Sweet n Sour Sesame Tofu

Due to my current even-more-conscious-eating 2-week trial, I couldn't eat this, barely tasted the sauce just to make sure it didn't taste like poo...but apparently it was perfect and I nailed it. Wee!

I served this with rice and some spinach that I cooked by first sauteing some minced garlic over sesame oil, then cooking the spinach (about a bag) til almost all wilted, then adding about a tablespoon and a half of soy sauce and the same amount of granulated sugar, mixing that up over low heat til done, and then taking it off the heat and adding about a tablespoon of toasted sesame seeds.

These dishes went great together. I recommend you try the tofu out at least! Pretty good--I didn't fry every side of the small chunks of tofu perfectly (they were so small and kept breaking!) but used a spatula to turn them as best I could.

Sweet 'n Sour Sesame Tofu
Recipe from The Spice Train

3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon dark or light brown sugar
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/2 tablespoon sesame seeds
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon honey
about 1 pound firm tofu
1/2 cup flour
4 scallions, chopped
about 3 tablespoons vegetable oil for frying

Put the soy sauce, rice vinegar, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, sesame seeds, sesame oil, red pepper flakes, cornstarch and honey into a bowl and whisk well until fully combined. Set aside.

Cut the tofu into 1-inch cubes.

Roll the tofu cubes in the flour, making sure you are coating them on all sides.

Fry the tofu in vegetable oil until golden brown on all sides. Set aside.

Pour the sauce ingredients into a sauce pan and bring to a full boil. Keep boiling the sauce until it becomes transparent and thickens. Take off the heat and pour over the tofu.

Serve with rice and sprinkle chopped scallions on top.

Green Tea Matcha Cheesecake

I don't know why I've delayed from sharing this for so long. I made this for Valentine's Day dessert because my boyfriend doesn't like many sweet things, but really likes things that are green-tea flavored--and has ordered yummy green tea cheesecake in restaurants before.

This was pretty easy (although finding affordable matcha took me a while). I adjusted the original recipe for a heart-shaped pan...but I don't have pictures because unfortunately I left my cheesecake in the oven a little too long and it cracked! It was super delicious though! The matcha flavor was very subtle but perfect.

Green Tea Matcha Cheesecake
Recipe adapted from Dodol & Mochi

1.5-2 packs honey (plain) graham crackers
.75-1 sticks unsalted butter, melted and let cooled slightly

(A)
20 oz cream cheese, softened
6.60zcaster or granulated sugar

½ cup heavy cream
1.5 medium-size egg, at room temperature
2 ¼ tablespoons cake flour, sifted

(B)
4.5 teaspoons matcha powder
4.5 teaspoons caster or granulated sugar

2 ¼  tablespoons cherry brandy, or, kirschwasser (I couldn’t find it so used vanilla extract).

Lightly grease the sides of a 9-10 inch springform pan, and line with parchment; line the base of the pan with aluminum foil. Secure the ring (i.e. sides) to the base of the pan. Then wrap two layers of aluminum foil on the outside, around the base and sides of the pan. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Place the graham crackers into a Ziploc bag, press to force the air out of the bag, and seal the bag tightly. With a rolling pin, bash the biscuits into fine crumbs. Alternatively, a food processor will help you do the job. Mix in the melted butter, then press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan to get an even layer. Chuck the whole thing into the fridge to chill.

In the meantime, using a hand mixer, cream together (A) till smooth and creamy. Then, stir in the heavy cream, and followed by the egg, in two to three times to avoid curdling of the mixture. Next, mix in the sifted flour. Whisk together (B), and stir into the batter to combine. Lastly, mix in the liqueur.

Pour the batter over the crust, and place the whole pan into another larger baking pan that comes with sides taller than those of the springform pan. Prepare the bain-marie by filling the baking pan with boiling-hot water. Place the assemblage into the preheated oven and bake for 40 minutes, till almost cooked through and the cake’s surface begins to spring back when gently touched. Turn off the oven, leave the oven door opened ajar as you let the cheesecake cool to room temperature in the oven.

Remove the cooled cheesecake from the oven, the bain-marie, and then the layers of aluminum foil. Refrigerate for at least at least three hours, preferably overnight, before slicing to serve. Cheesecakes, including this one, keep real well in the fridge.

Italian Sausage Stuffed Peppers

I made this for Adam last night and it looked soooo good, but I'm going on a little diet so couldn't participate myself. He completely devoured it...so assuming it's good. I adapted the recipe a ton (I used leftover long-grain rice, cut it in half to use just one pepper, and used fresh parsley and added enough salt/pepper/garlic powder to make it taste excellent) but below is the base recipe. I can't wait to try it myself! From the taste I got to make sure it was seasoned correctly, I really missed out!

Italian Sausage Stuffed Peppers
Recipe From Nine Months Baking

2 bell peppers (red, yellow or orange) halved and seeded lengthwise
½ pound spicy italian sausage (casings removed)
1 cup bulgur
1¼ cup almost boiling water
1½ cups spinach
1 sweet onion chopped
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp parsley
Olive oil for drizzling
Parmesan for sprinkling (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 and line a baking sheet with foil.

First in a large bowl (because you will use this bowl later on for mixing) add your bulgur and your almost boiling water. Cover and let sit for 20 minutes.

While bulgur is “cooking” take a pan over medium heat and add your italian sausage, breaking up into smaller pieces and cook until browned.

Once sausage is almost done cooking add your chopped onion. Let sauté until onions are translucent.

Add your garlic powder, salt, black pepper and parsley. Mix.

Add spinach and let cook for one minute and remove from heat.

By now your bulgur should be done. Taking your sausage mixture add to bulgur and mix well.

Taking your peppers, cut side facing up, add to lined baking sheet and place in oven for about 15 minutes.

Remove from oven and add stuffing to each pepper being sure to pack it in, drizzle lightly with olive oil and place in oven again for another 10 minutes.

Cilantro Lime Shrimp

Super yummy and easy shrimp! Hard to go wrong with shrimp. Shrimp shrimp shrimp. Shrimp is one of my favorite foods...sooo good but pretty expensive. I served these super easy critters with some breadcrumb-crusted-parmesan-sprinkled zucchini (zucchini slices dipped in egg and coated with breadcrumbs and then sprinkled with parmesan, baked at 400 degrees for...uh...about 20 minutes? Til crispy, before burnt, and you can flip halfway). Pretty frickin' tasty.

I approximately doubled this recipe. Very easy and hard to get wrong even with approximations.

Cilantro Lime Shrimp
Recipe from House of Yum

1/2 pound shrimp
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1 clove minced garlic
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon cumin
Juice from 1/2 lime
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro

Heat olive oil and garlic over medium heat.

Toss shrimp with sea salt and cumin then place in heated pan.

Cook the shrimp thoroughly and then remove from heat.

Squeeze the juice from half a lime over the shrimp and then toss with the cilantro.