More fun with miso, this time kimchi based dumplings. One batch with firm pressed/minced tofu, another with ground pork.

The great thing about using kimchi for dumplings is it has inherent flavor, and this kimchi had scallions, so I didn’t need to add a bunch of ingredients for flavor or filler. It’s super fast to make them too. I used frozen dumplings wrappers, which are also convenient because they thaw relatively quickly. I did add a little miso to kick them up a notch. BAM!

Yes, I went Emeril on you.

I tried various cook methods. Cast iron, non-stick, and regular steel pan. I would sear for a few minutes then add a tablespoon or two of water and cover. These below were regular steel pan, and had the best crust, but a few of them stuck to the pan too much and tore while lifting.

This is the non-stick. It didn’t develop that nice even crust I desire.

P.S. Yesterday I had the best gyoza I can recall. Stay tuned for more.

(keep ‘em coming with teasers!)

I got the itch to make udon noodles after reading this Rasa Malaysia (via No Recipes) post on Kitsune (aka fox) udon, which I then followed up with a revisit to Eat, Drink, Man’s post on dashi. Gene of EDM is now writing for the AJC as the ethnic food writer, and personally I’m excited about their decision to hire him. Gene’s opinions are well thought out, interesting, and honest. He’s also a curious and experienced ethnic cook, which I think is important when trying to judge and understand the cooking from other parts of the world.

On to the food. Everything I purchased above came from the Buford Highway Farmer’s Market.

I made the dashi with the seawead and bonito flakes, careful to only gently simmer the broth. The aromas were wonderful.

You can buy the tofu sliced and fried already, so I sort of went the hard route. I pressed, drained, sliced, and twice fried my tofu before simmering the slices in a mixture of soy, rice wine, and dried sardines.

The fried tofu takes on a deep color, and excess liquid is pressed out.

Once you have the dashi and the tofu, the rest is even easier. I cooked the fresh noodles, then dropped the noodles in the still warm dashi, and garnished with green onion and a couple slices of fish cake.

The salty ocean flavors were delicate but with strong, pleasing aromatics. The chewy noodles and salty tofu provide ample nourishment. It’s filling, and it’s good, clean food.

Of course imitators have followed, such as Calbi, another LA truck which recently sold out to Baja Fresh, who is trying to franchise the idea. Yes, the same Baja Fresh that had multiple locations around Atlanta, only to pull out of the market entirely, and is now trying to come back and get new franchisees. Why would anyone want to buy into a franchise that less than ten years ago decided they couldn’t compete in this market?

Myself, I’ve never tried Kogi or Calbi, but when Hankook opened up within walking distance of house, I was excited to try Atlanta’s first foray into this hip genre. But one problem was that with my knowledge of Kogi, expectations of quality and creativity were high. Not only that, everyone I know was so eager to try it, we dashed there in the first two days they were open, and it seemed the general consensus was that it was a little boring and execution and ingredients were slightly off. At least that’s what I thought, I hate to speak for others, though I linked to a bunch of other blog posts at the bottom of this page.

My bulgogi taco from my first visit was just too bland. The meat was soggy, like it had been in the steamer too long, the flavor wasn’t what I expect from bulgogi at all, and there was lots of empty space in this average tasting tortilla.

The fish and rice cakes from the visit weren’t bad, I liked the texture, but the flavor of the sauce wasn’t my favorite.

I also got the bibim-bop on this visit. This was a ton of food, a good value. I liked the variety and flavor of the cold sprouts, mushrooms, and marinated cucumber, but it was the same meat from the bulgogi taco.

It was almost two months between my first and second visit, and on the second visit I was in a rush on the way home, so I popped in and got two tacos to go. I went with the bulgogi again, as well as the “dae ji gogi”, which is a spicy pulled pork taco.

I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised when I got home and unwrapped my tacos. The tacos just looked better. They were more full, the toppings were more vibrant, and there was noticeably more meat.

Also, because the hot tacos were wrapped in the foil for a few minutes, the tortillas were softer, a nice side benefit of the to-go order.

I really enjoyed both of these tacos. The flavor of the meat was wonderful. I could taste the sweet and salty marinade on the bulgogi, and the additional meat balanced better with the flavors of the hot sauce and the onion and cilantro toppings. I could really do without the cheese and the large amount of lettuce, but no big deal.

The pork was similarly delicious. There was plenty of tender pork, with just enough, but not too much, of the spicy BBQ sauce.

