Buffalo Tofu and Vegan MoFo

The man and I have been hooked on buffalo tofu for quite some time. We were introduced to buffalo tofu at Gasometer and haven't been able to go there without ordering a sharing plate since our first encounter. The spicy coating on the toothsome tofu paired with a cooling ranch dipping sauce is a delicious dish I've been dreaming about recreating at home for quite some time.

My initial attempt used a spice mix purchased from USA Foods as the main seasoning which I posted about last year. It was good enough for us at the time but I continued searching for recipes in an attempt to find out the secret to fantastic buffalo tofu. The majority of recipes used a hot sauce rather than a dry seasoning mix with Frank's red hot sauce clearly being the preferable option. I never remembered to look for this sauce on my occasional shopping trips to USA Foods and was astonished to discover it sitting amongst the condiments in my local Woolworths recently.

After our latest meal at Gasometer I cracked open the bottle of Frank's sauce and placed it under the man's nose. The look on his face was priceless. "That smells exactly like Gasometer's tofu, you MUST make some buffalo tofu." The recipe I followed was posted on The Vegan 8 Korean, it had a short ingredient list with an interesting twist - frozen and defrosted tofu. I really should use this method of preparing tofu more often as I adore the chewy texture that results from this as well as the extra absorbency of the tofu. If you haven't tried out this method of preparing tofu, I highly recommend sticking a block of tofu in the freezer right now! The tofu turns a yellow colour when it's frozen but after it has been defrosted it returns to it's usual white colour.

The only alteration I made was to adjust the quantity of hot sauce from half a cup to a third (and the margarine proportionately) in case it blew our heads off. Half a cup of hot sauce seemed like a lot to use given I was unfamiliar with the sauce. As it turns out I'm sure we would have handled the extra spice and I won't be wary to turn up the heat in the future!

I had already posted about a ranch dipping sauce adapted from Vegweb in my initial buffalo tofu post although this had slipped my mind so I trawled through my cookbooks to find a recipe to try. The majority of the recipes used vegan sour cream which I didn't have on hand so I settled on making a silken tofu based sauce from Appetite For Reduction. I'm a bit of a salt fiend but found that this sauce was too salty which was probably due to the differences in types of stock powders used. It also made a huge quantity which needed to be used within three days so rather than waste the dipping sauce, we eagerly went back for another round of buffalo tofu a couple of days later!

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I've been a bit quiet around here lately for various reasons and it's likely to remain this way for the rest of the month as Vegan MoFo is coming up in September! My goal is to post everyday throughout September and given the pathetic number of posts I've been churning out recently, I'm going to need the rest of this month to get myself organised. This will be the third time I have participated in Vegan MoFo and I'm looking forward to another fun filled month of reading posts from hundreds of bloggers around the globe. For those who are interested in participating and haven't signed up yet, the registration form is here - make sure you sign up before the cut off date of 28^th August!
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Buffalo Tofu (Adapted from The Vegan 8 Korean)

350g firm tofu, frozen then defrosted
1/3 cup cornflour
Peanut or canola oil, for frying
1/3 - 1/2 cup Frank's red hot sauce (depending on your spice tolerance)
2 heaped tablespoons - 1/4 cup dairy-free margarine (depending on how much hot sauce was used)

After the frozen tofu has fully defrosted, place it in a tofu press and allow it to sit for a minimum of 30 minutes or up to 2 hours. Alternatively wrap the block of tofu in paper towels, place it on a plate and sit some heavy weights on top for a minimum of 30 minutes.

Cut the tofu into whatever shape you feel like - sticks, triangles, cubes. Place the cornflour in a bowl and lightly coat each piece of tofu.

Heat a tablespoon or two of oil in a frying pan and fry the tofu (in batches, if necessary) over medium heat until slightly coloured on each side.

When the tofu has almost finished cooking, place the hot sauce and margarine in a small saucepan and heat until the margarine has melted. Reduce the heat on the frying pan containing the tofu to low and pour the contents of the saucepan over the tofu ensuring it is coated evenly. Allow it to simmer for a minute or two until the sauce reduces then serve the buffalo tofu with a ranch dipping sauce.

