Good Evening fellow cookers and blog followers. After a relatively normal day at work, selling and fixing bikes, I got home and was faced with that age-old question, "what's for dinner." With nothing planned or thawed, and more energy going into dinner tomorrow night (brined, roasted turkey for no particular reason), a quick trip through the inter webs brought forth this idea of kale, tofu, bean tacos. A few bites in and my comment was "this is why I don't go out to eat much." Pretty awesome vegetarian taco recipe for you. I personally love tacos in most all forms, and this recipe creates no exception to that rule, while creating exceptional tacos.
For the tofu:
olive oil - some
vinegar - some
soy sauce - a splash
Worchestershire sauce- a splash
Liquid Smoke - a drop or two
hot sauce - your call
salt
pepper
steak rub a.k.a. the usual suspects
Mix all ingredients into bowl to create a marinade for the tofu. Slice tofu into 3/8" slices and place on plate. Pour marinade over tofu and allow to soak as long as time allows. When ready grill about 6-7 minutes per side (I made that number up, but it sounds good)
For the kale:
avocado - half worked well for two people
tahini - appox. 2 tablespoons
garlic - yup
vinegar or lime juice - approx two tablespoons
anything else you want (cayenne?)
Please ingredients into food processor. Turn on until blended. Add water to form a good thick dressing, but not a paste consistency. Cut the stalks out of the kate and chop. Pour dressing over kale and message for a bit.
For the rest of the innards:
Anything goes here. We started with onion and garlic sauté, added jalapeño then added beans and half a can of tomatoes. Seasoned as you might expect. Cumin, garlic, salt pepper, smoked paprika, cayenne, etc. Kyrstan always nails this part, I'm not sure exactly how, but its always awesome.
For the noise:
I would personally recommend the Pizza Tapes, featuring Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, and Tony Rice for musical accompaniment for this recipe. Jerry and the Dawg are old standbys, but it is fun to hear Tony's very jazzy, frenzied licks joining in for some more "impromptu" pickin'. Very nice.
For the Quaff:
I'm usually happy with anything, so long as it says IPA on the bottle, tonight, no exception, though I'm sure some winter margaritas would have brought a summer-in-december vibe to the meal.
Serve on warm tortillas. Start with a bed of kale, then some beans, then some tofu on top. Fresh guacamole and salsa are encouraged. Delish.
I think the main things that stick out here are the kale/dressing (awesome) and grilled tofu. The grilled tofu is a first for me, but something I've been wanting to try for a while. Spray your grill with some PAM-esque product first and grill away. If no grill is available, I've had lots of success baking tofu in its marinade, and then throwing it on the burner and frying it for the last ten minutes.
This gives my other favorite veggie lentil tacos a serious run for their money, not sure which is better.
Give 'em a shot, let me know how they turn out.
Andy
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Monday, December 16, 2013
Breakfast Quesadilla - A Work in Progress
This morning, I tried bring together four ideas from recent visits with the kids:
- Jo took us to Morning Glory for brunch in Philadelphia and introduced us to frittatas
- Kate made individual quesadillas using 6 inch tortillas in Portland during our visit last week
- Andy made primo breakfast burritos in Moscow, ID during our visit last week using black beans which he had cooked and then frozen in small plastic bags
- Visiting Molly in Tucson last week provided the opportunity to pick up some real south western tortillas
Yesterday, following Andy's lead, I cooked up a pound of dried black beans and froze them in small plastic bags for future use. This morning, I cooked up half a small onion, 2 cloves of garlic, one bag of beans (I got 9 small bags from a pound of dried beans), some dried red pepper from the garden, some Recaito cilantro cooking base (I used Goya's), salt and pepper, all to taste. I beat two large eggs with salt, pepper, and a little dried mustard and a small glug of milk. Spray two 6 inch skillets with Pam, add 6 inch corn tortillas, layer in cooked bean/onion mix on half, pour in scrambled egg, add shredded cheese and cook, eventually folding over and flipping. Serve with salsa.
Given the ingredient list, it's hard for this to not taste good. However, as executed, it definitely suffered from 10-lb-of-shit-in-a-5-lb-sack syndrome. It was hard to cook through without charring the tortillas, was difficult to fold and flip, and did not quite have the characteristics of a quesadilla because it was too puffed up. Next time, I will use less onion and beans (1/4 onion and half a bag of beans to make filling for two 6 inch tortillas should be enough), maybe a little more Recaito for flavor and only one egg for two 6 inch quesadillas. Mom thought it could use less cheese, but I think the cheese is one of the defining characteristics of the quesadilla so I would leave it the same or maybe a little more. With the lighter filling load and a little practice, it should be possible to get the egg cooked and the cheese melted without overcooking or charring the tortilla. If half an egg is not enough breakfast, you can always make two or use a larger tortilla with more filling. Also, you can obviously substitute flour tortillas, more typical for quesadillas, for corn if it suits.
So, an interesting alternative to the breakfast burrito and worth developing, I think. If you try it, post a comment with your experience.
- Jo took us to Morning Glory for brunch in Philadelphia and introduced us to frittatas
- Kate made individual quesadillas using 6 inch tortillas in Portland during our visit last week
- Andy made primo breakfast burritos in Moscow, ID during our visit last week using black beans which he had cooked and then frozen in small plastic bags
- Visiting Molly in Tucson last week provided the opportunity to pick up some real south western tortillas
Yesterday, following Andy's lead, I cooked up a pound of dried black beans and froze them in small plastic bags for future use. This morning, I cooked up half a small onion, 2 cloves of garlic, one bag of beans (I got 9 small bags from a pound of dried beans), some dried red pepper from the garden, some Recaito cilantro cooking base (I used Goya's), salt and pepper, all to taste. I beat two large eggs with salt, pepper, and a little dried mustard and a small glug of milk. Spray two 6 inch skillets with Pam, add 6 inch corn tortillas, layer in cooked bean/onion mix on half, pour in scrambled egg, add shredded cheese and cook, eventually folding over and flipping. Serve with salsa.
Given the ingredient list, it's hard for this to not taste good. However, as executed, it definitely suffered from 10-lb-of-shit-in-a-5-lb-sack syndrome. It was hard to cook through without charring the tortillas, was difficult to fold and flip, and did not quite have the characteristics of a quesadilla because it was too puffed up. Next time, I will use less onion and beans (1/4 onion and half a bag of beans to make filling for two 6 inch tortillas should be enough), maybe a little more Recaito for flavor and only one egg for two 6 inch quesadillas. Mom thought it could use less cheese, but I think the cheese is one of the defining characteristics of the quesadilla so I would leave it the same or maybe a little more. With the lighter filling load and a little practice, it should be possible to get the egg cooked and the cheese melted without overcooking or charring the tortilla. If half an egg is not enough breakfast, you can always make two or use a larger tortilla with more filling. Also, you can obviously substitute flour tortillas, more typical for quesadillas, for corn if it suits.
So, an interesting alternative to the breakfast burrito and worth developing, I think. If you try it, post a comment with your experience.
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