Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Dukkah crusted tofu with corn fritters and tomato salad

Tonights meal could probably really have been 2 separate dinners, however I had the ingredients and more importantly I had free time tonight to actually cook something a bit more creative for dinner. Haven't had that for a while!

A few days ago I had cut up a block of and marinaded it. When it became apparent I wasn't going to have time to use it right away I chucked it into the freezer for another day. Freezing it turned out well since it had a better texture when I used it tonight. After walking past Seddon Deadly Sins cafe and seeing their special that day was poached eggs rolled in dukkah, I thought this would be an awesome thing to do with tofu.

The corn fritters I made using a recipe from the book Vegan Yum Yum. I've been meaning to use this recipe for a while because corn is awesome. There are a lot of recipes in this book that I want to try actually.

Dukkah crusted Tofu
1 block of firm tofu (I used a 375gram block)
Marinade (I went really basic using braggs, 1/2 a cup veg stock, some garlic and some pepper)
Cornflour
Oil
Dukkah (I used a whole pack of premade pistacio dukkah)

Press the tofu between 2 plates for 20-30 minutes to get some of the water out.
Cut the tofu into desired size slices.
Place tofu into the marinade. It is better to leave it overnight if you can, but if you don't have time marinade it for at least 30 minutes. If you plan far enough ahead you can freeze the tofu for a more chewy texture.
Pour some cornflour into a bowl. Pour some oil into a second bowl, and put the dukkah in the third bowl.
Take the prepared tofu slices and dunk into the first bowl, making sure they are coated in cornflour.
Next take the flour coated tofu and spread some of the oil onto the tofu with a pastry brush making sure to thinly coat the tofu all over. The flour and oil coating should help the dukkah to stick and stay stuck through cooking.
Now dunk the tofu into the dukkah to give a nice crust.
Fry the tofu on both sides till the dukkah slightly browns. Mine just needed a couple of minutes each side.



Dukkah crusted tofu ready for frying


Corn Fritters
1/2 cup of flour (I used wholemeal)
1/2 cup of polenta
Pinch of salt (the recipe called for 3/4 tspn but I'm not all that big on salt)
1/2 tspn of baking powder (I added a little extra because I was using wholemeal flour)
1/2 tspn old bay seasoning (I didn't have this and don't know what it is so just put in mixed herbs)
1/4 tspn cumin
1/4 tspn paprika (I used 1/2 tspn since I have no idea where my cumin went...)
1/2 cup of soy milk
1/4 cup of water
2 cups of fresh corn kernels

Blend the dry ingredients together.
Add the soy milk and water and combine to a thickish batter.
Fold through the corn.
Heat some oil in a fry pan and place large spoonfuls of batter into the pan, flattening these to fritters with the back of the spoon. You will probably need to do this in a couple of batches to use all the batter.
Cook a few minutes till golden brown on one side, then flip to brown on the other side.


Mmmmm... Fritter batter.


I served the tofu and fritters with a very basic salad made simply of diced tomato, avocado and basil. It all worked together to become a very awesome dinner that made my tofu hating fiance say 'Hey, this tofu is actually really good!'. The corn fritters got great reviews too :)

Great food that didn't get the photo quality it deserved :(

4 comments:

  1. Still looks pretty darn good though.

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  2. great idea for tofu - I should do that and use up my tin of dukkah that I have had for ageas

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  3. The tofu dukkah looks great. I am thinking of making dukkah for xmas presents this year and this would be perfect to go with it!

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