It's been awhile since I did a post. In fact many of you asked me "Hey Darrell. When are you going to do a new post on the Bistro 164 blog?"
.....ok. actually no one asked me that, and yet I am doing one.
Life has been pretty crazy of late and when life gets like that, it is easy to push aside good eating habits, let alone cooking. I have a love of asian cooking for some reason and I am not really sure where it comes from. Where I grew up, there was only one Chinese restaurant in my town of 6,000. And it is not like they would have cooked anything like this, yet it still made me interested in Asian cuisine.
Now I know the food we have in our local Chinese restaurant is Canadian Chinese and not authentic.. but really, can you say no to a real good sweet and sour chicken ball? Of course you can't. And if you are ever in Guelph, Ontario , you need to go to Super Happy Garden for the best S&S chicken balls, I dare say, anywhere
But I digress.
With the latest issue of Eating Well, this dish caught my eye. It has a lot of flavours I like and it has ground turkey and tofu, which I will admit is an odd combination... but I think it works nicely.
Turkey Ma Po Tofu
From Eating Well magazine August 2013
Makes 4 servings, 1 1/4 cups each
Active time: 30 minutes, Total time: 30 minutes
High in fibre, low in saturated fats
2 tbsps chile-garlic sauce
1 1/2 tbsps black bean-garlic sauce
1 tbsp Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
2 tsps reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 1/4 cups water plus 2 tbsps, divided.
2 tbsps canola oil
1 pound 93% lean ground turkey
8 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced
4 scallions, thinly sliced
1 tsp minced fresh ginger
1 14 to 16 ounce package water-packed soft tofu, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (we used extra-firm tofu and cooked it longer than stated in the recipe)
2 tbsps cornstarch
Whisk chile-garlic sauce, black bean sauce, rice wine (or sherry), soy sauce and 1 1/4 cups water in a small bowl.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add turkey and mushrooms and cook, stirring and breaking up the turkey, until it is no longer pink, 5-8 minutes. Add scallions and ginger and cook, stirring for 1 minute more.
Add the reserved sauce, bring to a boil. Stir in tofu and cook until hot, about 2 minutes. Now this is the cook time from the magazine. I think I did it for about 5 minutes. Combine cornstarch with the remaining 2 tbsp water and add to the pan. Simmer until the sauce is thickened, about 2 minutes.
I served it over Jasmine rice and used clilantro instead of scallions because it was all I had in the fridge. Really, any green thing will do as it is a garnish... except for dill. Dill is just pure evil.
.....ok. actually no one asked me that, and yet I am doing one.
Life has been pretty crazy of late and when life gets like that, it is easy to push aside good eating habits, let alone cooking. I have a love of asian cooking for some reason and I am not really sure where it comes from. Where I grew up, there was only one Chinese restaurant in my town of 6,000. And it is not like they would have cooked anything like this, yet it still made me interested in Asian cuisine.
Now I know the food we have in our local Chinese restaurant is Canadian Chinese and not authentic.. but really, can you say no to a real good sweet and sour chicken ball? Of course you can't. And if you are ever in Guelph, Ontario , you need to go to Super Happy Garden for the best S&S chicken balls, I dare say, anywhere
But I digress.
With the latest issue of Eating Well, this dish caught my eye. It has a lot of flavours I like and it has ground turkey and tofu, which I will admit is an odd combination... but I think it works nicely.
Turkey Ma Po Tofu
From Eating Well magazine August 2013
Makes 4 servings, 1 1/4 cups each
Active time: 30 minutes, Total time: 30 minutes
High in fibre, low in saturated fats
2 tbsps chile-garlic sauce
1 1/2 tbsps black bean-garlic sauce
1 tbsp Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
2 tsps reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 1/4 cups water plus 2 tbsps, divided.
2 tbsps canola oil
1 pound 93% lean ground turkey
8 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced
4 scallions, thinly sliced
1 tsp minced fresh ginger
1 14 to 16 ounce package water-packed soft tofu, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (we used extra-firm tofu and cooked it longer than stated in the recipe)
2 tbsps cornstarch
Whisk chile-garlic sauce, black bean sauce, rice wine (or sherry), soy sauce and 1 1/4 cups water in a small bowl.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add turkey and mushrooms and cook, stirring and breaking up the turkey, until it is no longer pink, 5-8 minutes. Add scallions and ginger and cook, stirring for 1 minute more.
Add the reserved sauce, bring to a boil. Stir in tofu and cook until hot, about 2 minutes. Now this is the cook time from the magazine. I think I did it for about 5 minutes. Combine cornstarch with the remaining 2 tbsp water and add to the pan. Simmer until the sauce is thickened, about 2 minutes.
I served it over Jasmine rice and used clilantro instead of scallions because it was all I had in the fridge. Really, any green thing will do as it is a garnish... except for dill. Dill is just pure evil.
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