Onliwon In A Million

They do the dishes? For real? These I have to have!

They do twice the work of ordinary towels. But – but my ordinary towels are sitting upstairs in the linen closet. As far as I know, they are not in the habit of helping out.  And two times nothing is – wait for it – also nothing!

So are they going to do the dishes so i can go lie on the couch and read a book – or are they going to lie around twice as much? Because I can lie around twice as much without any help from a paper towel, you know.

Oh wait. The Onliwon Towels offer expired on December 31, 1948. Never mind.

 

A Venture Into My Non-Retro, Semi-Vegetarian Kitchen

Here’s the exception that proves the rule.

I mostly write about – well, you know – retro stuff, old cookbooks, weird Jell-O salads, 1920s laundry hints, with a big helping of cheesy and delicious old advertisements.

But in real life, I am a  95%-vegetarian who flirts with vegan cookbooks. I cook all sorts of things though, as long as they are healthy, good, and quick to do (so I can get back to writing!). I really do like lentils, brown rice and tofu. I read once in Gourmet magazine that there are restaurants in Japan devoted solely to tofu. Sounds like heaven to me! I love Asian food – Indian, Thai and Japanese especially. Love Japanese candy too. When I was a kid in New York City the big treat for me was going to Katagiri (a fabulous Japanese store in the East 50’s) and buying Japanese caramels, Botan rice candy, Meiji chocolate.

So I’m going to be talking about tofu satays in this post – with sweet chili sauce and peanut sauce to dip them in.

This is for the first Blog Party I have done – hosted by the lovely Stephanie over at Dispensing Happiness. This party is all about street food as appetizers. I knew I wanted to do an Asian street food and nearly did vegetable samosas. Maybe next time I’ll go down to Little India and pick up some of those. But we are all really liking tofu at our house lately so I thought I’d go with these. Tofu satay is my favorite Thai takeout dinner but you can eat them standing up on the street – or at a par-tay – so why not?

The recipe is adapted from one on the Food Network. And they got it from Vegetarian Classicsby Jeanne Lemlin (HarperCollins, 2001):

GRILLED OR ROASTED TOFU SATAY

For the marinade: Combine 2 Tb tamari soy sauce, 2 Tb sesame oil, 2 Tb mirin [Lemlin used sherry].

Take 2 lbs of extra firm tofu sliced i” thick, patted dry and cut into 1″ cubes [mine are a bit bigger, it still worked fine though a longer marinating time would be wise if they are bigger]. Combine marinade ingredients in large bowl and add tofu cubes, stirring to coat with a rubber spatula.

Let marinate at least 30 minutes or up to 8 hours. If you leave it for over an hour, stick it in the fridge.

To make the Peanut Sauce:
Combine 3/4 cup canned coconut milk
1/2 cup natural style peanut butter (smooth or chunky)
2 minced garlic gloves [I used garlic puree]
1 1/2 tsp curry powder [I used garam masala, it was fine, could have used more though]
1 1/2 Tb borwn sugar [could use less]
1 Tb lime juice
Combine all in a food processor and blend until smooth, and put in a bowl.

Drizzle about 1/3 cup of the peanut sauce over tofu and toss gently with spatula to combine. Now you can either grill it on skewers (that you have soaked in water for half an hour) on a grill for about 20 minutes. Or you can roast them – that’s what I did. Put them in a single layer in a shallow roasting pan and roast at about 450 degrees for 25 minutes (or until they are golden and crispy], turning them once.

The sweet chili sauce is store-bought, by the way.

They were pretty good, though I would up the curry powder and downgrade the brown sugar in the peanut sauce. I am bringing a nice white wine to drink with this – a boring choice, but that’s what I had when I was running out of the house. Image from Wikipedia, thanks Wikipedia! Maybe next time I will bring Whiz Bangs and Monkey Glands!