Take Over the World w/ Tofu

So I cannot stop raving about this recipe. My friend Christopher passed it along to me from the Post Punk Kitchen.

Tofu Basil Ricotta

prep time: 10 minutes | cooking time: none | makes About 2 cups
Use as a filling for stuffed shells, mixed with tomato sauce in pasta or as a topping for pizza. By popular demand I edited this to say that you should press the tofu before preparing.

Equipment:
Tireless hands, a bowl

Ingredients
1 pound firm tofu, pressed
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
handful fresh basil leaves, chopped fine (ten leaves or so)
salt
dash fresh black pepper

Directions
In a large bowl, mush the tofu up with your hands, till it's crumbly.

Add lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper and basil. Mush with hands again, this time you want it to get very mushy so squeeze through your fingers and mush until it reaches the consistency of ricotta cheese. May take 2-5 minutes.

Add olive oil, stir with fork. Add nutritional yeast and combine all ingredients well. Use a fork now, because the oil will make it sticky. Cover and refigerate until ready to use.

Direct link: http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=5

I made this up last night and added some zuchinni, mushrooms, and spinach. Then I used the filling for some lasagna using out of the jar sauce and no-boil noodles.

I baked everything for 45 minutes at 375, and then let it sit overnight. It cut very nicely, holds together very well, and was an excellent lunch today. It is vegan, but you could easily add some TVP crumbles to give it more texture. I've learned that the "meat" crumbles are especially good in pasta/sauce dishes - I can hardly tell the difference - then again I'm a little more forgiving that other people I know!

France takes on the world... well, New Zealand, South Africa, and California at least

Last night I hosted a gathering for the Cleveland French Language Meet-up group at my apartment. The purpose of the meeting was to hold a wine tasting comparing French (old world) wines to some of their New World (anywhere but Europe) equivalents.

 

I chose three varietals - Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir - and found some good couplings with the help of Maggie @ Whole Foods. Here's what we tasted:

 

Sauvignon Blanc

• Domaine Guy Allion – Le Haut Perron Sauvignon Blanc – Touraine, Val de Loire (2007)
• Giesen Sauvignon Blanc – Marlborough, New Zealand (2007)

Chardonnay

• Cave de Lugny Chardonnay - Mâcon-Villages (2006)
• Ondine Chardonnay – South Africa (2004)

Pinot Noir

• Domaine Michel-Andreotti Pinot Noir – Côte Chalonnaise, Bourgogne (2006)
• Parducci Pinot Noir – Mendocino Valley, California (2006)

We also had two other wines - a starter of Brut Spumante from Italy and then finishing with cheesecake served next to a Muscat from Samos, Greece (which was part of last monht's Counter Culture event at WF).

 

There were 10 of us there including myself and a friend, Angela, from my WSET course. She doesn't speak French, so I think she might have been a little uncomfortable at first, but as we moved through the tasting I think everyone relaxed a little and she was fine.

 

I poured everything (except the Spumante and Muscat) blind, placing them in paper bags. Evreyone got some information and then a little "score card" to indicate which of the two wines they preferred and to take guesses at whether each was old or new world, and what the varietal was. At the end we tallied everything up, and the person with the most correct answers received a bottle of Root:1 Cabernet Sauvignon, a really tasty Cab from Chile.

 

With the counts completed for everyone's preferred wines, the French wines took first place resoundingly. Of the three new world choices there were a few votes for the Chard and the Pinot, but everyone agreed to liking the French SB much better than the NZ one.

 

This provided an interesting juxtaposition to an evening earlier this week when I went out with the people from the Cleveland Wine School. We got to see a screening of Bottle Shock, a movie chronicaling the events leading up to the famous 1976 Judgement of Paris. This was a blind tasting arranged by an Englishman living in France to try and expand his business in wine, and putting California wines  up against the likes of some of the best from France. Surprisingly - especially to the French, who comprised the entire tasting panel - the top wines amidst the Cabernet Sauvignons and Chardonnays sampled were from California! Starring Alan Rickman and Bill Pullman, the film was enjoyable and very well made - my favorite parts being some of the beautiful shots of the California landscape.

 

So, I've had a good week, and am excited to host future wine tastings for our French Language group. I'm even considering starting a weekly wine tasting group on Meet-up, but have to put a little more thought into it and see if there's any other interest.

 

I encourage everyone to go out and grab a bottle of wine you've never tried before - or better yet, find a knowledgeable staff member wherever you like to buy wine, tell them what you enjoy, and ask them to point you to something different that you might also like.

 

Cheers!