bean curd

Silverbeet (chard) continues to self-seed in our vegetable patch, huge heads of the stuff sprouting from unlikely pockets, leaves the size of palm fronds, stems as thick as an adult hand span. Armloads come back with us as we return to the city, armloads that hardly make a dent in the crop and fill the back seat of the car, greenery poking out here, there, everywhere. I happen to like it like this. A lot.

Whenever possible, I also happen to like it, a lot, with Madhur Jaffrey's ginger-garlic bean curd. You'll need that old hippie standby of nutritional yeast here, easy enough to find in health food shops. According to Jaffrey, it simply cannot be made with either fresh ginger or fresh garlic. Knows her stuff, does Ms Jaffrey. Not willing to take a foolish chance, so addicted am I. Besides, the garlic's already looking tired at the market, sprouting those nasty green shoots that suggest it's almost time to get planting. Autumn's really here.

enough for 2-3 people with other bits on the side.   

ginger-garlic bean curd (tofu)

from madhur jaffrey. i rather like that jaffrey calls tofu bean curd. it's a far more apt descriptor than tofu to the anglicized tongue, explains the process and what to expect of the stuff in two simple words. the recipe is given (by me) in teaspoons rather than tablespoons not to be annoying, but to offer a more universal measure. a teaspoon is a teaspoon is a teaspoon the world over. the tablespoon a trickier beast entirely.   

pour 9 tsp of peanut/sunflower/rice bran oil into a frying pan. set the heat to high. cube 500g/1lb of firm tofu and arrange it on a clean tea towel, drying off a little excess moisture. when the oil is hot, carefully add the tofu and stir-and-fry until golden on most sides.

add 1 tsp of powdered garlic and 1 tsp of ground ginger to the pan, turn the heat down a fraction, and stirfry for 1 minute.

pour in 6 tsp of tamari, and turn the heat to low. keep stirring the tofu around the pan for 2 minutes. (nothing worse than burnt tamari.) remove the pan from the heat and sprinkle over 3 tsp of nutritional yeast, stirring well. serve hot, scraping the crusty bits off the pan as they, naturally, are what you'll be fighting over.   

Comments

[Ali]

i made exactly this dish for all my years cooking at the food coop.
you can't make it with fresh ginger or garlic, it just doesn't work. weird.
but it's so fascinating to me that so many people all around the world make this same dish.
before the food coop made it, there was a little vegetarian cafe in montpelier called horn of the moon that made this. when they closed, the coop kept making it, from their recipe, so area residents wouldn't have to experience withdrawal. so, every day at work i would make up 50-100# of tofu this way, and it would all get et.

[Denise]

Gorgeous chard.

[kathryn]

Well if Madhur says you should use ground ginger and garlic, then you really do have to. She's one of the few authors who's recipes I (almost) never adapt. She knows her stuff, is reassuringly precise and of course the food is stunning. I've seen this recipe many times, but never made it. I think it's the nutritional yeast which puts me off - as it's an ingredient I've never used (bad vegetarian). However, this sounds wonderful.

Madhur's recipe for Bean Curd with Tomatoes and Coriander (in World Vegetarian) is still one of my all-time favourites and the best recipe for coaxing non-tofu lovers to eat the bean.

[Lucy]

ali: when i was making this, i read through jaffrey's preamble (in which she talks about eating it at a coop in montpelier, vermont) and thought of you...somehow, i just knew you were involved! gosh, that makes my heart sing this sunny autumn morning. so addictive...and i think it's the yeast that does it, all umami and almost-cheese. (have a lovely weekend away)

denise wish i could share it around the web with friends...

kathryn: i'd been afraid of the yeast for a long time, but it's used in vegan with a vengence and vegonomicon quite often. saw it, bought it...and one taste, and i was hooked. does something weirdly good flavourwise, brings the whole together. PLUS, i found this recipe when i went scurrying to the book after your visit, to find (and make) that recipe you mention. you should blog it, or will!!

[Sally - My Custard Pie]

I was lucky enough to attend a Madhur Jaffrey cookery demonstration last month and she was absolutely delightful. I've been cooking my way through her new book and it's excellent. The look of this chard makes me long for freshly picked vegetables. Sigh.

[Genie]

Interesting. Tofu and bean curd are not the same thing to me. I'd never call tofu "bean curd" because to me, bean curd is what I've just found out online is also known as tofu skin, or dried bean curd. It's slightly rubbery and comes in yellow/brown sheets and has much more flavour than tofu.

[Jo]

Love fried tofu. I sometimes marinate my tofu overnight on soy sauce and lemon and fry in the morning. Yum.