Learning to play the fiddle

Seared tea infused tofu, kale, sesame studded rice, and fiddlehead tempura stack with yellow coconut curry sauce

Fiddlehead ferns are a short-lived spring time favorite of a lot of folks. It's apparently a baby fern and upon maturing, it will straighten out its coils to grown into a fern. They do have a very distinct taste, somewhat astringent and very earthy. To accentuate this, the little fiddles were dipped in tempura batter that was mixed with cold carbonated water and fried. Served on a bed of sesame seed studded jasmine rice, simply roasted dino kale, and seared tea-infused Hodo tofu. And to round it all out, a salty, spicy, sour, and sweet yellow coconut curry (ginger, garlic, shallots, kaffir lime leaves, store-bought yellow Thai curry paste, maple syrup, coconut water, coconut milk, lime juice, and apple cider vinegar) sauce pooled the plate. After blending the sauce, there were bits here are there that were not meant to be chewed so I took the extra 10 minutes to strain the sauce.

Nutty red Thai curry

One of my favourite cuisines is Thai food. It's a balance of flavors: salty, sweet, pungent, sour, and sometimes spicy. The best is when you make fresh curry paste on your own. Typically, red curry paste has dried shrimp in it, but in this version, the shrimp never made it in.

Nutty red Thai curry with tofu

To make the fresh curry paste, lemongrass, ginger, garlic, kaffir lime leaves, raw sugar, tamarind, Braggs Amino acids, Fresno chilies, shallots, lime juice, apple cider vinegar, cumin, coriander, tomato paste and fennel seeds (I know it's a laundry list of ingredients!) were blended together.

And the delectable curry started off with some coconut oil, red onions, carrots, cauliflower, firm tofu, asparagus, vegetable stock, and finishing with coconut milk. Allow all curry to simmer a bit so the flavors begin to meld together. The curry was garnished with a mixture of roasted almonds, sliced coconut, cashews and fresh chopped cilantro. And with some steamed brown rice, you couldn't ask for a better pairing.

Curried tofu rice bowl

Today marks the first day I have ever worked with Hodo tofu. It's actually quite nice. So nice that I found my soy-intolerant self wanting to eat the chewy textured firm tofu. The tofu was firm and held it's shape, but unlike other firm tofus which I have worked with before, the interior was not compact and hard. Rather it was airy and spongy. Along with other veggie accompaniments, marinated Hodo tofu highlighted the curried rice bowl.

Curried tofu rice bowl

The bowl was layers upon layers of goodies: Bloomsdale spinach, brown rice, grilled sesame broccoli, edamame, marinated and roasted Hodo tofu, and then ladled with a warm curry coconut sauce. The cubed tofu was marinated overnight in a bath of tamari, apple cider vinegar, garlic, curry powder, a touch of maple syrup, and filtered water. To make the sauce, yellow onions and garlic were simmered with cumin, coriander, and curry powders, filtered water and coconut milk. In lieu of the water, you can use vegetable stock. The sauce was then blended until smooth with a bit of roasted cashews, some of the tofu marinade, and a touch of apple cider vinegar.

Massaman tofu curry

Thai curry in peanut butter and coconut milk? I discovered massaman curries in Virginia back when I was a carnivore. I do remember it being very good. It's just as delicious with a right balance of seasonal vegetables and tofu.

Thai-style massaman curry with kabocha squash and tofu

Sesame brown rice

I typically like to make my own curry pastes, but with the holidays around the corner and a huge prep list at hand, pre-packaged vegan yellow curry just had to do. The yellow curry paste was sauteed with additional ginger and garlic in grapeseed oil. Julienned red onions were added and sauteed until almost translucent. Carrots and kabocha squash were stirred in along with some water to help cook the vegetables. Smooth peanut butter was stirred in before the squash was fully cooked so that the peanut butter can melt into the curry paste. After which add enough water or vegetable stock to the simmer so that when tofu is added, they can swim around in the curry. Organic coconut milk, fresh lime juice, palm sugar, and kaffir lime leaves rounded out the remainder of the curry. Oh! And right during service, organic baby spinach was stirred in to the curry. The curry itself was incredibly flavorful and to avoid taste-bud competition, I left rice simple and stirred in some toasted sesame seeds.