Tofu. Blessu.

Over at Ian’s blog awhile back and mentioned being a non-veggie that likes tofu. I used to invite eeners and blackmana over for pots full of green curry when I used to live only blocks away from them both, so I thought I’d write out the recipe here. It’s really simple.

Veggies. Lots of ’em. Broccoli, celery, cauliflower (if you want), baby corn, mushrooms (I use regular, straw, and shitake…lots of shitake), water chestnuts, bamboo shoots (sometimes)…whichever. I try not to use too many ‘melty’ veggies (zucchini, eggplant), but you could if you wanted to. I cut them all up ahead of time and cook them quickly so that they will still be crunchy at the end. Oh…onion. Don’t forget onion.

Heat a bunch of oil…a light oil, or whatever. I press in a clove of garlic or two, put in some grated ginger (I’ve got a cheap little ginger grater that I got for $1.50 and I love it to death)…lots of grated ginger, and then start to saute the onions. When you’re doing that, take extra firm tofu that you’ve chopped up into smallish bits and fry them in the garlic-ed, ginger-ed, onioned oil. Also, maybe add a bit of green curry for them to fry in. In go the veggies according to how long it takes to cook them. Mushrooms are last.

I’ll mention here that I have found that chopping up the veggies and the tofu fairly small makes everything taste better. But everything cooks pretty fast.

After they cook for a bit…and that’s not too long, I put in a heaping tablespoon or two of green curry (the stuff you can get in small tubs at any Asian grocery). I mix it in until it’s all melted and sorta blended in, and then I start adding the coconut milk. Now. I use cans of coconut milk…not the cream and not the ‘lite’ kind. Here’s why: I have found that the coconut milk will often separate into ‘butter’ and ‘water’. I spoon out the butter and ditch the water. I find the water part ‘waters’ it down. If it hasn’t turned to butter, then I take out the creamy part that is floating on top…and ditch the water.

Now…stir that up good and then this is the best part. There is such thing as sweet soy sauce. It’s a soy syrup and it’s SO good. Get some…the brand name I’ve got is ABC, I think. Dump a pile of that on top of your simmering green curry mix…but don’t worry, because you can add more (like I do) just before you’re ready to eat. Oh…and rice. Make sure you put it on rice.

You can put chicken in with this (if you fry it up and then take it out to cook the veggies and add the chicken back in at the last minute). Or, I’ve also added large shrimp at the last minute, covered it up and let them cook. The green curry paste with coconut milk and sweet soy is good enough that you could probably cook a bale of hay and it would taste great.