Weeknight Cooking: Vegetable Lo Mein with Crispy Tofu

Even I, as a stay-at-home, work-from-home, new mamma, do not always have time for my preferred level of home cooking. Sometimes, #Babysatyr takes up all my time with snuggles and diapers. Sometimes, the Office needs me to perform urgent (read: time-sensitive) tasks.  For such occasions, it is essential to have a few go-to weeknight meals in case one of these nights coincides with a dearth of leftovers.

You may also have vegetables in the refrigerator that need eating before they join the wrinkly apples in the compost heap.  That makes tonight’s dish doubly useful, but we should talk about staples before I get into that.  Not the ones you keep papers together with, but the ones with which you hold your house together.  We all have our go-to items that must always be on hand. Here are a few of mine:

Essential Pantry Items (In Brief)

• canned tomato products (diced, crushed, sauce, paste)
• canned beans (baked, white, refried, red, black)
• lemons (not shelf stable, but if they get old before I use them all, I use them to clean the microwave)
• fancy jar food (capers, artichoke hearts, green chiles)
• pastes (garlic, ginger, basil, chili pepper, dill, cilantro, anchovy)
• coconut milk
• coconut beverage, unsweetened
• gluten-free pasta (spaghetti and elbows; brown rice based is my preference.  Not Barilla because they are enemies of freedom)
• sale meats (grass-fed beef, boneless chicken, pork chops, and sausages found on manager’s special and frozen)
• frozen veggies (cut okra, baby peas, whole kernel corn, lima beans, edamame, whatever looked good that they were closing out in the hippy section)
• fats (bacon, chicken, beef, coconut oil, olive oil, vegetable oil, ghee)
• condiments (ketchup, mayonnaise, mustards, liquid aminos, sugar-free marmalade)
• onions (I prefer sweet but occasionally need red.  Vidalia is the best to my mind, but have a short season of availability.)

As long as I have these things, I am pretty much set for any occasion.  What do you like to keep on hand?

I spent hours yesterday making Chinese appetizers from scratch because a) I wanted them and b) mine are better.  I had prepared some of the ingredients on a former occasion and then could not make them, so I had frozen them.  One was cauliflower rice, and the other was cabbage and ginger to mix with pork for dumplings.  I had eaten the pork since then, and the cabbage did not look great, but I tried using the cauliflower rice.  I fried it.  Papa Satyr liked it, but I tossed mine.  Even I fail occasionally.  So, tonight, when we would eat leftover ribs, wings, and dumplings with a new batch of cheese wontons, I wanted a new starch to pair them with.  As Amazon had just delivered a new batch of my gluten-free spaghetti (I get it 6-lbs at a time in my monthly Subscribe and Save delivery), I decided to make “Lo mein”, usually made of a wheat egg noodle. Still, I needed to lay off the gluten since I had bread this week.

OK, I had plenty of meats in my apps, so I decided to go vegetarian, and as I mentioned before, it is a great way to use up veggies from the fridge.  I found carrots, Napa cabbage, zucchini, and half a yellow pepper.  I added half an onion and called it good.  Boiled my pasta, deep-fried my tofu, fried some eggs over easy, made a new batch of the wontons (not pictured), re-heated the spare ribs, dumplings, and sesame wings in the oven, and wah-la, dinner.  Sorry, I will not be featuring everything listed, but I promise I will bring them back for another post…those were my best and easiest Chinese BBQ spareribs EVER.  You meat-eaters will need them.

Vegetable Lo Mein with Crispy Tofu (Dinner)

Lo Mein

• 8 oz pasta,

Stir-fry

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper, julienned
• 2 small carrots, julienned
• 1/2 head Napa cabbage, sliced in ribbons, greens separated from whites
• 1/2 onion, sliced thin
• 2 zucchini, halved and sliced thin

Sauce

• 2 tbsp liquid aminos (like soy sauce)
• 1 tbsp apricot marmalade
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp Sriracha
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar

Toppings: crispy tofu, fried eggs. I list these last two as toppings because if you put them into the stir-fry too early, they will become soggy.

Crispy Tofu (Basics)

• Tofu, extra firm
• If deep-frying: ~ 1 qt Neutral oil (vegetable, peanut, etc)

1. If baking the tofu, start with it.  Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line the baking sheet with parchment.
2. Cut tofu to the desired shape, place it between two kitchen towels, and pat it dry.
3. Bake until golden outside, 25-45 minutes, shape dependent.
4. Mix sauce, whisking, and set aside.
5. Bring 4 qt. water to boil.  Add pasta.  Cook to the desired doneness.  Drain and set aside.
6. Heat oil in a wok or large skillet for stir-fry over medium-high heat.  Add thicker or harder vegetables and cook for 3-4 minutes.  Add leafy vegetables and cook for 2 minutes.  Turn off the heat.
7. If deep-frying the tofu, heat oil to 350°F.  Fry 4-6 pieces at a time, shape-dependent, ~2-4 minutes, until golden and puffy.  Shake off the oil and transfer to paper towels to dry.

Fried Eggs (Basics)

• 4 large eggs
• 3 tbsp hot neutral oil (use less if not adding to stir fry)

1. Put 3 tbsp hot oil in a pan over medium heat.  Add eggs.  
2. Let cook until whites are puffed and crispy on the edge and the yolk begins to harden, basting eggs with hot oil once or twice.  
3. Flip eggs and break them apart.  
4. Pull off the heat and let it finish cooking.

Combine to Serve

1. Once everything is ready, place stir-fry over med-high heat, add eggs and oil, stir, stir.
2. Add sauce, stir, stir.  Turn off heat.
3. Serve with tofu.

Goodness, that took twice as long to write as it did to cook.  OK, I did also apply the spice rub to tomorrow’s brisket.  Come back for that awesomeness!

Tonight’s instance of going above and beyond shall be how to clean your microwave with lemons.

Go the Extra Mile:

1. Place 1/2 water in microwave safe bowl.
2. Take 2 lemons.  If hard, microwave 20 seconds to soften.  Cut in half.  Squeeze juice into bowl and place lemons in bowl.
3. Microwave 4 minutes.  DO NOT OPEN DOOR.  Let sit 4-5 minutes.
4. Wipe clean with the magic of lemony steam.  If you cannot remove any remaining gunk, dip cloth into lemon solution and apply elbow grease.