Alder-Smoked Peanut-Crusted Bourbon-Marinated Tofu, Roasted Acorn Squash with Maple Syrup and Balsamic Vinegar, Wild Rice

Dinner 11/26

Alder-Smoked Peanut-Crusted Bourbon-Marinated Tofu

Roasted Acorn Squash with Maple Syrup and Balsamic Vinegar

Wild Rice

Our pre-Thanksgiving dinner... and we've run out of hyphens ;)

Here's the Acorn Squash, Carrots & Parsnips with Maple Syrup and Balsamic Vinegar, going in the oven (425F for ~40 minutes, turning once).



The Acorn Squash coming out of the oven...



For assembly: the tofu is smoked in alder wood for 25 minutes, cooled, then vacuum-sealed with a reduced bourbon and smoked salt marinade (1/4 cup of bourbon reduced by half, with a pinch of smoked salt dissolved)...



The tofu was briefly tossed with a 1 tbs. of tamari, then stuffed with a mix of pan-fried dinosaur kale and mushrooms.

Then we used the three pan method for the tofu: roll the tofu in flour (seasoned with salt, pepper and smoked paprika) -> dipped in cornstarch slurry (1:1 ratio of cornstarch/water) -> rolled/pressed in the peanuts (about 1 cup processed in a spice grinder or vita-mix dry container until reduced to small pebbles).

This is what it looked like after the pan-frying (olive oil, about 3-4 minutes per side), but before roasting in the oven to finish cooking (15min @ 350F).



The wild rice was cooked in the pressure cooker -- 1 cup of wild rice, 2.5 cups of water, 1 tbs. tamari, 23 minutes at 7psi (1st ring on the Kuhn-Rikon). To this we pan-fried in 1 tbs., of olive oil a mixture of 1 onion, diced, 1 celery stalk, diced, 1 clove of garlic, minced, salt & pepper to taste.

Tags: tofu, vacuum-sealed, bourbon, acorn squash, balsamic vinegar, parsnips, carrots, wild rice, vegan, food, dinner, tofu666