I have made every member of my family promise not to ever let me enter Masterchef or the Great British Bakeoff. I cannot think of anything worse than to display your inadequacies in front of an audience of several million aspiring chefs who can probably cook better than you. A quiet life in the serenity of a calm kitchen is best, even though it is not always like this in our household.
One thing I would be good at, though, is the invention test. This is when the contestants are faced with an array of ingredients and have to make up a dish. In fact our whole family would be good at it.
Recently I faced the dilemma of having a packet of pork sausages in the fridge but not wanting to eat anything Western. The weather outside was very cold and I really wanted to eat rice.
Being the end of the week the fridge was quite bare. This is what else I had in the fridge: tofu, red chilli, cherry tomatoes and spring onions. On the kitchen counter I had a new bottle of reduced salt miso paste.
Sometimes it is good to challenge yourself to try to make a dish that is new and surprising. This is what I did, by treating the sausage meat as minced pork and adding some seasonings that could complement its savoury taste. The resulting dish was really delicious so I made it again a few days later with mushrooms as a vegan version. The recipe is at the end of the post.
For the Sausage and Tofu Dish:
400 g plain pork sausages, casing removed
400 g block of firm tofu, drained and cut into cubes
50 g shallot, chopped finely
2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped finely
150 g water
12 cherry tomatoes
2 tablespoons Japanese sake or Korean soju
1 tablespoon reduced-salt miso paste
1/2 tablespoon maple syrup
freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cornflour mixed with 2 tablespoons water
thinly sliced spring onions and sesame seeds for garnishing
sunflower oil
How to Make:
Heat a small amount of oil in a pan and fry the sausages, breaking up the lumps with a flat wooden spatula.
Add the shallot, garlic and chilli, continuing to fry until the sausage meat is browned and cooked through.
Add the sake or soju and fry until the liquid has been absorbed into the meat.
Add the miso paste, maple syrup and black pepper. Give everything a good stir and fry for 1 minute.
Add the water, cover the pot and leave this simmering over a low heat whilst you fry the tofu.
Heat a small amount of oil in a separate small non-stick pan. Fry the tofu until browned on one side, then gently flip over and brown the other side.
Uncover the pot and gently stir in the fried tofu, cherry tomatoes and cornflour mixed with water.
Simmer uncovered for around 5 minutes.
Sprinkle over the chopped spring onion and sesame seeds before serving.
Why we need heat: transforming pale and anaemic tofu into a golden brown crisped up version of itself…like getting a suntan
I served the tofu dish with rice steamed with quinoa: wash the rice as usual and to one cup of rice add one tablespoon of quinoa. Steam in the rice cooker as usual.
Here is the vegan version with mushrooms which we had for dinner last night. We had friends over so I did not take a photo, but the result was very good. There is a slight variation in ingredients and method so please read carefully.
For the Mushroom and Tofu Dish:
400 g mixed wild mushrooms, sliced
400 g block of firm tofu, drained and cut into cubes
100 g sugar snap peas
50 g shallot, chopped finely
2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped finely
2 tablespoons Japanese sake or Korean soju
1 tablespoon regular miso paste
1/2 tablespoon maple syrup
freshly ground black pepper
thinly sliced spring onions and sesame seeds for garnishing
sunflower oil
How to Make:
Start by frying the tofu. Heat a small amount of oil in a small non-stick pan. Fry the tofu until browned on one side, then gently flip over and brown the other side. Keep aside.
Heat a small amount of oil in a separate pan and fry the shallot, garlic and chilli for around a minute, then add in the sliced mushrooms.
Continuing to stir fry until the mushrooms have softened a little.
Add the sake or soju, miso paste, maple syrup and black pepper. Give everything a good stir then add the fried tofu.
Cover the pot and leave this simmering over a low heat for around five minutes. The liquid from the mushrooms will infuse the tofu with a savoury flavour (you know, what chefs like to call umami).
Uncover the pot and gently stir in the sugar snap peas. Leave to simmer for one minute only so as not to overcook the peas.
Sprinkle over the chopped spring onion and sesame seeds before serving.