Spicy Sriracha Grilled Tofu

Last night I grilled tofu for the time. And actually, I've only ever cooked tofu a few times. The secret I suppose is marinating it overnight so it actually has a lot of flavor. I was really stoked on how this recipe turned out (how could it be bad if it came from Bon Appéttit anyway?).

I flagged this recipe a while back but could never find white miso paste in the grocery store. I didn't realize I needed to look in the refrigerated section...oops! Now I'm excited to use the paste for other recipes.

Sriracha-Filled Tofu
Bon Appétit (June 2011)
Serves 4

Ingredients
1 14-16 ounce container of extra firm tofu
3/4 cup Sriracha
1 TBS roasted sesame seeds (I was lazy and just used toasted sesame oil instead)
1 TBS soy sauce
1 TBS white miso paste
Chopped scallions (a few, at least)
2 garlic cloves

Directions
Cut tofu into 1" blocks. Drain well on paper towels.

Put Sriracha, sesame seeds (or sesame oil in my case), and white miso paste in a blender with a few chopped scallions and the garlic cloves. Blend with water until smooth. (I didn't add any water - I just blended in a food processor!). Reserve some for dipping. Marinate the tofu in the rest overnight.

Grill tofu, brushing with sauce. Sprinkle with roasted sesame seeds and scallions.
______________________

I haven't been making much lately because of how much I've been working, but have at least managed to cook a ton of meals so far this summer. I've been working full time to crank out of my projects before I leave for three weeks.

This weekend Eric and I fly up to Pennsylvania to visit family and I'll stay an extra while to help my family work in my grandma's gardens. And on my flight back, I'm stopping over in DC for a few days to visit Jess & Keeley (CAN'T WAIT!!).

This summer hasn't really felt like summer yet because I'm working so much and we've been fortunate to have decent weather here in Austin. I'm amazed that it's late June and I haven't felt like I'm melting yet.

More later from PA!

favorite homemade bread

Sriracha. It's delicious in/on nearly everything, so of course it's ridiculous in this homemade bread. I made this sriracha & cheddar bread a while back (original post here), but I've been daydreaming of making it again soon. The combo is brilliant.

A couple more weeks of teaching and grading and then I'll be baking & working on projects :))). I feel like I'm in a whirlwind of trying to grade final tests, celebrate birthdays, and catch some of the Moontower Comedy Festival. (Mom I promise to call soon!)

(SB Day Two, cont.) Cheddar-Sriracha Bread

Success! There was almost a huge mishap (read below.)

The recipe is from The Sriracha Cookbook. The recipe from this book for the bread can be found online here.

It's delicious.



I made bbq pulled pork today. I went to the little grocery store down the street to grab a pork shoulder, but the only pork they had was a pork tenderloin. Although it's not recommended to make pulled pork from something so lean, it turned out awesome.



Pulled Pork with tenderloin:
1/2 pork tenderloin
1 cup ginger ale
1 onion
pinch of salt, pepper, cumin

I chopped up the onion and put it on the bottom of the crock pot. Then I rubbed the tenderloin with the salt, pepper and cumin and layed it on top of the onion. Then I poured the ginger ale on top and allowed to cook for 6 hours on high.

* Sometime in between I made bbq sauce. See my recipe for bbq sauce below.*

Then I drained the contents of the crock pot, saving the onions and pork. I put everything back into the crock pot. Using two forks, I pulled the pork apart, poured the bbq sauce all over, and cooked on low for and hour and a half.

SO good! The tenderloin was not dry at all. It was awesome and it really seems unnecessary to use a fatty piece of pork to make pulled pork now that I've done it with a lean piece.

We ate the bbq pork on top on a slice of the sriracha bread...IT WAS AMAZING! SOooo delicious.



**
BBQ sauce recipe: (I made half of this)
1 cup ketchup
¼ cup dark brown sugar
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 heaping Tbsp brown spicy mustard
3 Tbsp soy sauce
7-8 small squirts of Sriracha
**

**
MISHAP:

Right before you put the loaf into the oven to bake, the recipe tells you to spray water on all the oven walls generously and to spray the top of the loaf generously. No problem.

After I put the loaf in the oven, I saw the squirt bottle sitting on the counter. I started yelling "OH Noooooo........NOOOOOOO..." as I started to cry. We have two identical squirt bottles, both containing clear liquids. One is labeled "Bleach & Water" and the other is not labeled and contains only water.

Which one was sitting on my counter? Yep, the bleach and water bottle. Shit.

I looked up stuff about consuming small amounts of diluted bleach and it didn't seem like a huge deal. The top of the bread only got three squirts I think.

No traces of bleach smell or flavor were around and the bread was completely normal. Whew.