Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Tofu with Chinese black bean sauce

The porcini tofu teriyaki did a good job of using up some of the tofu I needed to use, but I needed to finish the job. I was thinking about something involving Chinese black beans and found just what I was looking for in Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home. A Moosewood cookbook was a good choice to find a tofu recipe, since it's a vegetarian cookbook (though this cookbook includes some fish recipes). I chose "Mushrooms with Chinese Black Bean Sauce," although I needed to make some substitutions. I didn't have the recommended fresh mushrooms, so I decided to use bamboo shoots, which have a similar consistency. There's no molasses around here either, but I reasoned that if kecap manis' best substitute is maple syrup, then it would do as a replacement for molasses. And I completely ignored the need for a green or bell pepper.

It was a solid, decent meal, though once again an opportunity to remember that tofu is not the most thrilling ingrediment on earth. Maybe with all of tofu's other virtues (easily digestible source of protein, a mainstay of vegetarian cuisine, ability to take on the character of the ingredients around it), it doesn't need to be thrilling.

No comments: