"Always Kiss the Cook"

Wow, costume updates on Mondays, cooking on Tuesdays, what''s next?!

 

So this week I decided to experiment with three food items that I have never used before: udon noodles (not so daunting), miso, and tofu. Yes, despite being a vegetarian, I have never made tofu myself.

Three new ingredients!

 I used a recipe from a book called The Tofu Book. Basically, that is. It called for leeks which I didn't know what to do with and didn't have time to find out so I left them out (four never-before used items maybe a bit too much?) and seaweed (which I haven't used before but did not include only because I couldn't find it at our grocery store). It did NOT call for udon, but sticking with the Japanese theme and trying to make a soup into a meal, I decided to add them.

I started by pressing the tofu. Per the advice of friends, I used three, large, heavy books and pressed it twice while I prepared other things.

Pressing tofu.

 The miso I bought had a very similar recipe to the one I was using on the side. The only difference was that it recommended cutting it with a stock, so I used vegetable (of course).

IMPORTANT NOTE: Apparently miso should not be boiled. This was very good to know because I was going to use the miso as stock and cook my noodles and carrots in it.

So I boiled some water with vegetable stock and added my noodles and chopped carrots. While this went on I dissolved some miso (about a tablespoon maybe? It was pre-cut) in some warm water and cubed my tofu. Once the noodles and carrots were about done, I lowered the temperature and added my miso and tofu and let it sit on very low for a while.

Here is how it turned out:

Taste test: alright, but not as flavorful as I would like. Maybe some more stock and/or miso. Or maybe more miso and no stock. I needed to add a little salt. Isaac agreed that it was a little bland, but he liked it otherwise. And it would be nice to have more veggies in it. Perhaps potatoes? Overall, not as successful as last week's dinner.