In my kitchen - May 2013

Over the past few months I've enjoyed reading "In my kitchen" posts written by my blogging buddies Johanna, Kari, Vaishali and Sandy and decided to join in too. This monthly event is hosted by Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial. This is what's been happening in my kitchen...

In my kitchen is a coffee machine and bean grinder. This is the third coffee machine we have owned which was purchased four or five years ago, the previous two models we had only lasted about two years before breaking down. I would have to say this is my favourite appliance as it's used every single day. One cup of coffee a day is all I usually need as long as it's a good quality strong one like this.

In my kitchen are lemons from our young tree which are being used up as quickly as they are ripening. The tree went through minor surgery over summer due to an attack of gall wasp, unfortunately some branches with many new buds had to be amputated and subsequently the yield has been less than I was hoping for. I haven't had the chance to make our favourite lemon slice yet and must rectify this soon.

In my kitchen are some animals on my window sill. The jade elephant was a souvenir we bought when travelling to Thailand (this particular pose with the trunk lifted in the air is supposed to be good luck). The glass horse sat on my mum’s dresser for years before she passed it onto me. The jade cat was a gift from my mother in law from an overseas trip and the wooden elephant belongs to the man although he can't recall where it came from.

In my kitchen are home made vegan cheeses and rejuvelac, a fermented liquid used for culturing the cheeses. Artisan Vegan Cheese by Miyoko Schinner was sitting on my cookbook shelf for several months before I finally had the time to delve into it. A lot of patience and self control is required for these recipes to work their magic. There isn't too much hands on work involved although some of the cheeses are best enjoyed after resting for 4 weeks! The cheeses in the photo are a cashew chevre and sharp cheddar with rejuvelac in the background. The sharp cheddar has been my favourite so far.

In my kitchen are delicious meals like these curries; a result of recipe testing for Leigh Drew. I've been enjoying testing for Leigh recently as I'm a fan of her cookbook Wrapped in Pastry and have also loved several recipes I've made from her blog. Leigh's exciting new cookbook will be released later this year!

In my kitchen are some substandard chocolate chip cookies. They have taught me a couple of lessons, to follow my own recipes closely and not to bake things late at night! My fellows had a hankering for something sweet last weekend so I hastily baked a batch of cookies for them. I was slack with measuring and didn't use enough flour which made the cookies way too soft. They also stuck together when I put them in a container as I was frustrated with my cooking blunder and didn't allow them to cool down enough before transferring them. Despite these woes, they still tasted great!

In my kitchen are olives soaking in a pot. They will remain here for the entire month with the water changed every second day! This is the first year our young trees have produced enough olives to bother making an effort with. There are more olives on the trees that are yet to ripen and I plan to experiment with some alternative preparation methods in due course.

In my kitchen are spicy Indian snacks. They are similar to Twisties yet they are coated in spices rather than flavoured with cheese or chicken like regular Twisties. I visit a local Indian spice shop every few months to replenish my hoard of spices and cannot resist their ongoing special of three packets for $4 every time I shop there. They are made from corn meal, rice meal, gram meal, vegetable oil and an assortment of spices. As well as tasting great I also like that there are no suspicious codes to watch out for in the ingredients list.

Thanks Celia for hosting this fun event! I look forward to peeking into other people's kitchens too.

Tofu quiches and apricot delights for potluck plus Singapore noodles

Spring was well and truly in the air last weekend making it perfect weather to celebrate Planet VegMel's 2nd anniversary with a potluck in the Edinburgh Gardens. It was a bit daunting to turn up to an unfamiliar park that was crawling with numerous groups of people enjoying the sun whilst trying to locate a bunch of people I hadn't met before. After a quick stroll around I thankfully recognised a couple of blogging faces and made my way over to the friendly welcoming group.

My stomach was still rather full from a late breakfast so I didn't sample as many of the wonderful selection of vegan delights as I would have liked, and ended up snacking on more sweet things than savoury which is quite out of character for me. I enjoyed K's refreshing iced tea and Fat Fueled Vegan's deliciously creamy mango lassi for drinks and tucked into some of Michael's potato-chickpea enchiladas from Viva Vegan. The enchiladas were not new to me as I have made them a few times before, but I was intrigued to try them to compare.