I’d enjoy some more exciting vegetables in these tacos like kimchi and radish, or really any of the pickled/fermented vegetables that are offered as banchan at many Korean BBQ restaurants. I also think there’s a lot they could do create more interesting and flavorful fusion sauces. The tortillas could probably benefit from a few seconds on the grill too, or perhaps they could experiment with corn tortillas, which is what Kogi uses.

But I don’t mean to be too big of a complainer – I was very happy that I tried Hankook again. At under $5 for two tacos, I felt like it was a good value.

I made my final stop today, as on my visit last week I noticed some new offerings on the “street snack” section of the menu. I had to try one more taco though, so I started with the tofu taco. Again, the cheese and tortilla aren’t my favorite, but I loved the soft tofu and the bean sprouts. If this had some of those aforementioned vegetables, it would have been rocking.

From the street snacks I tried the kook-su, soba noodles and vegetables in a spicy “vinaigrette”. There was too much sauce and lettuce for my tastes, but the actual flavor and heat of the sauce was great. The vegetables were carrots, cucumbers, scallions, and onions. These are pretty much the same vegetables I see in every dish and again, some variation would be welcome.

I also tried the pa-jeon, the vegetable pancake with dipping sauce. Definitely tasty, I recommend sharing an order as it’s huge. Mine was slightly undercooked, but no big deal, I took the leftovers home and when I reheat them on my grill they will come out perfect. You better believe I also brought the dipping sauce home too, it’s my favorite part.

OK, so there’s my marathon post on Hankook. Yeah, it’s very much a “here’s a picture of what I ate and what I thought” sort of post, but from my visits I’ve also formed a strong opinion about Hankook.

I’ve decided that even though it isn’t perfect, I’m a fan. Maybe it’s not as good as Kogi, not that I or many others in town would know. Some preparations and ingredients could be better. Perhaps some things aren’t authentic, exciting, or inspiring. But there is nothing like Hankook ITP. They’re whipping up an ever-changing menu, with many items that I would consider progressive for our town. They are pushing our palates. AND they are doing it in an awful location. I think if they last, it’s only going to get better, and I’m getting in on the ground floor.

Hankook on Chow Down Atlanta
Live to Feast
Foodie Buddha

Don’t get me wrong, the food isn’t terrible, I’m quite comfortable in their large leather booths, and the service is outstanding. But is the thirty minute figure listed on their exterior wait-time LCD warranted? Not to me.

Particularly in regards to breakfast, I think Buckhead as a whole lacks originality, opting for the more traditional breakfast items such as various meat/egg combinations and pancakes. I much prefer the creative offerings and the surrounding vibe at Radial or Ria’s.

This got me wondering – why is there this separation in style between the various geographies of Atlanta? Would it appear that the suit-clad business man is much more apt to prefer a breakfast of two eggs over easy with toast and potatoes, than perhaps a sampling of chilaquiles verdes with soysauge? That sort of stereotype shouldn’t apply, right? Maybe it’s not the clientele. Maybe it’s the locale which dictates the style, driving the tastes of the consumer. Would Ria’s, which is slammed on weekend mornings, be as popular at Roswell & Peachtree? I don’t know, but if I find something like that in Buckhead, you’ll see my dissenting, J.Crew clad ass there.

Would love to hear your thoughts.

lots of branding around OK Cafe – I like this lamp base

the booth

vegetarian “breakfast” plate – tofu stir fry. pretty bad actually.

two eggs with potatoes and link sausage: it is what it is

dessert

While the Super H  is totally money, Buford Highway is so much closer than Duluth, and I was told that Ranch 99 would have the Tianjin preserved vegetables that have been alluding me. Also, that morning I read Bliss’ post regarding the piroshkies at the Buford Highway Farmer’s Market, and the Slovak in me said they had to be mine. Subsequently I ate 2 each of the beef and the cabbage within 24 hours.

Back to the meal at hand – on the menu for this evening we had Fried Sichuan Peanuts, Spicy Cucumber Salad, Spicy Noodles with Soft Bean Curd, and Boiled Beef Slices in a Fiery Sauce. Sounds like a spicy food lover’s dream, no?

I’ve got lots of photos from this meal…I’m trying to get better with the camera, but I’m not quite there. I am starting to think that the only way I’m ever going to take really great photos is if I purchase a SLR. What’s another grand?

We started by deep frying peanuts. I had some raw red peanuts from Super H, which I fried in peanut oil at 225 for about 30 minutes. It takes some effort to maintain that low of a temperature without dropping down so low that they don’t cook. You can cook them 20 minutes, but I like peanuts a little overcooked.

