Braised tofu and broccoli

February 18, 2025 3:39 PM

I've spent the past five days mostly at home, mostly not doing much, and it's really getting to me. Well today it finally feels like I'm getting over this cold. I saw this video for braised tofu a couple of weeks ago, and I've been wanting to make it. It's honestly a bit involved, especially since I also decided to make the broccoli, but I feel like I need to make a pretty dish after this dreary weekend.

There were a lot of steps to this, so it took a while, but honestly, I was pretty relaxed the whole time, even when my dad called me in the middle of my cooking session to ask me about trying to use TurboTax. (I hate TurboTax by the way. But it seems that everyone in my family insists on using it)

Anyway, the end product was very tasty and very pretty! Even though it's just garnish, I made sure to buy sesame seeds and scallions just for this dish. I don't even really like sesame seeds, but I gotta admit they do give a nice pop.

If I ever make this again, I'd probably use a little less cornstarch and I'd use less chili flakes. I do seem to keep making things too spicy for me 🥵

Mapo tofu

January 4, 2025 12:08 AM

I've been really into cooking tofu lately. In the past I would look at a tofu recipe, but I would replace the tofu with chicken, and honestly? I don't know why I did that. Tofu usually tastes better. And it's cheaper! It's only $1.55 for a block of tofu at Aldi! I think that's cheaper than the Asian stores around here!

So for a while I wanted to try making some mapo tofu. I've actually never had mapo tofu from a restaurant before. But a couple of my friends have made it and shared it with me and it was pretty good when they made it, so I wanted to try it myself. I decided to follow the recipe from Woks of Life, which claims that it's

the true blue, authentic real deal—the spicy, tongue-numbing, rice-is-absolutely-not-optional, can't-have-just-one-scoop mapo tofu that you get in the restaurants

Sounds a little scary actually 😬

Well, first I had to buy some spicy bean sauce. I initially looked in one of the local Korean grocery stores because it's nearby, and they were selling really large jars of it, and there was no way I was buying that much spicy bean sauce when the recipe called for 2 tablespoons at most. I ended up buying the smallest container I could find from another Asian store. It was 6 oz and I ended up making mapo tofu at least 4 times to get through it all! But I finally did today (actually yesterday, I'm just publishing this late), and I even used up some of that ginger.

The first time I made this, I tried to follow the recipe as closely as possible. The only things I changed were

• using extra firm tofu rather than silken (it's all Aldi sells)
• omitting the fresh Thai bird chili peppers
• and adding a little bit of Chinese five spice because another recipe called for it, and I really have no idea how I'm going to use up all of this five spice

And man was it peppercorn-y. SO PEPPERCORN-Y. I guess some people like the numbing effect, but I want maybe a hint of numbing. Not this.

It was also really oily. I think it's supposed to be like that, but it's a little too much for me.

So the next time I made it, I cut the amount of oil in half and decided to just cook it all in one pan. I would make the chili oil first, and then just leave it there to cook the rest of the dish with. I also cut the amount of peppercorn to 1 teaspoon.

These changes were good! But I think that keeping that chili oil in the pan the whole time made the dish really spicy. And I honestly don't handle super spicy foods all that well. Maybe it was this spicy the first time I made it, but I was so distracted by the peppercorn that the spicy-ness didn't hit me as hard.

So I kept making this and lowering the number of dried chilies, but it was still way too spicy. I also tried using silken tofu one time, but that really did just all fall apart.

So today, I told myself I would not put any dried chilies in this dish so it would not be spicy at all.

Okay, maybe one wouldn't hurt. I do have a really large bag of these dried chili peppers. Actually, two shouldn't be so bad...maybe three.

Nope, I made this too spicy again. At least I've finally used up the can of spicy bean sauce.

Thai basil stir fry

August 22, 2022 1:55 PM

Whenever I need Thai basil for a dish, I always end up having some left over, so I end up making a stir fry dish using the rest of it. That was my plan with pho. But we actually went through so much basil while we were eating noodles, that I didn't have enough left for a stir fry!

Thai basil also goes bad really really fast, so by the time I wanted to make stir fry, I felt like it was already rotting. But I was committed to making this dish, so I had to buy another bag. I actually went to one of the nearby Asian grocery stores, and when I asked the person working there, they told me they didn't sell Thai basil and to "check Giant Eagle". What?! I know the local Giant Eagle doesn't stock Thai basil, and if they did, they would charge me an arm and a leg.

So I drove to the better Asian grocery store the next day. Okay. I finally had everything I needed.

This tasted pretty good, but it just seemed like way too much effort for the amount of food it produced. Pulling apart basil and mint leaves is SO tedious. It's worse than chopping!

And the worst part of it all was that I used a really hot red pepper. I think it was a red jalapeno! I didn't realize those could be red! I just thought, oh, this will add some nice color. Nope. Should have gone with a bell pepper. I deseeded the pepper with my bare hands, and then I popped a piece of beef jerky that I was snacking on into my mouth, and it started to BURN. I was still feeling the sting days later. I went to wash my face in the morning, and then my eyes felt it. I could even feel it burning my fingernails as I was trying to pluck my armpit hairs!

ANYWAY, back on to the topic of cooking. I was feeling way too lazy, so I only ended up using half of both bags of leaves. That meant I had enough to make the dish again!

Hey, I learned my lesson about the peppers. I had to make some adjustments:

• Slice up one red bell pepper instead of a hot pepper
• Use a whole pound of chicken
• Use a larger onion
• Use ALL of the basil and mint you have
• Water down the sauce a little, and double the sugar

Okay, this definitely could have used more basil/mint, but I wasn't about to go to the Asian store a fourth time. I liked that I made a larger amount of food this time. I might have added a little too much water, so I think the right amount would be just a single teaspoon added to the sauce mixture.

It was a very, very good meal.

Chipotles in adobo sauce

July 24, 2022 9:37 AM

A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a recipe for spicy chipotle honey salmon bowls and it looked really good. It claims to be a good "weeknight dinner", but I found it to be way too much work, and it had too many components, so I don't think I'll ever make it again. I didn't even take a picture.

One of the ingredients that the recipe calls for is chipotles in adobo sauce, so I bought a little can of it. I tried a little, and it was so much spicier than I expected, so I didn't use nearly as much as the recipe said to. This meant that I had almost a full can of these chipotles left and no idea what to do with them.

But I thought, "I can improvise! I'll make some fajitas!" So I bought a pack of shrimp and some bell peppers and tortillas, and I tried to throw something together.

It was not good. Honestly. I know they look good in the photo, but tacos always look good. The shrimp just tasted weird. Maybe I marinated it and cooked it for too long. And the marinade I made was also bad.

Okay, so I had to try something simpler. I figured since these were so spicy that I could throw a couple of peppers into hummus and blend it up.

Well, it wasn't really hummus. I only had half a lemon and I didn't have as much tahini as I needed for a single can of chickpeas. And then when I was at Aldi, I couldn't find any pita bread, so I bought naan instead. But it tasted great when I dipped a warm piece of naan in it, and now I think I'll always get naan for hummus.

Finally, I threw some of the chipotles into a large batch of pulled pork for some tacos. This time I actually used a recipe that I know works well, and I just added the chipotles to it. (And sugar! I always add sugar)

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a small piece of pork butt, so I bought a pork loin instead, and man was it dry. But that's okay, it wasn't terrible, so I just decided to buy lots of toppings to put on top.

It also made for some good breakfast bowls.