Sweet and Sour Tofu and Eggplant (in a crockpot)

That's what I'm talking about!

I have been craving tofu for the last few days and finally decided how I felt like eating it… in a sweet and sour sauce:) I have never made a sweet and sour sauce so I looked things up on the internet. I was quite disappointed. If you want vegan/fat free ideas they have them but that didn’t interest me (or my pallat:). So I figured I better search for Sweet and Sour Pork… those people know how to eat!!! That gave me better results but I still found many recipes that called for bottled sweet and sour sauce. I looked at about 10 recipes and then just decided to make my own version. One version I really liked and took the tofu idea from was a girl who made it her goal to use her crockpot everyday in 2008! Here is the version I made up , with the minor alterations I would make next time

Sweet and Sour Tofu and Eggplant

• 2 onions chopped
• 2 peppers (i used one green and one yellow)
• 1 clove garlic chopped or pressed
• 1 15 oz can of pineapple with juice
• 1-2 tablespoons tomato paste 
• 2.5 Tbs vinagre
• 3.5 Tbs sugar
• 3-5 Tbs water (start with 3 and add more if you need it at the end)
• 1+ Tbs corn starch
• 1/2 chili pepper chopped (mine only had a few seeds so you might want take some out)
• _______________
• 20+ oz tofu
• corn starch to coat tofu
• 1 eggplant and oregano (optional)
• salt

Add all ingredients up to tofu in the crockpot. Let cook at least 5 hours on high.

When you are about 30 minutes from eating: 

Chop the eggplant in medium sized slices. In a baking dish coat them with about 1 tbs oil and sprikle them with salt and oregano.  Cook on about 400 for 15 minute or until soft. Add to the crockpot mix. Next, coat the cubed tofu with corn starch. Add a little salt. Then fry the tofu in about 3 Tbs of oil on high heat. Don’t stir them to much, just flip them once to make sure they are golden on all sides. Add the fried tofu to the crockpot mix.

Serve with rice

Pasta With Shredded Vegetables and Lavender

Ravioli with Shredded Vegies and… Lavender!

As we know Sarah is the chef, and Carlos the assistant. But today Carlos is the only one. He worked from home so he was home earlier than Sarah. Although Sarah makes almost as much as Carlos, she works half as much; so during the weekdays she takes the lead in the kitchen.
So Carlos watched the 4 min. video at the nyt.com Pasta with Lavender (cool video of how to make it). He basically followed the recipe as Mark Bittman shows, the main difference is the substitution of eggplant for zucchini. He happly went to the nearby park to find the lavender. 

• 2-4 garlics
• 1 eggplant
• 1 small onion
• 1 carrot
• 1 pepper
• Olive oil
• Leaves of lavender
• Salt & Pepper and thyme

Why not shred the garlic and onion with the oil too? Put all three ingredients in the t-mix. For the garlic of course, you can do what Mark recommends, smash it first with the big knife, we always do that. Sarah likes to use the garlic presser, although Carlos tries to avoid it (probably because he does not like cleaning it – he usually takes the lead cleaning dishes).

Then put the rest of veggies in and shred them. Saute and mix with the pasta. In this recipe we used fresh ravioli with cheese and spinach (that’s why it’s green). Sarah recommended putting cheese on the top. “Everything taste better with cheese”  she assured me with a smile.

The dish was good, but probably lacking Sarah in the kitchen, so it was not that good. We decided (at bloggin’ time) that it needed more thyme, more lavender leaves (remember, not the flowers!) and garlic. So the recipe now calls for 2 to 4 garlic cloves.

Indian vegetables with fried fish and brown rice

Indian Vegetables with Fried Fish over Brown Rice

Here in Denmark we have found really good brown rice. If you’ve never tried it I highly recommend it. It takes about 45-50 minutes to cook, but it has a great flavor and texture. The kind we like and get here is also organic. So, I made the brown rice and then i had to decide what to put over it. Our fridge looked kind bare, but we still came up with a great meal.

 

Indian Vegetables

• 1 onion
• 1/2 leek
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1/2 green pepper
• 1 eggplant
• salt/pepper
• 6 carrots
• 1/4- 1/3 cup low-fat sour cream
• 2/3 cup peas
• 1/8 teaspoon cumin
• 1/8 teaspoon sweet paprika
• a dash of curry powder
• oil

Saute the onions and the peppers in oil on high heat. Peel and cut the eggplant slices in 4ths. Add the eggplant and a little bit more oil and continue sauteing over high heat. Add salt and quite a bit of freshly ground pepper. After a few more minutes turn the heat down and cover the vegetables.  When the eggplant has cooked down add the chopped carrots and continue to heat over low heat for about 2 minutes. Watch that the carrots don’t get overcooked. Pull the vegetables off and leave covered. The carrots will keep cooking but hopefully wont get mushy. 1 minute before serving return to heat, add peas and the rest of the spices.

Fried Fish

• white fish
• flour (for breading)
• salt

While the carrots are cooking over low heat, heat oil in a frying pan. Then coat the fish with flour. Fry the fish until golden brown. It will be flaky and tender. Sprinkle with salt.

Finally, layer the brown rice with the vegetables and add a piece of fried fish. Delicious!