Going onsite again tomorrow....

Will no doubt have 5 days of shite food, so thought I’d cook something awesome to get me through. Crispy fried tofu with homemade barbecue sauce and spicy fries was what I came up with. Recipes below.




Fries

Ok so these are skinny little buggers for one reason; I wanted to use my poor, neglected mandolin. And it only has two chip settings it would appear – skinny and skinnier! Cut them fatter if you want, but you’ll need to cook them longer. This was one medium potato (for just me).

In a baking tray, put the potato with a glug of oil (that’d be a technical term for a tablespoon or so), sprinkle with salt, pepper, paprika and dried rosemary and bake in a 180°C oven for 30 minutes. Half way through cooking, give them a good stir about.


Barbecue Sauce

Ingredients:
125ml (½ cup) tomato ketchup
1 tbsp vinegar (I used apple cider)
1 tbsp blackstrap molasses
1 tbsp dark brown unrefined sugar
1 tbsp vegan Worcestershire sauce
1tsp liquid smoke*
¼ tsp garlic granules
¼ tsp dehydrated onion
¼ tsp cumin
¼ tsp hot peri peri chilli sauce (optional, this stuff is HOT so take it slow, ¼ tsp already makes this pretty spicy)

Put all ingredients in a small pan and mix well. Bring to a gentle boil (this doesn’t take long, it’s not a lot of ingredients). Turn right down to the lowest heat and let it bubble gently for about 5 minutes and turn off the heat. Ready to use straight away and is awesome warm or cold.

You can leave the vinegar out (or reduce it) if you prefer, but I quite like the flavour it brings to the sauce.

*I found this online after seeing it in a tonne of American recipes. Definitely worth the shipping cost! Awesome ingredient!


The Tofu
I did this last as it took less than 10 minutes.

I didn’t press this properly, I just put it on a board, in between some kitchen towel and put another board on top, then leaned on it for a few seconds as hard as I could. It got a fair bit of the water out and worked fine. If you’re more prepared than me, press it properly.

Dip the tofu in soymilk, then in seasoned flour (I seasoned mine with salt, pepper, paprika, turmeric, cumin and oregano). Fry in sunflower oil for a few minutes on each side until golden and crispy. Keep your eye on it though – this bitch burns quick!

Sweetcorn Relish
Mix together 1/2 a small can of sweetcorn (drained), 1 small pickle (chopped finely) and some red pepper (just under a quarter of a medium pepper) finely chopped. Add 3 teaspoons of the vinegar the picklees come in, 1 teaspoon of flax oil, a pinch of salt, pinch of pepper, pinch of paprika and a (small) dash of hot sauce. Mix together well and put aside for 20 minutes or so for the flavours to mix.

Cooking to: Def Leppard - Adrenalize