Sunburst Carrots & Garam Masala Spiced Tofu

We got back to our apartment yesterday and have no more access to the bountiful leftovers at my parents’ place.  There wasn’t much in the fridge, but I think this was one of the prettiest meals we’ve made in a while.  With three carrots left in the crisper, a block of tofu, half a bunch of slightly sad parsley, and a bag of string beans donated by my mom, we made this masterpiece:

The Sunburst Carrots are from 101 Cookbooks.  I made a bunch of changes since we didn’t have many of the ingredients Heidi calls for, but I recommend following her recipe verbatim sometime because it’s really tasty.  Basically, I swapped in parsley for the cilantro, pickled jalapenos for the Serrano chiles and didn’t add the pumpkin seeds or lemon zest (just bottle lemon juice, I know, not ideal).   As for the tofu, follow the steps below closely to get it crispy on the outside, moist on the inside.

Garam Masala Spiced Tofu

Ingredients:

1 block of tofu
2 tablespoons garam masala
2 teaspoons garlic powder
generous pinch of crushed red pepper
splash of oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup juice (orange would be excellent, but I used some hibiscus tea because it was in the fridge)
1/4 cup strained or Greek yogurt
lots of fresh pepper

To Do:

1. Wrap tofu up in a clean dishtowel or paper towels. Put on a plate, put another plate on top of the tofu and then put something heavy on that plate. The goal is to squeeze a lot of the moisture out of the tofu so that it will marinate better. Ideally, the tofu would be pressed for about an hour, but do it as long as you can.
2. Whisk all of the ingredients together.  Cut the tofu into thin slabs and place in a shallow dish.  Pour the marinade over the tofu (make sure it’s all covered) and let it rest for at least an hour and up to overnight.  The longer it sits, the tastier it will be.
3. Get out a pan that can be used on the stove top and in the broiler.  I use a cast iron grill pan.  Place pan over a burner on medium-high heat and add a bit of olive oil.  When hot, place tofu slabs in the pan and lower the heat to medium.  Start heating up your broiler while one side of the tofu cooks.  When the top looks a bit dry, pour some leftover marinade over the top and put the whole pan under the broiler.  Let it sit for about 5 minutes or until the whole mess looks crispy.  This recipe would also work well on the grill, but it’s late November in Brooklyn so…

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