Source: Zucchini Muffins (http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/zucchini_muffins/)

Start by doing a dredging of some pressed, or in this case not pressed, tofu. I went with flour and corn starch (3:1 ratio) with garlic powder, granulated onion, paprika, and parsley. The corn starch gives you some added firmness and the spices are simple and straightforward.

After you dredge, place on a plate and set aside. I follow this method for brown rice as it is very forgiving and the results are always good; put one cup of water and one and a half cups of rice in a pot, drizzle on some olive oil, turn the heat up, bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and cover with a lid for twenty minutes, turn off heat and let set for ten minutes, fluff with a fork. Done.

Now, once you turn on the heat to the pot of rice and water, turn the heat up to medium high on your cast iron skillet. Pour in two teaspoons of vegetable oil and one teaspoon toasted sesame oil. Once the oil is hot and it moves quickly around the pan surface, roll it over the bottom to coat. Now you will begin frying.

Two quick words. (1) Seasoning; for this recipe you want your skillet clean and well-seasoned. Sticking will kill the crispiness of the tofu. It is essential that the surface be free of any bits of non-seasoning seasoning, and the coat of seasoning should be well-seasoned. If you have a skillet you know exactly what I am talking about; if you don't that first word won't matter. (2) Heat; when frying tofu especially, but anything generally, you want the thing to be fried to sizzle a bit when it hits the oil and the pan. This will create a nice crusty sear. The corn starch in the dredge helps with this crust, as does the flour; but if you don't have a nice solid, even heat emanating from the iron, then you may just end up wit mush instead of crust.

Some displaced flour is going to happen, and once we get to the sauce it will even be called for. But for now you just want a little dredge spittle; if your cubes are leaving behind a trail of crumbs, then you're doing it wrong. To test the heat, hold you hand above the pan surface and once the heat hits your wrist within three seconds it should be good.

So your tofu place each cube down with a firm little touch in the oil. This first sear is the most important. Use it to gauge the heat of the pan, but remember that this is the sear you can best control. Granted you can be very methodical and timely in your placing and turning, but I told you this would be easy and only last as long as it takes to cook the rice. 

Anyway, just flip the tofu after you get the first side golden brown. Like you see in the teevee shows, just pick up the skillet and push and pull it horizontally, bouncing the tofu cubes against the opposite lip tipping up when they hit the wall and flipping them as you go. Turn the heat to medium, then just keep doing this for about five minutes, tossing every minute or so.

After that time check to see if there are any white sides left. After five minutes you should be in the clear. You may run out of oil. In a well-seasoned skillet, the tofu should be scooting along anyway and sticking shouldn't be a problem. However, it will slow browning a bit as the oil conducts heat more evenly than straight contact with the pan. Also, that toasted sesame oil adds a wonderful flair to the taste. If you want to add oil, be sure to dump out the tofu first. Adding cold oil to a hot pan and hot tofu is a surefire way to kill any hopes you may have had for a crispy shell.

Anyway, once done, remove tofu and let sit on a plate. To the hot skillet, add a teaspoon of oil and a teaspoon of flour and stir together until they turn to a smooth paste, keep stirring until the paste turns a golden color (this cooks away the starchy taste of the flour). Once browned, add a quarter cup of water or stock or wine or mirin (at any rate some liquid, flavorful or otherwise), a tablespoon of Bragg's aminos/Tamari/Soy/Teriyaki, and a teaspoon or three of black bean paste. This is not black beans as in turtle beans, the standard grocery store kind. Black beans in this usage refers to fermented black soy beans; aka douchi, a common fermented soy bean used in Chinese cooking. Typically you can buy a bottle of the prepared paste or sauce (frequently with garlic added) in the Asian aisle of general grocery stores. At any rate, you will basically be building your sauce out from here using the ratio after the flour and oil of tasty liquid to tasty ingredients. Your taste will vary, but I would go with two doses of quarter cup water and tablespoon soy and teaspoon black bean paste. This will make enough to coat a half block of the tofu and a half cup of rice. Once you have a gravy, and the rice is done and fluffed, turn off the heat, and add two teaspoons of apple cider vinegar and a teaspon of balsamic vinegar; stir, incorporate tofu, then pour over your rice.