Sprinkle the peanuts with some Sichuan pepper and salt and it’s a very tasty snack.

Next up, here I’ve gutted and sliced the cucumbers, then salted them to extract water. I do the exact same thing to cucumber when making tzaziki.

After 30-60 minutes, I’ve taken the cucumber, squeezed out the excess water, and patted the sticks dry. I quickly stir fried some Sichuan pepper and dried chilies in peanut oil, probably for 30 seconds or less. Then I added the cucumber for 10 seconds, removed from the heat, stirred in the sesame oil, and plated, allowing the dish to cool before serving. This was a very nice accompaniment to spicy food as it had a nice crunchy cooling effect, while having just a touch of back-end heat itself. I think this dish is a good example of Sichuan technique and simplicity. You have to move quick, have your ingredients ready, and there is a very intentional method of flavor layering.

I finally found the Tianjin preserved vegetables at Ranch 99. I had no idea what I was actually looking for; I knew it was finely chopped cabbage fermented with salt and garlic, but I didn’t know what it actually looked like. I inquired with one patron and two staff members and no one had an idea. I was finally directed to a supervisor, and she couldn’t help either.

Finally I had the idea to Wikipedia the item on my iPhone and the resulting page displays the Chinese characters. I showed my phone to the supervisor and she exclaimed “ohhhh yess!” I had two earthenware pots of the stuff in a matter of seconds. Technology to the rescue!

The first “main” dish we ate was the spicy noodles with bean curd. Here you can see the fermented bean curd, which is pretty much pickled/fermented tofu that has a softer, cheese-like texture, and a strong/pungent flavor that I can only describe as an acquired taste. I gently simmered the bean curd as instructed, however, it kind of fell apart.

I don’t have pretty plating for this dish, but it’s simply a mix of Shanghai flat noodles, Tianjin preserved cabbage, bean curd, a sesame paste/chili oil based sauce, and a garnish of scallions and fried peanuts.

This was quite interesting, definitely one of the more interesting dishes I’ve had in a while. The overall flavor was extremely salty, especially if you got a bite of the bean curd and the Tianjin at the same time. I even rinsed the Tianjin because I read it was good to do so due to the salt content. However, in many bites the salt was balanced by the heat, the sesame paste sauce, and the cheese-like flavor from the bean curd. I’m not going to fib and say I was in love with this, but I did enjoy the experience, and there is at least one person that really liked it because I looked over at my brother midway through eating my portion and and he was licking his bowl clean.

Deep fried peanuts, stir fried cucumbers, fermented cabbage, and fermented bean curd…that’s four ingredients I’ve never eaten or cooked with, and the meal was only half way through!

But I’m saving the other dish for my next post, because this one is getting long and I also have a (somewhat) special announcement in the next post. Well, it’s not really that special, but it’s kinda neato. Yeah, that’s what I’m going with, kinda neato. Check it.

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Drum roll please! The 18th post in the Atlanta Pizza Days is here, and it’s also the last post in the series. We’re finishing up with yet another pizza destination that is new to me – Maddio’s Pizza Joint (menu here).

It’s been a fun and calorie-filled ride, and I was excited to wrap this all up with a fun new spot that’s only been open for a few months. Created by one of the co-founders of Moe’s, Maddio’s is billed as a pizza “concept” restaurant, though I wasn’t really aware of this before my visit. Similar to Moe’s, Maddio’s is a made-to-order restaurant, where similar to the California burrito concept, you are in full control of your pizza from start to finish. You pick your crust, then your pizza moves on down the line where you select the sauce and toppings of your choosing.

This is definitely an interesting concept and I was eager to see the results. The made-to-order in front of your eyes concept has proven to be successful in other genres (salads, sandwiches, burritos), but how would the pie turn out?

We ordered one medium cheese, as well as a small pizza with tofu, blue cheese, and onions. We paid, then settled in on the spacious patio on this warm night. About 5 minutes later, the pizzas were delivered to our table. Scores below!

