I’m signing the lease on a new place today (an adorable cottage
downtown), and it’s gotten to be that time: time to eat every random
thing left in the fridge and cabinets before moving.
By the weekend, I’m sure I’ll be drizzling veganaise over stale
Cheerios, but the situation is not yet that dire.
I wanted to get a jump
start on using up all the random condiments accumulated in the back of
the fridge while there was still yummy food left to enhance with said
condiments.
First on the proverbial chopping block: a
bottle of Soyaki sauce from Trader Joe’s, purchased by either Emily or
Amy at least three months ago and deemed too unimportant to pack for
their cross-country flights.
Trader Joe’s has a fun (and arguably racially insensitive) marketing
campaign that involves changing the name “Trader Joe” to reflect the
nationality of certain foods. So the label of Trader Joe’s brand
tortilla chips, for example, reads “Trader Jose,” while that of a bag of
bagels is instead “Baker Josef.”
This Soyaki sauce was confused, I
guess, because the front label read “Trader Joe San” but the back label
read “Trader Ming.” No matter. It was brought to me by Trader Joe San
and/or Trader Ming – all the way from Japan or possibly China – and I
was by no means going to waste it.
The description on the
label said, “a unique teriyaki sauce and marinade for meat, poultry,
fish, tofu, and vegetables.” Well, two out of five ain’t bad. I had tofu
and vegetables!
Katie and I got to work inventing our dinner. Here’s what we used:
1 block firm, sprouted tofu
2 carrots, chopped
2 cloves garlic
2 bunches kale, chopped
½ cup slivered almonds
Trader Joe’s Soyaki sauce, to taste
I
wrote “to taste,” but I just used up all that was left of the Soyaki
sauce. That was, after all, the whole point of making this recipe.
I’ve
learned my lesson about tofu; I know to grill it on its own before
mixing it in with other ingredients. That way you can evenly brown it
and not worry about it falling apart all over the place. I cut the tofu
into half-inch cubes and cooked it in some olive oil.
Meanwhile,
we sautéed the carrots and garlic (also in olive oil in my wok). Once
the carrots were cooked, we added the kale. We had to transfer the whole
operation to a big pot, since the kale took up so much space at first.
Whenever I stir fry things with kale, I’m worried the whole dish is
going to be overwhelmed by all that kale. But this time, it
cooked down so much that two bunches ended up being about right, in my
opinion. Katie disagrees - she recommends using just one bunch - but she
is not crazy about kale in general.
Once the tofu had
browned itself evenly, we added it in with the veggies and poured the
rest of the Soyaki sauce over the whole thing.
Here’s what it looked like:
The
best part about it was the combination of textures: almonds, carrots,
kale, and tofu. Oh, and also that I don’t have to pack up and take to my
new apartment the racially ambiguous Soyaki sauce.
i could eat kale, tofu and almonds every day!!!
ReplyDeleteIt's a good tofu! I would like to do it at home 'cos I haven't taste it yet. I've been practicing but I won't waste my time trying to learn step by step a recipe 'cos it has to many instructions... so I think it'd be better if you can add a video, it'll be easier than read about it. don't you think?
ReplyDeletehmmm tofu, one of my favorite dishes of all time, I always try to eat tofu at least one a week, does that make me a tofu addict?? I don't think so LOL
ReplyDelete