As a vegetarian cook, I regularly work with tofu to create Asian food at home. A lot of non-vegetarians get freaked out by tofu, but I truly believe more people would like it if they had properly prepared tofu. Over the past year I’ve discovered that baking tofu with a little sesame oil and soy sauce marinade is a fool-proof way to season tofu and create the right texture. From there you can toss the tofu in with any stir-fry or noodle dish and complete your meal.
The other week, as the Texas heat started to kick into high gear, I wanted to create a cold Asian dish with tons of flavor and just a little spice for dinner. I started with this recipe for curried udon noodles and added a jalapeno and chili sauce instead of a red chile. For the noodles, it’s always worth a special trip to an Asian market if you can make it happen. The texture and thickness of the noodles is so much better than what you often find in the Asian section of your grocery store. I saved back some of the sauce in step 4 to add when combining the noodles with the baked tofu. I chilled the tofu and noodles for about an hour and let it come almost to room temperature before serving.
A simple, flavorful dish that was great that night and even better later in the week for a lunch leftover meal.
Recession Chic 