Sweet Caramel

I read quite a lot of non-vegan blogs. Omnivores still eat vegetables and sometimes the techniques used on meat can be subverted to more suitable foods.

This recipe on Sunflower Food Galore is something that appealed to me, so that's what I made for my dinner tonight. It's a sweet and savoury flavour, rich with garlic and pepper. Delicious.

Instead of the chicken in Sunflower's recipe I used a very firm tofu, the sort of vacuum packed longlife product which is all that's available in supermarkets here. It worked well because it was strong enough to withstand the two cooking processes needed.


True garlic and elephant garlic compared.

In the garden I've been growing elephant garlic. Technically it's not a true garlic but a leek, however it looks like garlic and smells like garlic, it's just much much bigger! For cooks, it isn't perhaps as pure a garlic flavour as it might be but it has the advantage of making nice large slices and freshly picked the sugars in it caramelise rather beautifully. It seemed the obvious candidate for the dish.

250g firm tofu
Sesame oil
Garlic (use plenty!)
30g sugar
30g soy sauce
150g water
2 tsps white vinegar
Black peppercorns - about a dozen, crushed
30g roasted cashew nuts (optional)

Slice your tofu into pretty shapes, I made triangles but cubes or batons would be just as good.

Fry them off in a little sesame oil. Keep the oil hot so that the tofu takes a good colour then remove to a holding dish. Put your sliced garlic in the hot pan for just a minute or less to colour without burning. Scrape the garlic and any remaining oil onto the reserved tofu.

In the pan, sprinkle the sugar and allow it to melt over the heat. Watch it carefully, it will start to turn quite quickly and you don't want it to burn. When it's nice and golden brown remove the pan from the heat and add a little water from your measured quantity. It will splutter and spit like mad so hold it away from you and swirl the pan so that the hot sugar dissolves - it might solidify a bit but should stir back in.

Put the pan back on the heat, add the soy sauce, vinegar, pepper and the rest of the water. Bring to the boil and return the tofu and garlic to the pan. Allow to simmer for a few minutes while the gravy reduces and thickens to about a third of the original volume. Add the cashew nuts if wanted and swirl in the sauce.

Serve with rice and other vegetables if you like.



A housekeeping note: I'm still having many more spam comments than real ones. I've no desire to help Asian Babe sites publicise their tacky goods. If it goes on, and Google have been no help over this, I might just ditch the blog. It's all rather depressing.