Tea-Smoked Tofu Curry with Rice Balls and Shiso Leaves, Tempura Shiso Leaves, Okra & Onion Rings, Baby Bok Choy

Dinner 9/13

Tea-Smoked Tofu Curry with Rice Balls and Shiso Leaves

Tempura Shiso Leaves, Okra & Onion Rings

Baby Bok Choy

The (oolong) tea-smoked tofu curry and rice balls is one of our favorite meals, with lots of visual interest and a kick-ass spice level that'll be sure to cure what ails you... ;)

The block of firm-tofu was portioned into 16 squares, and smoked (in the stove-top smoker) with the black oolong tea for 20 minutes. Then the tofu was stir-fried in the wok with a little splash of tamari at the end.

The rice balls work better if they're made from fresh rice. They only need a minute in the 375F (canola/peanut) oil to be crispy on the outside, while remaining soft on the inside.

The green curry sauce is roughly a 1/2 can of coconut milk, 1 tsp. green curry paste, 1 tbs. lime juice, 1 tbs. tamari mixed together and cooked in a sauce pan until slightly thickened.



We went ahead and tried that idea of taking Okra and scraping out the seeds (tip: use a melon baller) and stuffing them with soy cream cheese, smoked paprika, shallot & pepper. We then sealed the two halves together and dipped them in our tempura batter. Worked like a charm...



For more tempura fun we took a couple of shiso leaves and dipped them in the tempura batter as well -- surprisingly good.

Tags: shiso, tofu, tea, curry, bok choy, okra, tempura, vegan, food, dinner, tofu666