Dough (score – 2/5)

• “overcooked, thin, crispy, not much flavor, endcrust was weak, no structure”
• “it was ok.  pretty standard.  you could see all the dough out and already in little pans, waiting to be put in the conveyor cooker-which also didn’t allow for char or any of that fun stuff.  But, it wasn’t too thick or gummy which was nice.  Could have a little more flava.”
• Blind Taster’s comments - “had no flavor, no endcrust”

Sauce (score – 3/5)

• “liked the sauce, good amount, nice sharp flavor”
• “sauce was good.  Nice amount.”
• Blind Taster’s Comments – “sauce was non-existent”

Cheese (score – 2.5/5)

• “better than average, a lot of cheese, nice color and flavorful”
• “Normal pizza cheese, nothing out of the ordinary, but good.”
• Blind Taster’s Comments – “cheese was good – liked the actual flavor”

Overall (score – 2.5/5)

• “Not bad, but very cookie-cutter on the whole. Tasted like a good thin boxed pizza. Crust was weak, everything else was decent enough”
• “The pizza was good overall, though everything was consistently standard.  But, it’s nice to sometimes have a no surprises, typical, pizza.  The pizza conveyor cooker didn’t get near hot enough to get the pizza nice and crispy though. ”
• Blind Taster’s Comments – “good flavor overall, tasted like a boxed pizza or lunchroom pizza“

Final Thoughts: As you may have surmised, this pizza was very generic on the whole; to me it’s more about the concept than it is about creating great pizza. The Moe’s concept is in full effect, and I can see why people like it. It’s kind of fun picking and choosing the ingredients, and the small pizzas start at a price ($6.49 with three toppings) such that each person in a family could order their own pie to their liking.

That being said, I just don’t think it’s possible to use pre-rolled dough that’s been sitting out, then throw it on a conveyer and expect fantastic pie. The dough was overcooked to my liking, and there is no way to check for doneness on a conveyer. The dough has little flavor and it didn’t rise much, the endcrust being particularly weak. The high point of the meal was the small pie we got – the blue cheese + tofu pizza was very tasty. I’m going to classify their pie as being topping driven, which fits into the concept. There were a handful of families there having a good time, and I can see kids loving this kind of spot as they get to create their own special pizza with exactly what they want. Me….I was sorry I didn’t head on over to Shorty’s across the street for some real dough.

Additional photos can be viewed in the gallery below

Maddio’s on Yelp / Maddio’s Website

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We went to Top Flr the other night for a little birthday celebratory action. I have had this place on the list for a few months and was pumped to be going. The menu looked very interesting, extremely well priced, and with a unique wine selection which also had very reasonable prices. I can’t stand places that have poor choices on the low end ($20-$30). Eric Asimov of the New York Times just had a great article on wines at the bottom end of the $ spectrum at restaurants. It is a great read, check it out.

Top Flr is right next door to Papi’s, directly off Ponce on Myrtle St. It’s a good location…Midtown be hoppin’ these days. We actually had to wait, funny for a Tuesday night, but we hung out at the hipsters bar for a while. Actually we thought they forgot about us we had to wait so long, but we eventually got a table, directly next to the DJ booth, which thankfully was not occupied this evening.

I wasn’t sure which wine I wanted as there are a lot of selections, and even varietals with which I wasn’t familiar, especially the French stuff, and this list is heavy on the French stuff. We were feeling white wine so we asked for input and the waiter suggested the Weingut Brundlmayer Gruner Veltliner. Oh and if someone from Top Flr ever reads this, I’m pretty sure someone misspelled Veltliner on your website, unless there is some alternate spelling.

I’ve never had a GV so that was something new to try – yay! It’s an Austrian white wine, with plantings of GV accounting for over 30% of all grapes planted in Austria. Arriving in a Riesling style bottle, it weighed in at $36 a bottle.

We ordered some hummus and a Margarita pizza to start, while we decided on our entrees. The white bean hummus (aren’t they all white beans? or does that mean it was cannellini beans instead of chick pea? dunno) was good stuff and the flat bread rocked. I would have told you how the pizza was if it ever came.

We ordered our entrees – I selected the papparedelle with duck confit, mushrooms, and arugula. Katie got the jasmin tofu with bok choy and masaman banana curry. I would have asked about the pizza except our entrees came out the next time we saw our waiter, less than 5 minutes after ordering our entrees.

Both of our dishes were superb. My pasta was fresh and decadent and they definitely didn’t skimp on the duck like at some places. The overall combination of the duck, mushrooms, onions, and arugula topped with large sheets of shaved parmesan created a complex, earthy, and rustic dish that paired fantastically with the Gruner Veltliner, which had a slightly effervescent tonic texture with bright fruit that transitioned into a lengthy stone minerality on the finish. I really dug this combo and the wine was a real standout experience to me.

