Penang Tofu Curry

At trainings for the Hunger Center, they always provide the most delicious meals. My all-time favorite was always the penang tofu curry from Thai Chili (in Gallery Place, I believe). Before this, I always ordered pad Thai from Thai restaurants, but now that has definitely changed. I have always wanted to reproduce this meal at home and tonight I finally did! (Thanks to all the help of Noopur, my co-chef)

We froze the tofu overnight and let it thaw out during the day. This makes the tofu drier and tough, so it sucks in more of the sauce. We then pan fried it before tossing it into the curry.

This is so freaking delicious and really really simple. Make immediately! :)

Penang Tofu Curry
Ingredients

• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup finely chopped shallots
• 2 tablespoons finely grated peeled ginger
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup organic peanut butter
• 2 teaspoons turmeric
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon hot chili paste (such as sambal oelek)*
• 1 cup water
• 1 13 1/2-to 14-ounce can organic light coconut milk
• 3 kaffir lime leaves or 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice and 1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lime peel
• 1 tablespoon (firmly packed) golden brown sugar
• 2 14-ounce packages organic firm tofu, drained, cut into 1-inch cubes 1 1/2 cups 1/4- to 1/3-inch-thick slices peeled carrots (about 3 medium)
• 1 1/2 cups 1/4- to 1/3-inch-thick slices peeled carrots (about 3 medium)
• 1 large red bell pepper, cut into 3/4-inch pieces

Preparation

Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallots, ginger, and garlic; cook until shallots are tender, about 6 minutes. Add peanut butter, turmeric, cumin, and chili paste; stir until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk in 1 cup water, then coconut milk, lime leaves, and brown sugar; bring to simmer. Season sauce with salt. Add tofu, carrots, and bell pepper; simmer over medium heat until carrots are tender, adjusting heat to medium-low if beginning to boil and occasionally stirring gently, about 20 minutes. Season to taste with salt.

Irish Carbomb Cupcakes

This weekend I visited my lovely friends down at St. Mary's, and Saturday was dedicated to baking!! We made chocolate banana bunnie cupcakes, peanut, ginger, & sesame cookies, and irish carbomb cucpakes!!

I was on team cupcake, so I focused mostly on the irish carbomb cupcakes. We tried to make them vegan so half the house could eat them, but there really was no way. The amount of butter and irish cream in these thing...wow.

The recipe is from the website below. They used just chocolate and cream in their ganache, but since we didn't have heavy cream we decided to use half irish cream & half soy milk. What a good decision. We also used plain yogurt instead of sour cream, which is both tastier (in my opinion) and healthier.

The cake batter is baked with guiness beer, filled with chocolate and irish cream ganache, and topped with irish cream icing. It is needless to say, they were beyond incredible!!

http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/01/car-bomb-cupcakes/

You need to make these ASAP, but don't eat too many or your body will just stop working. Plus, any baked goods in the future will fail to be as good as these. Awesome.

Maztzah Dal Soup! (Happy (?) Passover!)

Hey friends. Sorry for the slowing of posts recently. My work at the National Family Farm Coalition has been keeping me super busy. Plus, last weekend was my sister's wedding so I was in Baltimore for a bit. (Awesome food-filled weekend, I might add!)

With NFFC, my main responsibility is conducting a survey of farmers throughout the country to help identify barriers to local food marketing, credit & discrimination issues, and mentoring programs. I have conducted almost 50 surveys over the phone and they have been going well. I am almost done with the calls and analysis will soon follow.

I was unfortunately not able to go up to Baltimore for passover seder Wednesday night. I still wanted to honor my people's freedom from enslavement by those Egyptions *shakes fist* While in Tucson, Amy and Ami visited for a weekend and Ami told me of one of the most brilliant creations I have ever heard of. Matzah Dal soup!! It not only is an incredibly clever name, it also sounded like a delicious idea.

So on the first night of passover I decided to make Matzah Dal soup (also as a way to blend both my and Noopur's cultures together since we are roomies!) 

I mixed a recipe for lentil soup from the Moosewood Cookbook and a recipe from Noopur's mom. I won't reproduce the recipe here because I dont know the english name of some of the spices, and since I kind of threw things together. I boiled the lentils, added in onion, garlic, carrots, and spices, and cooked the matzah balls in the whole concoction.

The soup turned out alright. I think next time I'll use veggie stock instead of water as the recipe called for, and stick more closely to the actual indian dal soup recipe. Plus, the matzah balls soaked up tons of the water as it was cooking so I needed to keep adding more water.

Either way, happy passover and easter!!! I hope everyone eats amazing food (which pretty much means no passover food...)