Goin' Veggie - Gourmet Style

The longer my daughter sticks with this whole vegetarian business the further out I have to branch to come up with meals that will work for her.  There are only so many pre-packaged boca burgers and meatless chik patties (and macaroni and cheese) a person should eat, ya know?  So last week I incorporated tofu into the menu not once, but twice.  Which might have been overkill.  That's Tofu Bob above.  He didn't survive.

The recipe I found in The Gourmet Cookbook (see previous post) turned out best, though it's safe to say that tofu is not Jack's favorite.  That's OK - I've come to understand that it won't kill him (or me) to go meatless now and then.  So I whipped up some Panfried Tofu on Sesame Watercress with Soy-Orange Dressing and basmati rice.  I found the most gorgeous hydroponic watercress at Berkeley Bowl:

And unlike so many recipes for Chinese-inspired dishes, this one didn't have a list of ingredients as long as my arm and didn't require a trip to Chinatown for unusual items in packages written in a language I don't read.  It seemed like the perfect place to start.

Extra-firm tofu, watercress, peanut oil, toasted sesame seeds, toasted sesame oil, ginger, soy sauce and orange juice.  That's it. Fry the tofu on both sides in a tablespoon of the oil until golden brown.  Remove to a plate and wilt the watercress in the pan and add sesame seeds.  Place the watercress on plates, combine remaining ingredients in the pan and and simmer for 1 minute.  Place tofu on top of the watercress and drizzle pan sauce over the tofu.

I served this with rice because a) I knew that it wouldn't be enough to fill Jack by itself and 2) what's Chinese-inspired food without rice in there somewhere?  Plus, it provided another blank canvas for the sauce.  I say "another" because that's what tofu is - a blank canvas.  It really has little if any taste of it's own and merely adopts the flavors that you create to serve with it.  It's completely innocuous and totally undeserving of anyone's disgust.  (Jack.)  

That said, I can't say that this was really delicious, and had there been enough for seconds, I'm not sure anyone would have wanted them.  But it wasn't bad at all.  And it made me feel lots better about all that mac 'n cheese.