Vietnamese Hot and Sour Salad

Soy sauce and tofu haters look away now - this is one hell of a zingy salad which is the perfect antidote to heavy, rich winter comfort food. Now that spring is here, this salad, teeming with lemon grass, coriander, mint, lime, soy sauce and beansprouts is the most amazing way to wake up your tastebuds. I kid you not, the first time I ate this salad, the main thing that concerned me was WHEN CAN I MAKE THIS AGAIN. It also falls nicely into the healthy territory, unless you're keeping an eye on your sodium intake or over-do the vegetable oil with the tofu.
This is also a pretty impressive 'entertaining' dish, as it looks gorgeous on the plate (you should assemble it yourself though, it's a bit fiddly.) And be warned, it is a little on the salad-y side in terms of portions. But so, so amazingly good. As I've said in my previous post on Tofu Sambal, tofu is something most people find a bit too weird to try to cook with but I'm a hell of a convert and at £1 it's pretty cheap protein. I do literally have to stop myself eating it as it's cooking now, I love it so much, and we usually have a couple of packs knocking around the cupboard for a stir fry.
That said I'm no wild evangelist of tofu as a dietary staple - I'm more aware of how the knock-on effect of mass farming of soya beans can be damaging to the environment,  (although nowhere near as bad as the energy that goes into farming a single cow), and additionally regular consumption of soy-products can interfere with your internal chemistry, oestrogen in particular. And I find it comforting that in places like China where the use of tofu is really common, it's often put alongside chicken and pork in dishes. Tofu's a brilliant alternative protein source and tastes really nice, but that said I'm making steak tomorrow! Everything in moderation! Hooray!
Enough out of me about bloody tofu already.


Vietnamese hot and sour salad
For the dressing (make while you're pressing your tofu - lets the flavours mix)

• 80ml of lime juice (about two limes juiced well)
• 80ml of soy sauce
• 3 tbsp grated carrot
• Pinch of chilli flakes
• 2 garlic cloves (crushed)
• 4 tbsp caster sugar (NEEDS to be fine sugar, otherwise whizz in a blender)

For the salad 

• One pack of tofu 
• 100g beansprouts
• 125g of rice noodles
• Large handful of mint 
• Large handful of coriander 
• 2 lemongrass sticks
• 2 spring onions
• 2 tbsp roasted peanuts (chopped)
• 7 or 8 nice cherry tomatoes, or equivalent in plum tomatoes
• 1/2 a cucumber. [I've made this for someone who hated cucumber and substituted stirfried pak choi, fyi, so don't write it off if you don't like cucumber, I know there's a surprising amount of you out there!]

Step one with tofu is always press it - which simply means carefully taking it out of its package, wrapping it in a single sheet of kitchen roll or clean tea towel, and leaving two dinner plates on top for half an hour to an hour. While that's happening, make the dressing.

Juice the limes, and measure out the juice in a jug to get 80ml, although it won't matter all that much. Add 80ml of soy sauce to the lime juice, bringing the liquidmark up to about 160ml. Crush in two peeled garlic cloves (I have no idea why Jamie Oliver always loves shouting about crushing garlic with the skin on, he maintains it's just a nifty trick but I always find I end up crushing in about half of what I should get, and end up picking bits of garlic skin out so I can get the whole clove in.). Grated and add the 3 tbsp of carrot, a pinch of chilli flakes and finally 4 tbsp of caster sugar. Whisk, whisk, whisk, then have a little taste. I like that really salty punch that soy sauce gives so add a bit more if you like, otherwise, maybe a little more lime, just go with what you think it's best.

After you've let the tofu press, and have drained off the excess water and patted dry with another piece of kitchen roll, slice into thin strips. Put a decent amount of vegetable oil in your best non-stick frying pan and get it quite hot, then delicately add in the strips. While they sizzle away, you can get to the chopping stage.

Using a large knife, if you have one - which it almost always is worth having even if you're only an occasional cook - finely chop the coriander and mint together. Carefully slice off the tough outer skin of the lemongrass, and chop them into thin slices, then add to the coriander and mint, chopping all the while, then chop and add the two spring onions. Put the whole fragrant mix of herbs in your largest bowl, which you'll eventually be mixing the noodles in with. 

If your tofu is still looking a little anaemic and is still not golden, keep frying, and turning every now and then, otherwise feel free to take it off the heat and leave to drain on a piece of kitchen roll. Put a large-ish pot on your kitchen counter, add the beansprouts and noodles and pour over the boiling water. Slam the lid on and leave until the noodles are soft.I used to be able to buy uncooked rice noodles, but now I can only find ones which are already soft, disappointingly. Still, let it sit for five minutes or so.

Using chopsticks to mix the noodles and beansprouts with the chopped herbs

While the noodles are sitting in water, slice your cucumber horizontally into long strips, and cut your tomatoes into halves or quarters, whatever's easier to pick up with chopsticks. Arrange the cucumbers in a round shape (like in the picture) on two plates, and dot the edge with tomatoes.

