tofu green bean szechuan stir fry

Bonjour les amis! We've really been enjoying our bountiful veggie baskets from Lufa Farms, one of the world's only commercial rooftop farms. They amplify the bounty with fresh and local produce from local farms as well. The baskets have provided a variety of veggies and as a result I have been inventing new recipes and pimping old ones (tomatillos in my bean chili--booyeah!) Moreover, I collect my box at the local Green Peace office, and the people there are so friendly! I often end up chatting with other neighbourhood folk collecting their veggies. It's nice to feel part of a community of good eaters.

Here's a yummy stirfry that I think really captures some nice Chinese flavours like sesame oil, spicy szechuan pepper, and the delicious salty kick of soya. It helped me use up the tomatoes, onions, soya beans and green beans that were in my basket.

The flavour culprits that comprise most Chinese cookery: sweet, sour, salty, and umami.

Mix 2 teaspoons of sweetener (agave, honey, sugar, etc), 1 teaspoon rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, and 1 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil together, then taste. Does it taste like the makings of delicious stirfry? If so, you're good to go! If not, keep tweaking it, you'll get there. 

Once your taste buds are happy, mix 1 tablespoon of cornstarch in about a 1/4 cup of water.Mix those two together, then incorporate into the stirfry sauce, like so.

Now to get your spicy szechuan salt ready. If you don't have szechuan peppers, just add regular pepper or chili flakes, whatever you fancy to get your hot on.

It was my first time cooking with szechuan peppers, which actually aren't from the pepper family at all. They're some sort of flower pod. Neat! I toasted them over a medium hot flame and waited for them to change colour, stirring often.

I decided to turn my pepper into a pepper salt by crushing about 3 teaspoons of peppers and added that to 3 tablespoons fine sea salt. Now it's stirfry time!

The regulars in my wok: garlic and ginger, about 2 tablespoons each.

A pound of tofu, chopped up and sprinkled with salt and pepper.

A sliced onion and some chopped tomatoes will add some body to the stirfry (and use up some excess from the veggie basket!)

I shelled about a cup of fresh, organic soya beans and trimmed three big handfuls of green beans while watching bad internet TV (What Not to Wear--looking hot is all about showing your waist shape, apparently) while imagining that I was a farm girl in some parched and dusty town in the deep south, fixin' my vegetables on the front porch while mama was out back poundin' the grits.

Now for the actual stir fry process: are you hungry yet? First, fry the tofu in a bit of oil over medium high heat to cook t the cubes to a golden brown crisp.

I then added the soya beans and the green beans to the wok, giving a good stir occasionally. These greens were deceptively dense, took about 10 minutes to soften.

Next, the tomatoes, garlic, ginger, and onion went in. I wanted these flavours to stand out, so I added them last and cooked for about 5 minutes.

Remember the sauce you made earlier? Add that in now and give it a good stir. Sprinkle about a teaspoon of the szechuan salt mix and let that cornstarch in the sauce do its thing. Get everything nice and coated now!

You can eat this on rice or noodles, but I just had it on its own with some sesame seeds as a garnish. Oh, I probably added tons of sriracha as well.  The peppers made the stir fry taste quite zingy, without the burn of regular chili peppers, for example. I enjoyed the electric feeling on the tongue created by the szechuan peppers.

green goddess stirfry

So fall is upon us, as is the time for heartwarmingly delectable stirfries. This here recipe is taken from the People's Potato cookbook and comes highly recommended by my taste buds. What's especially tasty about this stirfry its heavy reliance on peanuts and peanut butter. Sign me up, son!
I used a variety of green vegetables: broccoli, snow peas, cabbage, and leek. Use whatever you've got, though! You'll also need a couple cloves of garlic, minced, and a dice sized piece of minced ginger. Use some protein, like this nice chunk of organic tofu.

Put on some music and get choppin'.



This bowl of condiments is what makes the stirfry extraordinary: awesome sauce
- 3 big plops of peanut butter
- 1 plop of hoisin sauce
- 2 glugs of rice vinegar
- hot sauce to taste

Start seasoning your tofu cubes with salt and pepper. Fry until golden in coconut or olive oil. Set aside. You could totally add the tofu at any time during the stirfry process, but I like mine nice and crispy so I do it first.

Then,stirfry your veggies in coconut or olive oil starting with the most dense ones. I added the cabbage and leeks at the end because I like to keep things crispy around here.

When everything is nearly tender; between 10 and 15 minutes of stirfrying over medium heat, add the garlic and ginger, and the awesome goddess sauce. Add in a few glugs of water and stir well. Garnish with peanuts and enjoy!

Happy autumn, everyone!

lettuce rejoice

Here is a delicious way to stir-fry lettuce. When else are you going to consume a whole head of romaine in one go?

Get yourself a half pound of tofu, 2-3 cloves of garlic and a similar quantity of ginger, salt and pepper, and oyster sauce. Coconut oil for frying.

Cube the tofu and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Slice up the garlic and ginger. Cut the lettuce into one inch pieces.

Stir-fry the tofu first. When it looks golden, add the garlic and ginger and then when you're good and ready add the lettuce and fry for about 2 minutes. You want the heart of the romaine to remain crispy, oh yes you do.
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Almost done! Throw down some oyster sauce up in there.

Top with black sesame seeds and large flakes of toasted coconut for the extra crunch factor.

My stir-fry is ready for its closeup.

Enjoy, then go lie down in a park and look at the clouds.