Straying off the topic

It turns out Mike Brady is actually right! Footy does win hands down. And now that the season is finally over and the players have fled to Las Vegas and Phuket I have found myself with something of a gap in my life. There were so many empty hours in my weekend that I even the Gilmore Girls on DVD and actually turned the television over to Sky racing (bad commentary incarnate) in the hope of finding something interesting to watch. It comes as little surprise that Rory and Lorelai are still more interesting than Race 5 at Eagle Farm. Not even watching John Kosmina throttling Kevin Muscat could rouse me from my malaise. It's all so…not football.

So I think I’m going to have to start writing about something else for a bit. And not wanting to stray too far from what I know and love, I think it’s going to have to be food. So, if there are no objections I bring you:

Recipe #1 – Tofudabeast

This has become a weeknight favourite of mine as it requires virtually no forward planning, is pretty cheap, and because you can buy a couple of packets of tofu and they will live for a couple of weeks in the back of the fridge. Unlike the fish I bought the other week and forgot about.

Salt and Pepper Tofu

1 packet Firm tofu
Cornflour
Salt
Ground white pepper
Chinese 5 spice
Vegetable oil, perhaps with a squirt of sesame oil if you feel like it.

Combine enough cornflour to coat the tofu, with some* salt, pepper, and 5 spice.

Drain the tofu and dry off with some paper towel, pressing down on the tofu to squeeze out some of the excess water, then cut into bite size pieces. Keep in mind, the smaller you cut the tofu the more tasty fried bits you get on the outside.

Heat about an inch and half of oil in the bottom of a wok, toss the tofu in the cornflour mix, shake off the excess flour and drop into the hot oil. Fry in small batches, turning the tofu to brown on all sides and then drain on some paper towel.

Serve with some Asian greens (or perhaps some Australian Greens, but definitely not Democrats – far too bitter and there really isn’t enough of them to fill you up) in oyster sauce and some jasmine rice.


* ‘Some’ is an official measurement I will undoubtedly use in any and all recipes. It roughly converts to one ‘I don’t really measure things, so you’ll have to make an educated guess’. It’s usually somewhere between a teaspoon and a tablespoon if you’re going to be a pedant about it.