Drain the softened bean sprouts and noodles over the sink and try to let as much water drip off as possible. Then tip into the big bowl with the mint, coriander, etc. Use chop sticks, if you find it easier, to mix throughly, then tip into the centre of the two plates. Finally, add the tofu on top and sprinkle over some chopped peanuts if you like. Serve the dressing at the table, and enjoy!

Spicy tofu sambal

I have so many friends who are confirmed carnivores. They relish the idea of a rare slab of steak, all bloody and meaty and succulent. The natural antithesis to this is of course tofu. The reactions some people have to this pretty innocous ingredient can be pretty negative. Of course, it doesn't exactly scream appetising. White, wobbly and jelly-like out the packet, and purportedly without flavour, tofu is sometimes viewed as the premise of hippies and weird vegetarians among many of my peers. Although, I have convinced a few to try it! It's just damn good stuff. And it doesn't taste like rubber, I swear!

In any case, it's been bloody snowy in London recently (and my flight home to Ireland on Thursday hangs in the balance of the weather, argh!) and this spicy, hot African-inspired dish really hits the spot. Made by reducing tomatoes down, with a spicy kick, onions garlic and my favourite spice, ginger, served with tofu soaked in soy sauce then fried alongside some green beans stirfried in chilli and garlic. How does that not sound amazing? This is probably my most favourite dish to eat out of everything I can cook, to be honest. It's gotten to the point where I have to try to stop myself from eating the salty umame goodness of the tofu as I marinade it. Also, the beans that go with this dish are absolutely goddamned incredible. The first time I had them, it was a revelation.

Ah, lovely tofu. You're not so bad.

The secret ingredient in this - and in the name - is Sambal, or Sambal Oelek to be precise. This is where the fact that my boyfriend is Dutch comes into play. A lot of Dutch cooking has a strong Indonesian flavour backgrounding it, for obvious reasons. So wen we go to the Netherlands, Sambal Oelek paste and Kejap Manis (a sweet Indonesian soy sauce) are two things I always try to stock up on if we are low at home. In the meantime though, some kind of chilli sauce - not sweet chilli sauce, though - will do the trick. 

Sorry about the gloves, it's really cold in my house at the moment.

As with almost everything, this is good for two hungry people.

Spicy tofu sambal with garlic and chilli green beans

• One pack of tofu 
• Soy sauce
• 4 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 4 or 5 large tomatoes (ripe and cut into chunks) or a 400g tin of chopped/plum tomatoes
• Good pinch of rock salt (1/2 a tsp)
• 2 fat cloves of garlic
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp light brown sugar
• 1 tbsp Sambal Oelek or chilli sauce/paste
• 1 tbsp tomato puree

First things first, you always want to press the tofu or it might just end up falling-aparty and watery and will put you off for life. Take the tofu out of its box (it looks like this in our local supermarket), wrap it in a single sheet of kitchen roll, and put on a plate or in a shallow bowl. Put two dinner plates on top for at least half an hour - this will gradually press the water out of the tofu. Next, drain the water, and cut into 8 chunks, then marinade in a few glugs of soy sauce. You may want to turn your pieces over half way through to ensure nice coverage but it won't matter.

In your biggest non-stick pot (or separately, in a small non-stick frying pan but do remember to add the oil back into your main pot), fry the tofu - but leaving the soy sauce marinade behind, don't chuck it all in! -  in the sunflower oil until brown on all sides, then take out and set to drain on kitchen paper, leaving behind as much sunflower oil as you can. 

Now add your onion and give it a good stir, and let it fry on a medium heat for about five minutes, until it's approaching a soft state. Then add your ginger and chopped or crushed garlic. Mix throughly, then add the chill paste, tomato puree, and sugar. Give it a really good mix, then add salt, and your tomatoes. If it's out the can, no worries, just throw it in. Otherwise, add your tomatoes and 80ml or so of water. You want to bring this up to the boil, then lower so that the tomatoes break down and turn into a sauce, but chunkiness is good. If you're not using a rice cooker, you might want to start thinking about putting your rice on now. After 10 minutes, or however long you want to leave it, you can reintroduce the tofu off the plate into the pot, which will heat it up again.

Chilli green beans

• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed or chopped finely
• 1/2 a red chilli, chopped as finely as possible
• 120 - 160g of fine green beans (trimmed, if not already)
• 1 - 2 tbsp of soy sauce

Add a good glug of olive oil to a frying pan - nonstick is best otherwise you're asking for sticky garlic burned to your pan - and let it heat up. Then throw in all the beans, toss them so they get a nice even coating of olive oil, and let them sizzle away for a bit until they start to get some colour and soften up, a few minutes maybe. 

Put your garlic in and mix it through, then QUICKLY add the soy sauce, or it'll burn. I don't usually pay much attention to how much soy sauce, I know a 'glug' is woefully inaccurate amount but that's usually what I do. Or two glugs. Hah.

Then add the chilli and stir until everything is soft and tasty, and darkened. Try one of the beans and make sure that its not deceptively done-looking on the outside but still too crunchy on the inside. The contrast between the salty, garlicy greens and the sweet, spicy tofu sambal is quite amazing, and well worth the extra effort. Serve with rice.