Dark Days and Tofu Challenge: chili
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Like just about everyone else I know, I’m recovering from some sort of plague. After spending many hours this past week riding the couch I finally managed to cook a little something. Between my cold and the cold outside, I wanted something filling and comforting.
Mikaela told me last month that freezing tofu will change the texture and make it more meat-like. I froze one of the blocks of Fresh Tofu I picked up from the Fair Food Farmstand and thawed it. I thought it would make a nice meat substitute for chili. Admittedly, I had my doubts - it seemed rubbery as I was tearing it up.
Oh ye of little faith!
The chili turned out to be really great and almost entirely made from local ingredients. Aside from salt, pepper, and a small can of tomato paste, that is. I used a pound of pinto beans from Margerum’s (Clark Park Farmer’s Market), a bag full of frozen corn from last year’s CSA, dried parsley from last year’s garden, and a couple jars of plum tomatoes I canned last year. And, of course, locally made tofu...which, as Mikaela promised, really does have a meaty quality. In fact, if I didn’t know it was tofu I probably wouldn’t have noticed.
On a day like today, it was an excellent lunch with a heel of sourdough bread from Le Bus. Yum!
Posted by Nicole on 02/16 at 01:24 PM
You call it ‘over-achieving’. I just call it laziness! *grin*
Are the beans available anyplace other than the Clark Park Farmer’s Market? That’s pretty far from me, but I’d love to get local beans!
Yay! I’m so glad it worked out
The chili looks and sounds really great.
And, what an efficient post—Dark Days *and* Tofu Challenge. Of course, I’m not actually surprised by this over-achieving-ness