Stir-Fried Tofu, Asparagus, and Shitakesby L.V. Anderson for Slate's You're doing it wrong series
She's right and I didn't even do it right but it came out all right. Right on!
The secret to home-fried tofu with that leathery skin it gets in restaurants is simple: freeze it. SHe said to slice it into the serving size pieces and freeze it that way; I simply froze it whole and it wasn't so bad. But it would have been better her way--I'll do that next time.
Her sauce--just mirin and soy sauce--isn't bad at all. But there are others I like better.
One quibble: why do so many stir-fry dishes have you put the garlic, ginger, and hot pepper in first, fry for a minute, then add the vegetable? By the time the vegetable is done, the garlic and ginger has been browned to a crunchy and somewhat tasteless crisp. I should do it the way I've seen it suggested--cook the garlic and ginger first to flavor the oil, then take it out. Cook everything else and return it to the pan at the end.
Sesame Tomato Cucumber Salad
from Southern Living
The vegetable base for this salad has only tomatoes, cucumbers, green onion and jalapeno; if I'd stuck to those, it would have been excellent. When I added a bunch of lettuce it threw off the dynamic and the results were only so-so.
It's worth keeping for the dressing, a simple concoction which might be good on a grain-based salad. Try it:
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
2 tsp olive oil
1-1/2 tsp sugar
2 tsp toasted sesame seed
1/4 tsp salt
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