When it was time for the sweets, Johanna's cake pops were extremely popular and rightfully so. Steph's chocolate caramel slice was delicious as were Emily's chocolate truffles. I took home some of Cindy's peanut butter cookies with ganache filling amongst other goodies and tried one later that night. My relationship with peanuts is rather quirky (peanuts = yum, anything containing peanut butter = yuck) so I didn't expect to enjoy these cookies. The peanut flavour paired with chocolate wasn't too overpowering so I was pleasantly surprised to find the cookie enjoyable as did my son who devoured the remaining two.

I made some tofu quiches originally from Fat Free Vegan and previously blogged by Johanna GGG and Vicki Vegan which seemed to be popular. My only gripe was they were nice and fluffy when they were being baked and then shrunk a little after they were cooled. Unfortunately K was unable to try them as I had included miso which can contain gluten. I also made some apricot delights from Johanna's blog which were also blogged about at In the Mood for Noodles; they are a nice and healthy sweet although they did become rather soft after spending some time out of the fridge.

It was a fantastic experience to meet and share food with other veg*n bloggers I have been following for a few years although it was also a little overwhelming for a shy person like me.

A few nights before the potluck, I finally made Toby's Singapore noodles which were fantastically easy to prepare for such a tasty dinner so I decided to add this into the post for another 'that recipe seems very familiar...' submission. The only changes I made were to add some different veggies and I also crumbled the tofu which is something I loved in Steph's awesome Char Kueh Teow recipe and have since used in other dishes. Oh yes, and like others who have also tried this recipe we preferred it with additional soy sauce too! Singapore noodles will definitely be part of our mid-week noodle rotation meals from now on.


Tofu quiches
(Adapted from Green Gourmet Giraffe and Vicki Vegan, originally posted at Fat Free Vegan)

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 small onions, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
100g button mushrooms, finely chopped
100g baby spinach leaves, finely chopped
2 x 300g silken tofu, drained
2 tablespoons tahini
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 tablespoon white miso
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
2 teaspoons tamari
2 tablespoons chickpea flour
1/4 cup soy milk
1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chives, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and cook the onions for about 5 minutes until soft. Stir through the garlic and mushrooms and cook for another 5 minutes until the mushrooms are cooked. Add the spinach and cook, stirring until the leaves have just wilted.

Place the tofu, tahini, nutritional yeast flakes, miso, smoked paprika and tamari in a food processor bowl and pulse until well combined, scraping down the sides if necessary.

In a small bowl, mix the chickpea flour with the soy milk thoroughly to obtain a smooth paste with no lumps. Mix together the ingredients from the frying pan, food processor and chickpea flour/soy milk paste. Stir through the sun-dried tomatoes and chives.

Place spoonfuls of the mixture into a muffin tray lined with papers and bake at 190C for about 30 minutes.


Apricot Delight 
(Adapted from Green Gourmet Giraffe, originally from Australian Women's Weekly)

250g dried apricots, chopped
3/4 cup boiling water
1 1/2 cup dessicated coconut
2 tablespoons agave nectar
extra coconut, for coating

Soak half of the apricots in a saucepan with the boiling water for about an hour. Bring to the boil and simmer on a low heat, uncovered for 10 minutes.

Puree the apricots in a food processor. Add the remaining apricots, coconut and agave and process until well combined. You may need to scrape down the sides a couple of times to ensure that all of the ingredients are blended in.

Spread the mixture into a small tin lined with baking paper, cover the top with baking paper and refrigerate overnight.

Remove from the tin, cut into squares and roll the squares in extra coconut. Store in the fridge in an airtight container.


Singapore Noodles (Adapted from In the Mood for Noodles)

250g rice vermicelli noodles
250g firm tofu, crumbled
1 medium carrot, julienned
1 small red capsicum, thinly sliced
2 large portobello mushrooms, sliced
1 small head broccoli, cut into small florets
splash of soy sauce
slash of sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 onion, sliced
1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder
1/4 cup vegetable stock
extra soy sauce and white pepper to taste

Soak the noodles in hot water for about 10 minutes until the noodles are tender. Drain and set aside.

