What's Cooking: Battered Tofu Bowls, Burgers Every Day, Summery Pasta, Sourdough French Toast & More!
Since I’m still a little low energy, getting over from being sick, it wasn’t a very complicated cooking week, but we still ate good, nourishing, local food!
Baked Battered Tofu Rice Bowls
Ever since trying the Air Fryer Tofu recipe from Pinch of Yum a few months ago (and adapting it for the oven or toaster oven since I don’t have an air fryer), I rarely want to make tofu another way.
The key is a batter with nutritional yeast, cornstarch, avocado oil, soy sauce and some seasonings (just onion and garlic powder this time). The nutritional yeast and cornstarch form a really batter that is crispy and delicious.
I had leftover Scarlett rice and lime basil mayo — plus chili crisp — for the first iterations of these bowls, along with my homemade cucumber and bell pepper kimchi. For later iterations of it during the week (I used 2 lbs of Tien Dat plain tofu, so there was a decent amount!), I made a small batch of Carolina Gold Rice and drizzled the tofu with hoisin sauce and more chili crisp, alternating the cucumber kimchi and another homemade kimchi with purple Napa cabbage, carrots and daikon radishes.
Burgers Every Day!
Whenever Grant and I eat homemade burgers (leveled up even more since we started getting Bellegarde brioche buns for them!), we joke about how we could eat burgers every day. They’re not the best for meal prep or leftovers, but we managed four meals of burgers last week and I took another pack home yesterday because we just can’t get enough!
When our butcher got a patty making machine and was able to offer hamburger and slider patties for the firs time, I didn’t see us pulling them for ourselves very often. I like to season my burgers and I just didn’t see how the patties would save that much time or be superior in any way.
But, there is just something about them and I have hardly ever made my own patties since we started getting them! Maybe it’s the perfect round shape and the pressed/compact element to them? They’re a great size and easy to get a great sear since they are perfectly flattened.
My trick for seasonings is poking holes in them with a fork, seasoning with sea salt, garlic and onion powders and paprika. Sometimes I just go for the Smokey Shiitake and Black Garlic Seasoning from ALL CAPS. Sometimes I marinate in a little Worcestershire and sometimes I put a thin layer of dijon mustard on the raw patties and add some seasoning on top of the mustard.
We are never disappointed and we never really miss seasoning the meat before making the patties ourselves.
My other tip is that while I appreciate having the hamburger size buns for fish sandwiches and egg sandwiches and other things, I actually think Bellegarde’s slider size buns are a good ratio for our hamburger size patties.
My favorite cheese for burgers is a good extra sharp white cheddar. Right now I have a big batch of fermented bread & butter style cucumber relish. We’ve still had slicer tomatoes pretty regularly, last week included yellow beefsteaks. So we slather the brioche buns with a little truffle mayo, a slice of salted tomatoes and top with relish. It really does not get better than that!
Sides included whole roasted okra and shishito peppers, cucumber, red onion and goat cheese salad, dragon tongue snap beans with butter and parmesan and home fries.
Canestri with Italian Sausage, Eggplant Yellow Tomatoes, Basil & Fresh Mozzarella
Quick Wednesday night meal prep for lunches the rest of the week!
It started with sautéing some Italian sausage and roasting some sliced Japanese eggplant. I made sure the eggplant was falling apart and caramelized and the sausage was super browned and crispy.
Then I used a pound of Il Supremo’s canestri pasta, cubed yellow beefsteak tomatoes, a splash of cream (from the top of a gallon of milk versus opening a pint of heavy cream!) and a little parmesan and lemon juice for tang and balance. I also had basil to be used up, so mixed in and wilted it while the pasta was warm, rather than saving any to top with fresh basil.
Then when serving, I added in some fresh mozzarella, more parmesan and plenty of black pepper. Simple, somewhat decadent and just plain good!
Sourdough Country Loaf French Toast
Generally I think thick cut baguettes or ciabatta are the better move for French toast, but I gave it a try with a country loaf this week, since we had a loaf leftover and already had plenty of sliced country loaves in my freezer for toast and sandwiches.
It definitely came out tangier than a baguette or ciabatta, but was still super delicious.
The mix included both egg whites and whole eggs (had some whites to use from a previous recipe), plus milk, vanilla and almond extracts, cinnamon, nutmeg, maple syrup and sea salt.
Finished with more of our Wisconsin maple syrup and I did slather some pecan butter on the leftovers, as usual!
Leftover Naan Wraps
I made a batch of smoked fish dip, but didn’t photograph it this week. I’ve shared before, though, it’s just smoked amber jack or almaco jack fish, creole cream cheese, mayo, Worcestershire sauce, dijon mustard, smoked paprika, garlic and onion powders and lemon juice. Very good with a baguette or crostini!
And for the end of the batch, I pulled out some homemade naan from the freezer and made a wrap with some Green Geauxt spread (the whipped goat feta with avocado, jalapeño and lemon), pickling cucumbers, a san Marzano tomato, and red onions.
Later in the week for breakfast, I had some bread cheese I wanted to use up, along with some whole roasted okra, potatoes, onion and tomato, so I made an egg scramble with curry powder, those veggies and the seared cubes of bread cheese. I spread a layer of goat creole cream cheese on the naan first, then the scramble and topped everything with lime. It was also very tasty!