Ginger and Soy Baked Tofu

A relatively simply dish of marinated baked tofu; I wrap the tofu in foil to retain the moisture but you could just lay the tofu out on a baking sheet. The only 'unusual' ingredient in this is the mirin, which is a type of rice wine easily found in any Asian supermarket. However, you could substitute for it with a dry white wine or leave it out entirely.

I rarely eat tofu, despite really enjoying it, because it is such a pain to prepare properly i.e. pressing it and dry frying it. However, you could probably skip the pressing of the tofu and dry frying in this recipe if you're short on time, and I expect it would turn out fine, although you would need to be careful not to break the tofu when stirring the marinade in.

Baked Tofu and Mushrooms

This dish is a very tasty and unusual way of cooking tofu. The tofu is marinaded in a garlic, lemon, soy sauce and tomato paste marinade, and so is best made the night before cooking. It is very full of flavour and if you want to tone it down a bit use less garlic and/or less soy sauce. You can eat this with pretty much any carb of your choice; I had it with mash potato this time but in the past I have had it with rice or noodles, and I am sure you could also eat it with pasta. 

I am not a big fan of cooking with tofu because although it is very versatile and you can do some really interesting things with it, I find the prep can be a bit of a pain if you don't want it to fall apart when stirred into anything. To prepare tofu properly you should press it to remove excess liquid before dry frying it. I frequently don't bother to press it; if you dry fry it for long enough and make sure you press the tofu lightly when frying, you should remove enough of the liquid and give the tofu some stability. Note: if you dry fry it, make sure you use a non-stick pan or you will be very sad. I speak from experience.

Vegetable Tofu Ramen

I was given a combined rice, slow cooker and steamer for Christmas by my boyfriends parents and I have to say it is so handy when you have a baby to look after and less time to cook. So I've decided to revisit some of my soup/casserole/risotto recipes; expect to see them appearing on the blog soon! I cooked this in the slow cooker on the steamer function but I've included instructions for normal cooking since this is a tried and tested recipe which I've cooked a number of times on the hob.

This recipe calls for some unusual ingredients that you probably won't have in your store cupboard (miso paste, mirin, sesame oil) but these are all ingredients you can get from any large supermarket or an Asian supermarket, if you have access to one. If you don't want to or can't buy mirin then you can substitute for sugar, and you can also omit the sesame oil, but the miso paste is absolutely essential for the flavour. You'll end up with quite a bit of miso paste leftover but it is very savoury in taste (read: delicious) and is a great store cupboard ingredient to have as it can be added to any style of soup, stew or casserole to give a lovely depth in flavour.

The vegetables can be substituted for any you like; beansprouts go quite well in ramen but I'm not a fan of them so I don't bother adding them. I peel the carrots and courgette to quicken the cooking time but if you'd rather slice them then you'll need to add them in earlier to allow for the greater cooking time. I used udon noodles here as I love their thickness but you can use any noodles you want.

Tofu and Mushroom Nut Roast

I've never made nut roast before, but I thought I'd try my hand at a tofu based one and it turned out really well. I like tofu but I don't cook with it often because of the hassle of pressing all the water out; for this recipe I used silken tofu which you can just buy in the supermarket in the asian food section, and it doesn't need to be refrigerated or drained. I used eggs in my recipe but if you're vegan then just omit them (or you could always use an appropriate egg substitute). I cobbled this recipe together from various online recipes I found, so I was slightly worried I'd get the consistency wrong but it turned out perfectly. Not bad for an experimental recipe! I used walnuts, pine nuts, and sesame seeds but I'm sure you could vary the nuts to suit your preferences. 

This makes about 8 servings if cooking a roast dinner. Since there are only two of us (with a third on the way!) in our house, there were quite a lot of leftovers, but it works very well as a cold sandwich filling along with a bit of mayonnaise and lettuce (or whatever condiments you prefer).