Place the crumbled tofu, carrot, capsicum, mushrooms, broccoli in a bowl and marinate with soy sauce, sesame oil and chilli flakes.

Toast the sesame seeds in a small frying pan over a medium high heat, then set aside.

Heat the peanut oil in a wok over the highest heat and stir-fry the onion until soft. Stir through the curry powder then add the marinated tofu and vegetables and stir-fry until the vegetables are softening. Add the noodles and stock and stir-fry until the stock has been absorbed. Season with extra soy sauce and white pepper and serve garnished with sesame seeds.

Spiced roasted chickpeas

When it comes to leaving comments on other people's blogs, I have to admit that I am inconsistent. There are periods when I have more to say than others and after leaving a comment I don't have a hard and fast rule about returning to read follow-up comments. 

The other night when I should have been finalising a post and wasn't totally motivated, I became sidetracked. I recalled a few posts where I had left comments recently and went back to have a further look. When I revisited Johanna's Smoky Lime Chickpeas post, there were several references to a remark I had made about eating the chickpeas on the day they are made as they loose their crunchiness on day 2. Other commenters including Johanna were interested in how I achieved the crunchy chickpea in the first place.

My mind was in a spin! It was well over a year, maybe even two since I had made them and I didn't keep the recipe or take any notes. I had a feeling that the recipe didn't work as stated so a longer cooking time and/or higher oven temperature was required to make these little suckers crunchy. After a bit of googling and comparing a few recipes, a highly rated comment against this recipe caught my eye as it introduced a different technique, dry-roasting.

The comment made perfect sense. Adding a marinade prior to cooking means that the chickpeas soak up this moisture and take even longer to dehydrate and become crunchy. Nonetheless, I did feel a bit skeptical about how well the seasoning would adhere to the chickpeas at the end of the process. I settled upon giving this method a try, however the person that left this comment didn't mention anything about the oven temperature. 

My gut told me to try cooking them at around 200C as I didn't want to risk burning the chickpeas by baking them at a higher temperature. About 35 minutes into the cooking time, I took a peek and removed a couple of chickpeas to sample. They weren't quite crunchy enough by this stage but were getting close.  Five minutes later, I noticed that the larger chickpeas were still a wee bit soft and the smaller ones were nice and crunchy. After a total of 45 minutes cooking time they seemed to be pretty consistent.

All they needed now was a light spray with olive oil and a toss with a spice mix I made up on the fly. Whilst munching away on these tasty snacks, there were still a few chickpeas here and there that didn't quite make the crunchy status they were supposed to but the success rate was probably around 80%. Perhaps another 5 minutes of cooking would have done the trick.

The man and son aren't very enthused about this type of snack which is one of the reasons I made them so long ago and didn't bother again. They are a dangerous thing for me to have around as I could down the whole batch in one sitting. I managed to show some restraint as I wanted to put the day 2 test on trial again. Similar to my first experience, after sealing them up in an airtight container they weren't as crunchy the next day.

I think the cooking time could be shortened by a using higher oven temperature, however I would advise to keep a watchful eye on them to avoid burning.           

Spiced roasted chickpeas

1 x 400g tin chickpeas, rinsed and drained
Olive oil spray
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic power
1/4 teaspoon salt


Preheat oven to 200C. Line a roasting tray lined with baking paper, place the chickpeas on top and bake in the oven for at least 45 minutes. While the chickpeas are cooking, mix the spices together in a small bowl. 

Towards the end of the baking time (about 35-40 minutes), take the tray out of the oven and shake the chickpeas around. To check whether the chickpeas are ready, carefully remove a couple of the larger chickpeas, allow them to cool a little then munch into them to test their crunchiness.

Remove the tray from the oven, spray the chickpeas with a little bit of olive oil spray then cover with the spice mixture. Shake the chickpeas around so they are well coated in the spice mixture. Wait for them to cool down and enjoy!