MIFGAE: Post One

I got the idea, while eating the other night, to write about Meals I Feel Good About Eating. I'm in an indulgent phase right now where "celebratory eating" opportunities keep coming up (and I keep taking them). I've continued to exercise about every other day, and I cook most days, but oh, the weekends.

Anyway, I'd like to keep shifting my focus back to the good stuff, the way you yank a dog's leash to get them to face the road. There are few things as satisfying as a meal that 1) tastes great and hits a variety of flavors and textures, and 2) doesn't make you nauseated when you're done. These types of meals also affect the rate at which I eat them: I tend not to inhale them the way I do, say, nachos (which I ate Friday. And I ate chips and queso at Superior Grill last night. Days this weekend that I did not consume margaritas and Mexican junk food: zero). I've been cooking on a regular bases for years now, and when I find a good recipe or make something up that hits both criteria, Leif will catalog it on http://theleif.org/recipes/. (You can't stop the man from storing data.) These meals make me want to slow down and respect the ingredients since they are the types of food that "give back" nutrition to me.

This first one is the only meal to make it into the weekly rotation on a permanent basis. It is the pop song that has been in the top ten for months now. I call it "Tofu and Broccoli," and Tuesdays became known as Tofu Tuesdays because this is the meal I feel like eating after ballet class. The thing about Tuesdays is that they're tiring: it's the only day besides Friday that I don't have the 12-1:25 planning period, so I teach from 8:10 to 2:25 with a 30 minute lunch/pee break. It's also the only day I like to go to ballet because Miss Susan, my favorite teacher, only teaches then. I leave the house around 5:30 pm to drive out to the studio, and I don't get home until around 7:45 or 8. So it's a long day, and I come home sweaty, sore, thirsty, and hungry for something that isn't greasy.

The idea for "Tofu and Broccoli" was inspired by cravings for my favorite meal at PF Chang, "Ma Po Tofu," which is basically a spicy pile of steamed broccoli and fried silken tofu over brown rice. I know it sounds plain, but something about it is totally delicious.

So I'd been cooking some pan-Asian recipes out of Cooking Light, and most of them call for green onions, soy sauce, minced ginger, toasted sesame oil, and sriracha/chili garlic paste. I applied this to some tofu and broccoli, and it didn't taste like PF Chang, but it came out good.

Here's what I do:

1. Cook some brown rice. We buy brown jasmine, which to me, tastes good with no butter or salt. It takes 45 minutes.
2. Cut extra firm silken tofu into cubes (I use two packs of Mori-Nu these days). I've always been told that you have to drain or press tofu, and in the past, all I've ended up with was a wet Encyclopedia Britannica, a wad of paper towels, and tofu that is still wet but now crumbled. I cut that step and do the Cooking Light method: arrange sopping wet cubes of tofu on a greased cookie sheet and broil the shit out of them for about 10 minutes, flip them, and repeat.
3. Meanwhile, chop green onions and fresh broccoli (I buy about three "crowns." It looks like a shitload, but don't worry: it shrinks). Combine in a wok or large pan with some canola oil. Minced garlic tastes good in there, too, but it's fine without it.
   
4. The fun part: add a tablespoon of minced ginger from a jar (or fresh), a generous splash of soy sauce, some toasted sesame oil, and a big squirt of sriracha. Mix it around and let it sit until the broccoli is pokeable. Sometimes I add a splash of white wine vinegar, but it's fine without.
   
5. When tofu is done, dump the cubes over the broccoli and stir. Serve it over the rice.
   

I like it with a dry white boxed wine.