Vegetable Tofu Shawarma, Shredded Tofu, Mandarin Orange Cake, a Leafy Sweater

Veg Shawarma I

This has inadvertently turned into a tofu-themed post. But these recipes from the last week are keepers, and I want to share them and record them on the blog, so here we go-

Every now and then, friends will send me links to recipes they've loved. My grad school friend L A few months ago, she texted me a link to this recipe for Jeanine Donofrio's Eggplant Sheet Pan Shawarma. We bonded 25 years ago over a shared love of home cooking and vegetarian food. This midwestern girl fed me sambar on those dreary evenings while I was writing my dissertation round the clock. The recipe she recommended is a vegetarian take on the deeply meaty dish, shawarma.  

What gives the dish its distinctive flavor is the shawarma spice, and the recipe in the link shows how you can make it in a minute or two, simply by mixing a few spices that we commonly stock in the pantry- ground cumin, smoked paprika, ground cinnamon, ground cardamom, ground turmeric.

It is interesting to see how spices that I use every day create a completely different flavor profile when remixed in different proportions. It is such a great spice blend. The other interesting thing is that I love both sweet potatoes and eggplant, but had never thought to put them together. This is precisely how I like getting out of cooking ruts, not necessarily with new techniques and ingredients, but using staple ingredients and familiar techniques in a slightly different way. 

These are the components I used for the first veggie shawarma bowl:

• Eggplant and sweet potatoes roasted with shawarma spice
• Veggie meatballs
• Sliced cucumber
• Tahini yogurt sauce (made as per the linked recipe)
• Cilantro

Shawarma tofu

I made another shawarma bowl this week, with the addition of tofu. The tofu shawarma was inspired by something I read online on a cooking forum. The marinade has soy sauce, lemon juice, shawarma spice mix, and a bit of olive oil. The person who suggested this also suggested peeling firm tofu using a potato peeler into thin slices so that it becomes similar to kebab meat. I found that this was time-consuming so I cut simple batons. The marinated tofu was pan-fried- incredibly flavorful. 

The second component was the shawarma spice-roasted sweet potato and eggplant. I used the air fryer this time. Something about this combo with the spice is really good- warming and cozy. 

The other two components of the bowl: tahini yogurt sauce and massaged kale salad. All of it put together made for a grand dinner. 

Veg Shawarma II

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I first came across the concept of grated tofu on Johanna's blog Green Gourmet Giraffe last April. Somehow, I had never thought to shred tofu before! We buy the hi-protein tofu from Trader Joe's, and high protein just means that lots of water is squeezed out and the tofu is extra-extra-firm. The dense block of tofu shreds like a dream on your average hand-held box grater. No need for squeezing/ pressing. No need to pull out the food processor. 

Tofu fried rice

In cooking, how we prep the ingredient makes a big difference for the final dish. A raita tastes quite different depending on whether you use large-diced cucumber or small-diced cucumber or shredded cucumber. Onions bring something quite different to a curry depending on whether you cut them into slices, large dice, mince them, or blend them into a paste. In the same way, grated/shredded tofu feels different in a dish compared to tofu that has been cubed neatly versus tofu that has been torn into ragged pieces (the latter is excellent for soaking marinade into crags). 

I had some leftover rice, and I used half the rice and half the shredded tofu to make a quick fried rice with the usual suspects- cabbage and assorted bits of veg, soy sauce, ginger, garlic. The tofu "disappears" into the rice. I served it with kale and a homemade peanut sauce.

The following day, I used the other half of the rice and tofu to make a quick tofu veg pulao for our lunchboxes, using the usual spices and some peas and carrots from the freezer. 

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We cleaned out our pantry last weekend. It was a task scheduled for winter break, but between the lazing and the unwinding and the lolly-gagging, who had time for it? Anyway, we has no plans last weekend and worked together to empty out the pantry completely, wipe it down and restock it. 

I found a can of mandarin oranges that needed to be used up. When it comes to cooking, I so rarely follow recipes closely. Faced with a fridge full of ingredients, I can easily cook up something by look/feel/experience alone. Baking is different for me. I've never made a cake off the top of my head.* I seem to need the crutch of a recipe for baking. Finding a recipe with canned mandarin oranges but without boxed cake mix took a fair bit of digging but I found this one that looked simple enough.

Mandarin orange snack cake

Simple it was. One bowl, basic ingredients, and the batter was ready long before the oven was even preheated. This kind of snack cake is ideal for a beginner baker. 

It has the typical egg, sugar, flour, fat (oil here), a flavor- vanilla, tiny bit of salt, baking soda, and an addition- mandarin oranges. It goes to show you that simple baking does not have to be time-consuming.

• Preheat oven to 350F
• Typical temperature for cakes and cookies
• Lightly spray a 9x9 baking dish
• Typical size of baking dish for a small cake yielding 9-12 snack-size servings
• In a bowl, beat 1 egg
• Add moisture, leavening, richness
• Add 1/3 cup sugar, 2 tbsp. oil, 1 tsp. vanilla
• This makes the wet-mix portion of the batter
• Add 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. baking soda
• Salt in tiny amounts enhances the flavor of sweets, baking soda provides the leavening/rise
• Add 1 can mandarin oranges, drained, mash it in
• Suddenly, a plain cake is an orange cake
• Bake for 20 minutes or so, until a toothpick comes clean or with crumbs attached
• Can also press lightly on the surface of the cake; if it springs back, it is done

On the warm cake, I drizzled a glaze- this I did not need a recipe for, it is just powdered sugar mixed with a bit of heavy cream. This is just a wonderful little snack cake. I might have to stock up on a can or two of mandarin oranges to make it again.

*Come to think of it, the one cake I could make without a recipe for is the first one I learned to bake as a child- where we weighed out 3-4 eggs, and then used that same weight of butter, flour, and sugar. This is the concept behind "pound cakes" (1 lb of each main ingredient). However, it is a greasy and heavy cake, and I prefer modern cake recipes which have slightly different proportions.

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A year ago, I knitted a Summer Ella sweater for myself (I posted a WIP, that is, work in progress pic on this snowy day post.) This sweater was fun to knit and has been a joy to wear. 

I made my sister the same sweater green as a birthday gift last month, starting it over the Thanksgiving break and finishing it over the winter break. Again, it was a most enjoyable knit. I even made it in the same Norwegian cotton-linen-viscose yarn (Sandnes Garn Line) but in a green colorway- Matcha- that I like even better than the one I made for myself. Green is a good fit for the leaf lace, after all. 

I'm rooting around for my next knitting project- one option is to make a pile of dishcloths from a lot of cotton yarn that I have lying around. The other option is to cast on a sweater, for which I have several candidate patterns. 

Tell me your highlights from the week!