Katie’s tofu was also awesome – thickly breaded and fried well, and the sauce had just a slight banana flavor that added interesting character to the dish without overpowering it.

There were some miscues – lost orders, lengthy waits, missing staff, oh and the waiter saw we had more hummus left and were out of flat bread so he said, “I’ll bring you guys some more flatbread”, then charged us for it. BUT the food can not be denied and I definitely want to try more stuff here, especially when it almost seems rare these days to find a place where you can have outstanding food with a very good bottle of wine and get out of there for under $80 for two people.

Better picture of the pappardelle dish here (source: yelp)

Back to the post at hand, this week I ate one of my favorite kinds of food – Thai food. I’ve discussed Thai recently on this site, but it’s been months since I’ve had it and I was craving it pretty bad. There aren’t many Thai places really close to me, so I decided to give Spoon a try.

I’ve been to Spoon once before, and after my first meal there I was not overly impressed. While the food was acceptable, I didn’t think it was special and I thought there were better values for equivalant money. After my most recent visit, I pretty much feel the same way, but there are some things worth noting.

Spoon is located right by Georgia Tech, and as such, there are a lot of people that look to be around 20-25 years old, usually filling up the small, hip space. It’s dimly lit with cool old hardwood floors and a has a cool bar near the back of the room. The menu has a lot of the traditional Thai dishes: Pad Thai, Massaman (which they spell Massamun just to throw me off I guess), and my good old stand-by, Penang Curry.

They do have some variations from the norm, such as the tofu corn cake appetizer that we started with, which was very good. It had great texture and the tofu acted superbly as the binding agent for the cake, which did not fall apart at all and was served with a tasty dipping sauce.

They also have good looking specials every night, but they are often pricey. Their wine list is relatively expansive and interesting as well, with a good number of wines by the glass. However, when eating Thai, I always go with Singha (aka Thai Beer).

Katie ended up getting the Massamun with tofu, which is one of the many add-ons such as chicken, fish, or shrimp that you can select to add to any dish. It was tasty, and the tofu was cooked perfectly, but otherwise the dish didn’t really stand out.

The same could be said for what I ate, the Kang Keaw Wan (Green Curry). It was good, but there really wasn’t much to it. The addition of thinly sliced eggplant was nice. Maybe the specialties would be more exciting and unique, so I’ll have to go for that next time.

They also were offering a 3 course prix fixe menu as part of the OpenTable appetite stimulus plan. While this could be a good deal, and Spoon’s meal included lobster tail penang, does a $35 per person (no tax, no tip, no drinks) meal seem like a “oh during this economy, spending $50 per person on dinner is such a bargain!” kind of dining experience? I dunno, maybe it’s just me but I would think they want butts in seats and if they had a $20 or $25 meal, even if it had less expensive ingredients, I would be more prone to going. Thoughts?

Last thing to mention – our service was not very good at all. There was a table of 20+ people with one waitress, who also happened to be our waitress. While she did her best, everything went super slow. Luckily we were not in a hurry. I did appreciate when our waitress said  ”I’m very sorry for the wait, please come back again and I will do better next time.”

The slow service wasn’t entirely her fault, but I appreciated her not offering excuses and making a statement such as this. That statement alone wants me to give them another chance. What are everyone else’s thoughts on slow service and how the wait staff reacts? Does anyone else feel the same as me regarding the above statement?

It’s really easy to judge service sometimes, and I often feel like I’m being too harsh of a critic. Just wait until my next restaurant post; I’m hoping to dive into this topic a bit more. Ever walk into a restaurant and go “how is this place making any money???”. Well, that’s what I hope to dig into.

While I think there are other places in Atlanta to have superior Thai food at comparable costs (Surin, Harry and Son’s, and Bangkok), I think it’s worth giving Spoon a shot to see how you like it, but I recommend you try something out of the ordinary, because the standard thai dishes are just that, standard.

Spoon
Open: M-F 11AM to 11PM, Sat 4PM to 11PM
404-522-5655
Dinner menu can be viewed here.
Yelp Reviews Here

I’ve been craving Mac ‘n Cheese for a few weeks now,  so Sunday I ran a few extra miles to justify eating 1.5 pounds of cheese in one sitting. Some people workout to stay healthy, I workout so I can gorge and imbibe like a caveman. Yeah, cavemen eat a lot. Brontasaurus burgers and mead?

