Fried Tofu "Cutlets"

This is actually Katie, but I just added John as an author!

Anyway, we made these tofu "cutlet" things cause one of John's comfort foods is chicken cutlets.

Here are the ingredients:
1 pound of extra firm tofu, cut into cutlet shapes.
1 egg
olive oil
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/4 cup flour
dash salt
1 cube vegetable bullion and water / vegetable stock or broth
1 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. paprika
dash black pepper

We recommend freezing the tofu two or three days beforehand and thawing it in the fridge for a day. This gives the tofu a meatier texture.

Regardless, you have to drain the tofu. To do this, put some paper towels on a plate and put the tofu on top. Then put a few paper towels on top and weigh the tofu down with another plate and more weight. Let it sit for 1/2 hour. If you don't do this, the tofu will not absorb the flavor of the marinade, and it will not taste like anything.

Meanwhile, get 2 cups of water and boil it. Then, add the bullion cube. Once the cube is dissolved, take the broth off the heat and let it cool.


When the tofu is done draining, put it in the broth and let it marinate for at least 1/2 hour.
While that's marinating and stuff, you can make the breading. Just dump the panko, flour, paprika, salt, pepper, oregano and onion powder in a bowl...

...and mix it with a fork or whisk to evenly distribute everything.


Next, crack an egg into a good-sized bowl and whisk it.
When the tofu's all good and marinated, get your dipping/frying set up like this:

We dumped out the broth too, you don't want to use that stuff afterwards.

And heat some oil up in a frying pan. We used olive oil, cause that's what John had and we forgot to get vegetable oil, but we highly recommend using a vegetable oil because the flash point on those is higher and you won't get little bits of really hot olive oil jumping up at you.


Then, take a tofu cutlet, and coat it with egg.

And then coat it VERY well with the breadcrumb mixture.

Then, repeat the process for each cutlet. When they're all done, place two cutlets in the hot oil, CAREFULLY.

You only want two in there at once, because otherwise the oil will get too cool and it'll be harder to turn and handle the tofu. When one side is golden brown, flip it.

Mmmmmmm....

When each side is nicely fried, maybe 3-5-ish minutes on each side, place the cutlets on some paper towels to drain.


And serve! We served ours with mashed potatoes and this great recipe for vegetarian brown gravy. Also, adding a bit of gralic salt on top is a great idea if you find it not quite salty enough.


It really was wonderful. Great vegetarian comfort food.

Italian Style Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers

We like peppers. And cheese. A lot. Hence this recipe, which we pretty much threw together in a few hours. And it came out pretty amazing.

Ingredients:

2 red (or whatever color you want) bell peppers
2 cups of cooked rice
3/4 cup of panko breadcrumbs
2 tbsp of fresh basil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup of parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. dried parsley
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 pound of fresh mozzarella (cause it melts better than regular)
A pinch of pepper
Salt to taste.

We forgot to put the peppers in the ingredients pictures, so we figured these babies dressed as peppers were good enough.

Anyways start cooking the rice, you'll need it to be warm when you put the mozzarella in.

Then preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Then cut the peppers in half from top to bottom and take out the stems, membranes and seeds.


Next roll the basil up in a little bundle and slice it up as small as you can. John didn't roll the basil up though, he didn't want to listen to me.



Now chop up the garlic, and since John doesn't have a fancy-schmancy garlic press like I do, we used the flat of his butcher knife to smush it after chopping it into tiny bits.




Then dump your panko into a mixing bowl...



... And the stuff you just chopped up:



Next put the thyme and oregano and parsley in the bowl and grate the parmesan. If you're rebels like us you'll eyeball your measurements like so:


Ok next you mix everything up and dump the warm rice in it. Note: if you made rice beforehand, just reheat it in the microwave so it'll be hot enough to melt the cheese.


Then, mix it!



And now, take the mozarella and start ripping it into bits (or cut it if you're a lame-o and don't feel like getting your hands dirty).


Then, stir until the mozzarella's all incorporated and stuff. Or, if you're like me, attempt to stir this thick mixture, then give up and ask your boyfriend to be all manly and strong and stir it for you. Which he may do quite well, as in this case:


Almost ready to bake! Now, just coat a baking sheet/pan with some sort of oil. We used olive oil because it's the only thing John had, but it would probably be better to use canola or vegetable oil because these oils have lower flashpoints. Also, rub/brush some oil on the peppers and salt them a bit.


Then, stuff them and put some more panko and parmesan on the top to give them a nice crust:


Last, bake at 350 for 20 minutes, or until tops are all golden:


And eat them, maybe like we did with fancy-flavored Goya sodas:




*No babies were harmed in the making of this blog post.