Robin's Enchiladas

You must try these enchiladas! I say that because once I start telling you about them, I feel like you might be less inclined to try them, but that would be a huge mistake. They are amazing and very flavorful in the most perfect enchilada-y way.

Here's the thing: these enchiladas are made with tofu. WAIT! Don't go. Don't give up on these enchiladas just because I said the world tofu.  You may like tofu, but maybe you think an enchilada is no place for tofu. You may not even like tofu. BUT, let me tell you. You will like these enchiladas. My mom has even gone so far as to not tell people they are tofu until after they've devoured them, just to prove a point (tofu can be delicious). I wouldn't necessarily recommend that, but it does illustrate my contention. These are fantastic enchiladas (that just happen to be made with tofu). Trust me on this one.

Be sure to use El Pato brand enchilada sauce. I am normally a fan of green sauce, but this red sauce is wonderful. If you are feeling feisty, go spicy hot instead of the mild. Look for it at a grocery store that has a good Hispanic foods section (like Food 4 Less). These can easily be made vegan, too!

The filling can be made days in advance and either refrigerated or frozen until you are ready to assemble the enchiladas. In fact, the longer the flavors get to sit with each other the better. I'd recommend making the filling a day before you want to serve these for the tastiest results.

Robin's Enchiladas
~Print Recipe~

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon (or more to taste) minced garlic
• 2 onions, chopped
• 4 green chiles (such as Anaheim), chopped
• 1 can pitted and sliced (or chopped) black olives
• 2 lbs. firm tofu, drained
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon thyme
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 large cans of El Pato brand enchilada sauce
• 2 1/2 cups mixed jack and cheddar cheese, grated
• 24 fresh corn tortillas*

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add garlic, onions and green  chiles and saute until transparent. Meanwhile, squeeze any remaining water out of the tofu and crumble it into a large bowl.
3. Add the onion mixture to the bowl with the tofu. Add olives, oregano, cumin, chili powder, thyme and salt. Mix well. 
4. Heat tortillas in small batches in the microwave (20 seconds or so) until pliable. (Or, quickly fry them in oil if you prefer.) Pour some of the sauce on a small salad plate. Dip the warmed tortillas in the sauce, covering both sides completely. Cover the bottom of a baking pan lightly with enchilada sauce.
5. Set the tortilla in the baking pan and fill with tofu mixture and sprinkle with cheese. Roll the up the enchilada, leaving it seam-side down in the baking pan. Repeat with remaining tortillas. Pour a little more sauce on top and sprinkle with cheese. 
6. Bake for 20 minutes. Let stand for about 5 minutes before serving. Top with guacamole, sour cream and/or garnish with cilantro.

Serves 12

*Fresh tortillas are less likely to tear when you try to roll them up!

Vegan Sushi

Ok, so I loooove sushi. I could eat sushi pretty much anytime. I often get intense cravings for it. It doesn't help that there's a sushi restaurant in the same building as my gym. Every time I go to work out, I have to walk right by the place!

Since sashimi grade fish is typically a little out of my price range (and takes extra effort to acquire), I usually just make veggie sushi, which is just as good. I never would have thought I could make my own sushi, but a friend of mine gave me a quick lesson and I've been rolling my own seaweed ever since. It's so much cheaper than going out! And it's easy. All you need is a sushi mat, nori and some tasty fillings.

• 1 package nori (seaweed)
• Prepared sushi rice (from 1 cup uncooked)
• carrots
• celery
• avocado
• baked tofu
• anything you can think of that sound good in a sushi roll
• a few tablespoons of water in a small container
  
• soy sauce
• wasabi
  

1. Chop up your fillings. You want little matchstick size-slices---long and thin.

2. Set up your rolling stations. I usually let people roll their own sushi, so they can chose their own ingredients. I have two sushi mats with the rice cooker and the fillings in the middle and the small containers of water near the top of each mat.

3. Center a sheet of nori on your mat, shiny ridged side up. Scoop some rice onto the center of the nori and use a spoon to smash it flat and spread it out so that it covers the nori (to the edges!) leaving only about an inch at the top end uncovered. (This will allow the nori to stick to itself and form a roll.) About a third of the way from the bottom, press a small divot across the rice, creating a little space to nest your fillings.

4. Place a small row of the first filling all the way across the nori to the edges, leaving no gaps, but also not overlapping too much. That way each bite will have all the ingredients you add. Add your remaining toppings in a similar fashion, piling them up on top of each other in the divot area you created. The more toppings you add, the fatter your sushi rolls will be. For very spicy rolls, add chili sauce, or my personal favorite---a thin line of wasabi all the way across the nori.

5. Now for the fun part. Once you're satisfied with your fillings, it's time to roll. Pick up the bottom end of your sushi mat in both hands. Lift the mat (and therefore also the nori) up over the row of toppings and tuck it up snuggly on the side of the toppings furthest from you.

