vine and dine - horseradish crusted tofu

Vine and Dine

This week's Vine and Dine by Tami is being reported from a hotel in Maryland! We are on vacation and made the Vine and Dine last week before we left. As vacations tend to be, our leaving was too hectic to do the write up earlier so, we are now wracking our brains to remember what the meal was like and how the wine complemented it.

We'll do our best.

The cookbook chosen this time was the first Horizon book and the recipe out of that was the Horseradish Crusted Tofu with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce. While I believe part of the idea of V&D is to get us to dig out forgotten cookbooks and explore new recipes, this happened to have been one of the only recipes we actually tried and loved. I wonder how many out there who have this book also made this very recipe since it simply sounds great. One thing is for sure, this book doesn't get the attention in our kitchen that it richly deserves. Nice to have dusted it off.

Out of the same cookbook the Spinach with Pine Nuts was recommended; garlic, olive oil, spinach and pine nuts. I'm there. Do not omit the pine nuts from this - it adds so much flavor and texture. You don't even have to add a lot of pine nuts, but don't substitute it since it is so worth it.

The tofu dish we made gluten free. Kate is at least gluten or wheat sensitive, so we subbed Glution Breading Crumbs for the bread crumbs. I also made our own baked tofu by first pressing (Tofu Express) it and then baking it in a chicken-like marinade. My daughter was complaining that tofu tastes like nothing. All this time I thought I had been making tofu well, and then all it takes is a reality check from my eleven-year-old who should be avoiding seitan now. She set me straight and now I am working on getting flavor (more flavor?) into a slab of tofu. I guess I was onto something since she really liked this horseradish tofu - and of course, the recipe from the book didn't hurt either.

As for the V&D itself, the tofu with mashed potatoes, the spinach and the red pepper sauce was phenomenal. Oh, and the wine was darned good as well! I'm going to spoil it for David by saying it first, but it was a delightful screw-top Merlot. But then I'm a sucker for a good red wine anytime. This one made me happy.

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

This wine was good,

With this tofu.

-- David (or his wife)

Stellar Organics