There is a buffalo mac recipe I saw in Bon Appétit last year, which I made and I thought was worth another try.  One area of concern – the original recipe had fried chicken in it, which doesn’t bode well with holier-than-thou vegetarians. So I decided to change up the recipe a bit and use tofu instead of fried chicken. 

The second part of the recipe is unchanged – cooking the mac, creating the roux, adding the cheese, etc. The only step I changed is that I didn’t use fresh oregano. 

So below is my recipe for the veggie equivalent of the fried chicken – buffalo fried tofu. It was great. I actually preferred the tofu by itself, rather than mixed in with the mac ‘n cheese. The crispiness was lost a bit in the baking and I could really taste the tofu and the seasoning by itself. 

Oh, and I didn’t take any pics of the mac prep, just a few poor shots of the mac after it came out of the oven. 

Buffalo Fried Tofu

• One block organic tofu – drained and pressed
• 3 tbsp Frank’s Red Hot Sauce
• 3 tbsp canola oil
• 1 tbsp cayenne
• 1/2 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp paprika
• 3 tbsp corn starch
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Cutting the tomatoes thin. The first time I made these I cut them too thick and wasn’t happy with the result. 

The prep “stations”. First the tomato goes into the flour with salt, pepper, and cayenne. Then it gets some egg, and finally some bread crumbs. 

Into the pan on medium heat – careful not to burn. 2-3 minutes each side. 

Plated and served with a relish of lemon and lime peel (and juice), corn, and jalapenos. I actually didn’t like this relish much. Having lemon/lime peel in it was a bit too much for me. It added a bitterness. Seasoning it with more salt helped balance it out a bit. 

Extreme close-up. Whooooaaaa!!!!

Slashfood is a site I subscribe to that does a good job of accumulating a lot of food and recipe information from all over the blogosphere. They have many contributors and various posting categories, including one amusing category I like called Food Porn where they simply have a picture of very tasty looking food.

The actual recipe originates from another food blog I had never seen before called Everybody Likes Sandwiches. I wasn’t looking for a tofu recipe in particular but I came across the picture, which looked delicious, and I was cooking & eating with a vegetarian so it was a perfect fit.

We did a lot of the initial food prep at the same time that we started the soup, but we waited to cook until after we’d all eaten the soup. Lately I’ve liked stretching the courses out like this – it’s less stressful and there’s generally no rush on a Sunday evening.

To start this dish we pressed the tofu as indicated in the recipe – the block was wrapped in a (clean) dish towel and I placed a heavy serving tray on top of it a few minutes. I also pressed down on it firmly to try to coax the liquid, but as I have no baseline experience for tofu-water-retention I’m not really sure how well it was pressed. After that I cubed the tofu and dropped it in a bowl with the prepared marinade of soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, and chili flakes. You can see in the second picture that the tofu soaked up all the liquid quickly.

Then we cleaned the green beans and tossed them in a similar marinade of soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, and ginger, but it also called for some sriracha for heat.

When we were done preparing and eating the soup we placed the green beans into a pan and then in the oven for fifteen minutes. At this point we also took the tofu and placed it in a large freezer bag with the corn starch.

I used this time to finish the final food prep. The recipe only called for shallots and one red pepper, but I decided to add some other vegetables I had in the fridge – one carrot, one celery stalk, and half a green pepper.

Then we put together the Thai coconut sauce, which was a simple mixture of coconut milk, chili garlic sauce, and soy sauce.

At this point I was ready to fry the tofu in the vegetable oil. This is where I made the mistake with the tofu. The author of the recipe used a well seasoned cast iron skillet, which I shamefully don’t have in my repertoire. I should have used my wok or at least a non-stick skillet because the tofu didn’t crisp up as the corn starch/marinade coating stuck to the pan rather than remaining on the tofu.

After about 5 minutes of cooking I took out the tofu and set it aside, then added the vegetables and stir fried them for a few minutes.

Once the vegetables had softened a bit we added the green beans and the coconut mixture. About this time everything started to smell and look very tasty.

I cooked this for a few minutes, letting the coconut milk reduce a little, then squeezed some lime juice over it all and added the tofu back into the mix and was ready to serve over rice.

I realize now that I have a little to learn about plating and taking photos that make the final product look “pretty”, but even with the tofu frying mistake, everything tasted great. The heat level was more appropriate than in the soup, but there was tons of flavor and the vegetables were real crisp, including the green beans, which I worried would be too soggy after the roasting and cooking in the coconut sauce. I will definitely try something like this again, especially with that I learned about the tofu.