Lily's Stir-Fry with Tofu

It would seem that we are in a terrible rut when it comes to dinner these days.  Every night I appear to be doing some sort of variation on European peasant food.  Spain and Italy (and even France, every now and then) grace our dinner table, in one form or another, nearly every night of the week.

I am told that American peasant food would be a hamburger from McDonald's.  (Or, Burger Burger Burger, if you've seen that old episode of Frasier.)  And there is nothing wrong with that.  (As a sidenote, I highly recommend the book The Omnivore's Dilemma, because I'm actually lying when I say that.  There is something wrong with fast-food for dinner.)  Anyway, most of us eat what we can afford, and unfortunately healthy foods tend to cost a lot.    

Enter Euro-peasant-food.  I do (on a fearfully regular basis) Tortilla Espanola, Garbonzos con Espinacas, pasta (and then more pasta), roast chicken, quiche, frittatas, and soup after soup after soup.  And to be perfectly honest I'm bored to tears by it all.  Me thinks I need to expand the repertoire a bit.

I used to cook with tofu a lot back in the day.  However, I was told to stay away from the stuff during my erstwhile days as a fertility patient.  Not to mention the fact that, in large quantities, soy has been known to turn men gay (or so I hear).  Both my sister and I called our father (who happens to eat tons of the stuff) to tell him about this study after it came out, but he didn't care.  Instead we periodically ask him if he's 'gone gay', as it were.  And for some reason he never seems to think this is as funny as we do.  Anyway, I personally don't have a particular love for tofu, but I also don't loathe it.  I suppose I'm simply indifferent.  (See what I mean, I'm in a rut.  It is very odd for me to be indifferent about anything food related.)

This recipe for Lily's stir-fry with tofu comes from Sophie Dahl's new cookbook.  I made it for dinner last night and Michael and I polished it off in no time (thank goodness I doubled the recipe).  Emilia, on the other hand, put one bite of tofu in her mouth, promptly spit it out, and then declared, 'Don't like it!'  And that was that.  I tried to sneak a bite of the different veggies into her mouth when she wasn't looking, but I got the same results, 'Mia don't like it!'  She can really be a twerp sometimes.

(I took the picture above before I scattered the sesame seeds on top.  I forgot about them until we'd already been sitting at the table for a few minutes.  It's too bad, too, because the sesame seeds made it look a lot prettier.  Oh well, we can't have everything in life.)

Lily's stir-fry with tofu**
serves 2
2 tablespoons of sesame oil
1 cup shredded red cabbage
1/2 cup roughly chopped onion
1/2 a block of firm tofu, cubed
2 tablespoons of tamari or soy sauce
1 teaspoon of mirin or apple cider vinegar (I used the vinegar as I don't know what mirin is)
1 cup of coursely grated carrot
1 cup of coursely grated zucchini
1 cup of snow peas or bean sprouts
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
a handful of chopped fresh cilantro

In a large wok (or something you can sort of pretend is a wok), heat the sesame oil.  Start with the cabbage as this takes longest to cook.  Cook for 10 minutes.  From then on you just layer up -- onion next, then the tofu, a dash of tamari or soy sauce, a dash of mirin or apple cider vinegar, the carrot, zucchini, snow peas or bean sprouts and sesame seeds.  Add things to your heart's content.  Stir-frying should be hot and quick, and easy to the point of promiscuity.

At the end, chop up some cilantro and throw it on the top, and eat on your lap watching Mean Girls.

Oh, the glamour. (Recipe from: Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights, by Sophie Dahl.  Harper Collins, 2009.)

**In giving out recipes, one is not supposed to copy the author's written instructions verbatim.  (The list of ingredients is fair game though.)  Instead, we are meant to use our own words -- and then call the recipe 'adapted'.  However, Sophie Dahl's directions are so wonderful that I am quoting them in whole.  If the feds show up on our doorstep in the morning, then you know why.