Tofu in a spicy gravy!

You are either a Tofu lover or you simply hate it- I have seen strong followers and avoiders of Tofu. I love tofu and believe that it can be cooked to make an avoider into a follower. My husband does not like tofu. So what do I do? Masquerade Tofu as paneer and cook it in a good spicy gravy and pass it on as paneer gravy. Verdict? Clean bowled! The dish was a huge success-

Ingredients-

200 grams Tofu- not firm, a little crumbly (cut in cubes)

2 large onions- chopped 

1 tsp grated ginger

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tomato- chopped

1 green chilli (cut in pieces)

1/2 cup yoghurt

coriander leaves - chopped finely (about 11/2 tbsp)

salt according to taste

cooking oil

Spices used-

1/2 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

Freshly ground pepper

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

2 green cardamom

1 bay leaf

Preparation-

In a wok, add oil and once hot, add cardamom and bay leaf. Allow the oil to soak in the flavor of cardamom & bay leaf. Add onions with green chillies and fry them for couple of minutes. As the onions turn golden brown, add tomatoes with garlic and ginger. Cook them on a low flame for 5-8 minutes (till the tomatoes become mushy). Add garam masala, turmeric powder, red chilli powder and mix well. Add 1/2 cup yoghurt and cook on a low flame for few minutes. Allow the yoghurt to absorb the spices and blend well with the mixture. Adjust salt according to taste. To make it into a good gravy consistency, add 1/2 cup of water and cook it on a medium flame. Add Tofu and allow it to absorb the gravy with spices. Gently mix it and cook for a couple of minutes. Don't over mix it as the tofu will crumble completely and become a paste. Add freshly ground pepper and sprinkle coriander leaves for garnishing. Serve hot!

Tofu balls...

I am the proud owner of Jamie oliver's book- (the new one- Jamie does Spain, Italy, Sweden, Morocco, France and Greece). More than 70% of this book contains non vegetarian dishes and me being a hard core vegetarian (funny part is I am allergic to eggs...LOL) can only gaze at all the photos and pages. One recipe caught my eyes- Mini meatballs. I decided to make this with crumbled tofu instead of minced meat and did as stated in the book. I was quite skeptical when I started making this dish. I stuck to the recipe and boy, it paid off- The tofu balls turned out amazing and vanished within seconds...

Ingredients

olive oil

a small bunch of fresh parsley

1 onion, peeled and finely chopped

5 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped 

(original recipe calls only for 2 cloves) 

250g crumbled tofu

50g fine bread crumbs 

(original recipe calls only for 25g)

salt and ground pepper

(original recipe calls for sea salt)

1 small dried chilli 

2 large ripe tomatoes

There are a lot of minor adjustments I made to this recipe. The recipe calls for egg yolk, which I omitted as I am allergic. Instead, I used extra bread crumbs. Jamie uses spanish extra virgin olive oil for this recipe. I just used plain olive oil.

Preparation- Heat some olive oil in a frying pan on a medium heat. Fry some onions (use half portion of onions) and chopped parsley for few minutes. As the onions start to soften, add half portion of the chopped garlic. Fry for few more minutes, until the onion is completely softened. Transfer them to a large mixing bowl and leave it to cool completely.  Once the onions are cooled, add the crumbled tofu, bread crumbs, some chopped parsley leaves, dried chilli, salt and pepper. Use your hands to shape them into lemon-sized balls. Pop them in fridge to firm for half an hour. 

When the tofu balls are ready get them out of fridge. Heat some water in a pan. As the water starts to boil, drop in the tomatoes. After a minute or so, you will see the skin has cracked. Fish them out of water with tongs and allow them to cool. Once cooled, discard the skin, squeeze out the seeds and finely chop the flesh. Put a pan on high heat and add a good amount of olive oil.  Add the tofu balls and fry them for 10 minutes till they are brown. Add the remaining chopped onions and garlic. Fry for a couple of minutes. Add the chopped tomato and keep shaking and stirring. Simmer for around 5 minutes until the onions are soft and cooked. Transfer everything to a serving dish, season with salt and pepper. Drizzle over some olive oil and scatter over the rest of the parsley leaves. 

Enjoy!