I would add some cayenne and black pepper, but this is a tasty and simple dish as is with a savory bite. Either way, done.

So yeah, you need a quick something to make and get in your belly? How about some oven fries and a salad? Glad you're on the same page, so let's keep it from being boring!

So it is still Lent for a couple more days, and although I ate a good pizza yesterday, I unfortunately did not make it (here's one I did), so I do not have a recipe to post. However, for a recommendation, Columbus Brewing Company has a Meatless Monday, vegan special every Monday; we got the vegan Thai Peanut Pizza, it was a bit heavy on the daiya/cheez, but fantastic nonetheless; we also got the pub nachos, a la vegan, and got a huge mound of nachos with tasties on them; and when the rest of the entree options weren't that enticing, they decided they would whip up a roasted tomato soup on the fly for real life Vice Presidential Documentarian ב.

Mine had an extra bit of sriracha

So, for the fries; you will need about 2 smallish to medium russet potatoes for this, a cast iron skillet, and an oven preheated to 425'F. This is so sparse a recipe that you should just do it how I tell you but yes you can spread these guys out on a cookie sheet with parchment. Anyway, start by putting a few tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large bowl Then add a tablespoon each of toasted paprika, garlic powder, and onion powder (or use fresh garlic, whatever). cut the potatoes in half at the widest spot, then slice each half laterally in half (i.e. don't quarter the potato, unless you want texas fries which are also tasty). Slice into 1/8-1/4" slices (littlish sticks). Place in bowl. Toss until thoroughly coated with oil and spice mixture. Pour sticks into skillet, in a spacy layer about two to three sticks deep.

Put skillet in oven. Bake for twenty minutes, pull out, toss around bake another twenty minutes, toss around and then broil for five minutes.

So that's about forty minutes of downtime. I recommend you make a massaged salad in the first 10-15 minutes. Massaged salad makes a nice accompaniment. Take a handful of romaine hearts and a handful of collard greens.rinse the leaves in a colander, dry throughly, then chop and toss in that bowl you just poured the fries out of. Now I made a bit too much of the paprika/onion/garlic mix, and added it to the greens. Add about 1 1/2 tablespoons of lemon juice, a splash of Bragg's liquid aminos, and a generous sprinkling of kosher salt. Slice an onion in half (ziplock bag the one half) and then slice into little bits. Massage the greens for about thirty seconds until softened. Chill in the fridge until the fries are done.

So you've still got a half hour until then? Make some vegan ranch-y honey mustard. Take a half cup Vegenaise (I know! ...cheating), a splash of apple cider vinegar, a squeeze of agave nectar and a squeeze of mustard. Take a pinch each of that running theme of spice, paprika/garlic/onion, and add some crushed red pepper flakes and a few twists on the pepper mill. Mix it up. Chill it.

Plate the fries, plate the salad; drizzle plate with the dressing, finish with a line of sriracha and a ground sprinkle of thyme.

sweety ב got an extra dose of vegan ranch

Another day, another experiment; hello StackExchange so...

My oven has been broken about a month, and I am getting a new one delivered Saturday. But in the wake of a failed pilot on the bottom, I was curious about whether the broiler could replicate the baking conditions of standard use. I set up my pizza stone as a heat shield/sink, and ran the broiler for about thirty minutes. By the end of that time it had reached a pretty stable 350'F.

For the purposes of generic casseroles, or roasting vegetables, would the heat produced by the broiler via the pizza stone work the same as the lower heating element? Would I need to include some water to evaporate or anything else to make adjustments?

Do you guys have any idea on how to pull the two together? Head over to SE to let everyone know. If I get any good answers I will update. 

Source: Can the broiler replicate a regular gas oven? (http://cooking.stackexchange.com/q/21882/15) by mfg - For the purposes of generic casseroles, or roasting vegetables, would the heat produced by the broiler via the pizza stone work the same as the lower heating element? Would I need to include some water to evaporate or anything else to make adjustments?