Hair of the Dog

Tofu666 is a prolific and talented vegan cook and he told me that gin in the marinade for deep fried tofu was a GOOD thing. Naturally I put it on this week's menu plan immediately.



But there was a problem. In my recent efforts to make more Beech Noyau than the world has ever seen (or quite possibly wants) the local stocks of gin have become completely exhausted. No matter, for when gin fails there is always that other lightly distilled white spirit to fall back on, tequila!

Except that me and Amy Winehouse had a bit of sesh last night while I was painting. There was still tequila left in the bottle this morning but I was feeling just a tiny bit fragile and not really in the mood for alcohol soaked anything. And that feeling persisted for a lot of the day.

But, and I'm sure this will come as a surprise to my many gentle readers, there comes a point in any recovery programme where fried food is suddenly one of the essentials of life. So at thunderstorm time this afternoon (about 4 p.m. in our local hours) I whipped up this cocktail, sorry, marinade and set the tofu to absorb it.

1 fat clove of garlic
1 tsp salt
2 tsp pomegranate syrup
Juice of one lemon
1 tablespoon of tequila
splash of olive oil.

Mash the garlic with the salt, add the syrup and the lemon juice. Lime juice would be much better but erm, I've run out. Mix in the tequila and oil. Beat well.

Let the tofu marinate for an hour or two, as long as you like really, then drain it, save the marinade, and dust liberally in cornflour. Deep fry those triangles for five or six minutes until golden.

With the reserved marinade, I strained out the garlic pulp, added a spoonful of soy sauce and another of rice vinegar, then diluted the whole thing by about the same volume of water and slipped in some lemon zest. Heat this up gently in a separate pan.

I plated it up to look pretty but what I actually find nicer with this sort of thing is to tip all the sauce over the fried tofu and let the cornflour batter soak up the flavour, so that's what I did when I actually ate it.

And I was hoping to take a great picture but in the gloaming of the storm it was never going to happen, so my next entry for tastespotting will have to wait for a while.