Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Grilled Tofu with Mushroom Sauce & a Lentil Tagine

I'm still loving The Asian Vegan Kitchen, by Hema Parekh. The book has chapters on nine cooking traditions, from India to Malaysia to Korea, and includes a huge variety of recipes. This is an adaptation of a Chinese tofu and mushroom sauce - I added some spinach and wakame. Not so long ago I was one of those people freaked out by eating seaweed, and I'm happy I've gotten over it. Shiitake, beech, and white button mushrooms are the basis for a sauce spiked with mirin and sake.

My second recipe test from Farm Sanctuary was this lentil tagine. Please, just take my word for it that this is way, way better than my rushed photo might suggest. Technically, I guess this is a lentil cast iron frying pan, since I don't have a tagine. Tagine is a much prettier word, for the traditional Moroccan clay cooking pot with the cool conical top. This was sweet and spicy and delicious. I baked this, just covering the frying pan with foil. If you have a tagine, you probably don't need me to tell you that's the right way to make this. It's a recipe that warrants a return trip soon, and maybe I'll be back with a better photo.

4 comments:

aredcardigan said...

very yum yums....how did u get your tofu to look like that???

It looks really appetizing.

Lisa (Show Me Vegan) said...

ok, I'm sold. I'm buying the Asian Vegan cookbook with my birthday money! It sounds like such a cooking adventure.

Bianca said...

That mushroom tofu dish looks to die for! Your tofu is all nice and crispy-ish. I'm so jealous. Mine never turns out that pretty!

Tami said...

Yeah, that tofu texture looks perfect!