You want it to be tight or your rolls will fall apart after you cut them. Using little movements, roll the mat towards the top ( so that the mat ends up more or less folding in half), while continuing to roll the nori onto itself. Stop when you get to the inch you left rice-free.

6. Spoon a small amount of water onto the empty strip of nori. This will be the "glue" that makes the nori stick to itself and will secure your roll. Finish rolling the nori up over the top strip. Look, sushi! My friend said to put the finished rolls on a plate in the freezer while you make the rest. Chilling them slightly will make them easier to cut.

7. When you are ready to eat, cut each roll into bite-sized slices.

Baked Tofu Bites

Baked tofu is one of my favorite things... but then again, I have a lot of favorite things. In college, I used to make sandwiches with slices of the thick baked tofu, onions, tomatoes and lettuce. The cool, savory density of the tofu was the best part. I could eat those sandwiches everyday. I could also eat baked tofu on its own---except, before I knew it, I was not living off of my student loans anymore and I had to reassess how much I was willing to pay for the things I wanted.

I suddenly realized that baked tofu is quite expensive--nearly $5 for two little pieces! The cheapest I've found it so far is at Trader Joe's for about $3.50. It occurred to me one day that this high cost was in fact rather odd, since plain old tofu is really cheap. I can buy a whole pound of it for just over a dollar. So, I thought, why don't I try to bake my own tofu and save a ton of money?

There are a number of recipes out there, but they all consist of marinating the tofu in your choice of flavorings and then baking tofu pieces in the oven. Easy! I made this version recently---a slight variation of an allrecipes.com recipe.

• 1 package firm tofu
• 1/4 cup soy sauce (or substitute some soy sauce for teriyaki)
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder or 1/2 teaspoon crushed raw garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  
• hot sauce to taste

1. Slice your tofu into 1/2 inch sections. With a towel, slightly press on the tofu until it releases any moisture. (You can leave a heavy plate on top of it for awhile, but I just use my hands.) Cut the slices into 1/2 inch cubes.
2. Mix the rest of the ingredients into a bowl (or directly into the container you will use to marinate the tofu). Add the tofu cubes and stir to coat.
3. Let marinate for at least 5 minutes, or up to over night.
4. Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet with a non-stick spray (or next time I will try covering a baking sheet in foil--I'm still scrubbing the last pan) and arrange tofu in a single layer.
5. Bake tofu for 10 minutes and then toss the cubes, allowing a new surface of each one to touch the pan. Repeat every 10 minutes until tofu is golden and slightly cripsy on some sides---30 to 40 minutes.

*I think these taste the best cold. Be careful--once you are eating, it's hard to stop!

Tom Kah Gai: Chicken Coconut Soup

I've always been a fan of Thai food, but Thai cooking somehow seemed rather mysterious. Then Amber told me about a wonderful cookbook called Quick & Easy Thai. (Now, I've seen some "easy" Indian food cookbooks that don't seem to have a quick recipe in them, so I was a little hesitant.) But, the author--previously a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand--wrote these recipes for busy people to cook on a weeknight.

As it turns out, many Thai recipes are not difficult to prepare and can be made any time, not just on fancy special occasions. The recipes I've tried are pretty amazingly simple, but still incredibly delicious. Some of the recipes call for exotic ingredients (that is, if you live in Oregon and not California), but most of the time you can substitute or skip an ingredient and your dish will be fine.

This is an impressively flavorful soup! It pairs well with other recipes in the book, like chicken satay or crab cakes.

• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced crosswise
• 6 wild lime leaves, cut into quarters (optional)
• 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped cilantro
• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened coconut milk (a light version is available at Trader Joe's)
  
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth or water)
• 10-12 slices galanga (this is a relative of ginger--I substitute fresh ginger slices)
• 2 stalks fresh lemongrass (available at Whole Foods and Safeway--do not leave this out!)
• 3/4 pound boneless chicken cut into bite-sized chunks (or tofu!)
• 1 cup thinly sliced fresh mushrooms

1. In a small bowl, combine the lime juice, fish sauce and green onions (plus half of the wild lime leaves--optional). Set aside. Put chopped cilantro in a separate small bowl and set aside.
2. In a medium saucepan, add the coconut milk and the chicken broth. Bring to a light boil over medium-high heat. Stir in the galanga or ginger and lemongrass (plus remainder of lime leaves, if using.)
   
3. Add the chicken and mushrooms. Return to a gentle boil and simmer until the chicken is cooked--about 10 minutes.
4. Remove from heat. Pour the lime juice mixture into the pot and mix well! Ladle soup into serving bowls and sprinkle chopped cilantro. Serve immediately.
   

*Serves 4*

I substituted the chicken for tofu only because I was also serving another chicken dish, but if you use vegetable stock, tofu and leave the fish sauce out this would be vegan. The fish sauce does add a distinct depth to the soup, though, as it does to a lot of Thai dishes. If you have vegetarian friends who eat fish, leave it in for best results.