Chilli and dofu make me smile

I want to call this post variations on a theme. I’m not sure if the theme is Chinese inspired food or being insanely tired, achy, demoralised and thinking I should up my prescription. You can tell I’m a proper grown up now, I’m loosing sleep over the economy.

My cooking this week has mainly been a case of throw things from the freezer into oven. Only variation being if Stephen does it or I do.

I have cooked though. Simple things. Another noodle bowl happened. Spicy mushroom stock and noodles didn’t seem very filling on it’s own so I chucked on some chilli flakes and stir fried some greens in some hosin sauce. I used leftover (three weeks old and still looking fresh, also I’m still alive) Riverford cabbage, purple sprout broccoli, the broccoli greens and some red pepper for good measure.

Then I got a bit more adventurous. Keeping with the Riverford stock I spiced up my tofu in a variation of spicy dofu and edamame beans from Chinese Food Made Easy. Replacing the Edamame beans with the same mix as before.

It was lovely and tasty the only problem being the dofu. Or my cooking actually. I put the soy sauce in the pan to marinate. The book says ‘cook until the sauce has reduced’. However my pan was rather hot and in three seconds flat. Well whoosh. Bye, bye soy sauce. I tossed in some water, cooled the pan down and rescued the marinade but the dofu tasted far too salty. Quite yummy but made my lips pucker and my heart angry.

If anyone needs a crash course in dofu (and who doesn't?) they should really check out Chinese Food Made Easy. There is a good number of veggie dishes and even more with suggested conversions. The photography is beautiful and the recipes are as funky and fresh as you’d expect from Ching-He Huang even if they aren’t as experimental (but then they aren’t supposed to be) as in China Modern.