Meal Plan: Week One, Day Two

Tonight's meal was eggplant and tofu stir fry.  It wasn't quite the disaster I was concerned about.  True, neither young lady in the house had more than a bite of each ingredient (they did eat all of their rice though).  Also true, neither adult has been converted to tofu or eggplant fans.  However, this dish was DELICIOUS.  The sauce of hoisin, rice vinegar, and corn starch was the saving factor.  I seeded and sliced a Serrano pepper for a little kick as well (the recipe calls for either that or jalapeno)  It was another relatively easy dish to put together, all told, it took about 25 minutes. 

That little box of tofu was frightening to me.

I was able to open it without fanfare, but little pieces started falling off/out almost immediately.  A family member, knowing my worry about this dish, had sent me some helpful tips...one was draining it.  I realized I wasn't sure how to do it, so I attempted to pat it dry with a paper towel.  Given how it ended up kind of falling apart and not looking at all like I have seen and had tofu before, I'm pretty sure I did something wrong.

Is that supposed to happen?

It cooked up okay, I guess.  There was really no other flavor in the end but the sauce, the tofu was very silky, not "firm" like the package said.  In the meantime, my lovely sous chef assisted with the Hoisin sauce.

Cutest sous chef ever.

After the tofu, um, cooked (I guess), it was removed from the pan and in went more oil, eggplant, the white part of the scallions, and garlic.  I almost forgot the garlic, I have no idea how, but thankfully I was able to get it in there in time.  After the eggplant softens, back in goes my crumbly, slimy, tofu along with the green part of the scallions.

Isn't it pretty?

The sauce goes in last, it says until it thickens, but it was pretty thick already...pretty tasty too!  After plating, it suggests torn fresh basil leaves, which we added thanks to the mother's day plant Evie gave me this year.  The end result was (mostly) happy campers in this house.  We all agreed (with apologies to my veggie friends) that the next time we'll make this with chicken because that sauce was really yummy.