Buffini's Blog

I’m lying in bed thinking about munchies after several drinks. Tomorrow I’ll write a post on one of my favourite snacks, the bruschetta style mushroom and olive beastie.

My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Got fluffied by Mr Mulley this morning, at some insane hour like 5.48 am. Thats just crazy talk. Muchas gracis Mr. M.

On the plus side it means my site does actually work for people other than me, and if I can get the inimitable Mr. M to admit that the tofu “almost sounds nice” then I’ll just have to get to work  on more tasty stuff to convert ye all…

One thing I should note – the stuff I’m posting can’t quite be classed as recipes, more as templates or guidelines, in that it gives a very rough idea of how to make the dish but leaves the fine details entirely up to you. There is absolutely no point whatsoever in me telling someone how to make something the way I like it. The fajita is in your hands…

Handy links:

• Vegetarian Society of Ireland – for those wishing to become enlightened…
• The Vegetarian Society – the big one
• Allrecipes.com – good site for all recipes, as well as veg/tofu stuff…

1 block tofu – I find the Cauldron organic one best, can be gotten from the Health shop for about €2/3 something a block.
1 can pre-soaked chickpeas – Health shop or any decent supermarket really… pre-soaked means you don’t have to spend anytime monkeying around with it. Drain the chickpeas well.
1 jar of sauce – This can be whatever the hell you want. I generally go with some of Indian curry/balti sauce, Mexican spicyness, whatever, its really whatever you fancy. You can make your own sauce but I’m lazy, it takes a little longer, and the sauces are generally cheap and tasty. Aldi have a good few.

The important bit: take the tofu out of the pack and wrap it in kitchen tissue, place on a saucer and place another on top of it – the reason for this is that Tofu is packed in brine and soaks it all up. If its not properly drained before hand you basically get a load of water bleeding out into the pan and it makes it very hard for the tofu to pick up any flavour from your sauce… Its the both the curse and the blessing of the tofu. The saucer on top helps squish the water out. Do that for maybe an hour…

Pour olive oil (I’ve heard avocado oil is supposed to be better) in wok/pan and heat till smoky hot. Lump the tofu in the pan after cutting it into sufficiently small chunks so that it doesn’t take days to cook. (I always add chopped onions at this point but its to preference…)
At this point I usually add spices, salt, pepper, chillies, etc.. cos I likes it that way
Cook tofu until getting crispy good – Bit of an experience thing with cooking tofu, you’ll get the hang of when its done. Firm on the outside and fairly soft on the inside is usually the way.

If your adding veg this is a good point, add in, maybe some more spices and stuff, give a good stir fry until just about ready.

Add the sauce and chickpeas and leave to simmer for a while so everything picks up the tasty flavours.

Any and all measurements given are relative to how much you like the ingredients, how saucy/spicy you like it, its all entirely up to you

Enjoy!