Since it's perfect for this time of year, I'm going to post it anyway, and you'll just have to imagine the delicious locally made cheeses it can pair with! Last year I found a recipe in BBC Good Food magazine for a ploughman's lunchbox. The idea of a chutney with cheese and crackers piqued my interest, and this is the result of my tweaking. I love this chutney because you can change it up with different fruit according to the season. Make this with apples, pears, mangoes, or a combination of some of those fruits. A-mazing!

Fall Fruit Chutney
1 kg fruit, peeled and roughly chopped 
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 small to medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup cider or red wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons fresh ginger, chopped finely
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 teaspoon curry powder (or even garam masala)
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds

Simmer the first 6 ingredients ingredients covered over medium low heat for 20 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and cook uncovered until liquid evaporates. Put into glass jars and keep refrigerated. This keeps for about 2 weeks. Serve warm or cold with cheese and crackers.

For a quick, and delicious appetizer, cut a baguette into small toast rounds. Sprinkle or spread some soft cheese like farmhouse cheese, goat cheese, cream cheese, or even feta, over the toast, and top with a dollop of the chutney. Pop into a warm oven and toast just until the chutney is warm and the cheese is melted.

Hot Spinach Dip

Yay! I'm back. I took almost two weeks for some mental recovery, but I've been itching to post some recipes, oldies but ones I've realized I never posted in the past. Before I get to that, however, a HUGE thank you shout out to Megan and Rachel for their posts while I was away! I will say that I have already tried almost everything they posted, and the results have been great on all of them. One more to go this week! I'm so thankful for these wonderful friends who have been in my life at various points during my time overseas.

So, now that the weather has begun to turn cool here (a little later than some of you on other continents), 'tis the season for parties and warming foods. With all the little get-togethers, I like to have some appetizer recipes up my sleeve, but I realized in the history of the blog I haven't actually posted any. This Hot Spinach Dip is probably my favorite appetizer to make here because having something warm as an app just makes it feel extra special and it actually tastes like something I might get at home. This is my adaptation of this recipe from Skinny Taste--since I'm not counting calories and since our local mozzarella clumps terribly in sauces-- but I am quite jealous of those little pretzel-cracker things she's got in the photo! Serve this with tortilla chips, crusty bread dippers, hearty crackers, or even a fresh veg crudite. The measurements do not need to be exact so just go for it.

Hot Spinach Dip
2-3 big bunches spinach, chopped, steamed, and squeezed until somewhat dry
1/2 cup sour cream (here's how)
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup Parmesan or other salty cheese
1/4 cup onion or green onion, chopped finely
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup grated cheese
Pepper, to taste

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl. Pour into an ovenproof dish, or if you're lazy like me, just mix the dip in the baking dish to save on washing a bowl. Bake at 375F/190C until everything is melted and the edges just begin to turn golden. Serve hot.

Note: If you're not up for spending the extra $$ for the parmesan, I have done this using 100% local cheese, and it has still tasted fine. It just needs a tiny sprinkling of extra salt if you do that.