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

FNF - deconstructed eggplant-sausage pasta in tomato-basil cream sauce

Food Network Friday

Tami Noyes, author of American Vegan Kitchen, is again hosting her Food Network Friday. We have recently acquired this fabulous logo for FNF, designed by Kip, and would love you all to join us in recreating Food TV recipes - but veganized! This time around Kip joins Tami as well as the fantastic Liz from across the ocean. Tami hopes that with our newfangled logo more of you will participate in an FNF!

 Here is my rendition of Emeril's Sausage and Eggplant-Stuffed Shells in Tomato-Basil Cream Sauce. 

My version is a Deconstructed Eggplant-Sausage Pasta in Tomato-Basil Cream Sauce. Emeril created an eggplant-sausage-ricotta filling stuffed into shells and covered with Tomato Cream Sauce and cheese. I've been busy with recipe testing, hectic with life, getting ready to move, preparing to take the kids on vacation to visit their friends in Maryland, hosting a Harry Potter sleepover, and preparing for a Teen Night; in other words, stuffing pasta was not high on my list. As late as I am with this dish, I didn't want to miss it, so I decided to take the easy way out and deconstruct it.

I started with multitasking: I put three pots on the stove (1) pot of water for the pasta (2) pot for the sauce and (3) pan for the filling. I sauteed the eggplant, onions, and plain seitan in the pan with lots of Italian spices - fennel, basil, oregano - and in the other pan made my tomato-cream sauce. I used regular almond milk (2 c) and a can of diced tomatoes with lots of garlic for the sauce. I reduced the sauce while the eggplant was cooking. When the eggplant was done I set it aside and poured the pasta sauce in that same pan, adding some Daiya. I then tossed the cooked pasta into the simmering sauce. Having more surface area to cook helped reduce the sauce more and tossing the pasta with the sauce helped to thicken it in a jiffy. I served the pasta with the filling on top.

Very delicious. And much easier. I used pappardelle pasta because I needed something thicker and hardier to substitute for the shells. 

Thanks, Kip, for a great recipe to try!