Masu Sushi & Robata - sushi, drinks, appetizer

Masu Sushi & Robata has made several "best-of" lists since it opened a few years ago. I finally made it out to the NE Mpls location (they have opened a second location at the Mall of America).

Masu is great! They have a separate vegetarian/vegan menu as well as a gluten-free menu.

For an appetizer, I had some vegetable tempura. Delicious! A good mix of squash, eggplant, and other veggies:



Also had a great vegetable sushi roll. I think this was called a firecracker? Had some veggies rolled up with rice and nori, then coated in crushed wasabi peas and some sriracha/hot sauce over the top. Awesome:



I also had a delicious drink and brought home a caterpillar roll (vegan-style) for Mr. Coconut.

Curry Chickpea Stuffed Squash [Vegan Mofo]

Welcome to Day 5 of Vegan Month of Food!!!!

I made this two nights ago. I've always wanted to do a stuffed squash type of dish and now I have! The two types of squash I used: acorn and delicata. I must say that after this experience I am a huge fan of delicata squash. Light, very sweet, cooks up fast and gets nice and caramelized while roasting due to the high sugar content. I sliced both of the squash in half, scooped out the seeds, and lightly rubbed olive oil all over them. Then I placed insides facing-down on a pan (does that makes sense?)and roasted for 25-45 minutes around 350 degrees F. I flipped the delicata squash every 10-15 minutes, it was done way faster than the acorn squash.

The stuffing/filling: I sauteed some thinly sliced onions and added chickpeas & curry powder. Next was some cabbage, beet greens, then wild rice and brown rice and veggie broth. I added garlic near the end along with some fresh parsley. Then I scooped into the cooked squash halves.

While all of this was cooking, I also was roasting up some beets, both regular beets and beautiful Chiogga Beets. Sliced up and served on the side of the stuffed squash.

The squash, parsley, beets, beet greens, cabbage and onion were all from the CSA.

The Phyllo Experiment

This is the result of my experiment with phyllo. I've never worked with it before, and don't know if I want to again! I've always read that it's quite labor intensive, and that is an understatement. I was also ill-equipped and low on counter space, which made it really tough. I had no pastry brush (where did mine go?!?!) and no plastic wrap. I was able to piece together a decent set up to prevent drying out, but it was still quite the chore.

I made two fillings: one with Morningstar Chik'n Strips diced up into a blended mixture of spinach, canned artichoke hearts, squash and garlic. The other was a more simple filling of just vegan pesto and the Chik'n. I liked the artichoke filling better, but overall bother were rather "meh." I was going to incorporate vegan cream cheese but the container in my fridge was growing...something. I decided it was best to throw it away and make up a different filling.

Another shot:



Next time I'd like to try something more all in one dish, so I don't have the hard layering and folding, just layering in one baking dish. Something such as baklava or I was thinking maybe vegan cream cheese with medjool dates and nuts and shredded coconut? We'll see, I've still got another roll of phyllo in the freezer.

Ginger-Orange Baked Tofu with Garlic Greens and Squash

This was one of the best dishes EVER.

Total credit for the marinade to The Post Punk Kitchen, though I did tweak it a bit.

* note: since The Post Punk Kitchen changed layouts, all the old recipes are not available (yet). I'll update the link when the changes occur.

(My Changes are in Bold)

Equipment:
9 x 13 baking dish
bowl

Ingredients
1 pound extra firm tofu, drained and pressed

Marinade
2 tablespoons grated ginger
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest
1/4 cup orange juice (fresh is preferred, you can use the juice of the orange that you zest)
1/4 cup dry white wine I Used Champagne Instead
1/4 cup pure maple syrup I Used Agave Nectar Instead
4 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons veg oil


Directions
Preheat oven to 375 F.

Combine all ingredient for the marinade in a small bowl and wisk vigorously.

Cut the tofu into 8 slice crosswise. Pour 1/2 marinade into the baking dish and dredge tofu slices. Pour the other half of marinade over the tofu. Let sit 10 minutes.

Cover baking dish with aluminum foil. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from over and flip pieces over. Cook 15 more minutes uncovered. To give the tofu more chewiness, place in the broiler for 2 minutes on each side.
My baking was a bit screwy because I used a ceramic cooking pan, so it took a little longer. I ended up baking until the marinade was very thick and became more of a glaze.

For the Greens:
I cleaned a lot of collards, then chopped them up to smaller bite size. (Take out the hard center part.)

I crushed 2-3 cloves of garlic and 2-3 shakes of red pepper flakes in a pan with 1T of olive oil, then put the greens in until just wilted.

For the Squash:

I had a nice winter squash, which I sliced in half, then spooned out the seeds. I placed both halves face down in a glass casserole pan which I put some water in (1/2 inch?) and covered the top with foil. I baked for 20 minutes until tender, scraped out the flesh and served with vegan butter.

Ok, this was AWESOME. The sweetness of the squash and the tofu balanced really well with the bitter garlicky greens. Awesome. Tasty as hell.

Photo 2:

Italian Baked Tofu with Pesto Rotini and Sautéed Pattypan Squash

Whew! I need a better title for this dish. This was dinner. Very good. My first time with baked tofu! So very easy and tasty, I am excited to improve and expand on baked tofu.

I apologize for the slightly blurry photo, I'm trying my best to improve my photography skills. This one's a little better:



I'm too tired to put up all the directions and such right now, but I'll do it sometime tonight or tomorrow.

As Promised...

What You Need:
1 Block of Tofu (I used 16 out of 20oz of this jumbo sized tofu. Most water packed tofu blocks come in 16oz slabs.)
Pasta, any type
Pattypan Squash (I had nearly 500g worth)

Marinade:
Equal Parts of...
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
lemon juice
--> I believe I used about 3-4 T of each, mixed in a bowl.

2-3 Garlic cloves, crushed

Good pinch of...
Dry Italian Seasonings (I wound up using "poultry seasoning" because it was thyme, sage, rosemary, etc.)

Directions:
Put all ingredients in a bowl, whisk with fork, pour over tofu/veggies/whatever you are marinating.


Pesto:
Really Bad With Measurements on this one....
Basil Leaves (1-2c?)
Garlic (I used WAY too much, and that's saying something coming from me, so I'd say 1 big clove)
Pine Nuts (I believe I used about half a cup or more
Olive oil (1/4c?)
Salt, To Taste
OPTIONAL: Parma! Vegan Parm, really tasty addition. (Really, Really addictive stuff.)

---> Pesto Directions:
In food processor (Or The Magic Bullet!, blend all ingredients together. The result should be thick, like a paste rather than a thin sauce.


Ok. For the Baked Tofu:
1. Cut into an equal number of slabs. I got 6.
2. Lay tofu in a single layer on a flat surface like a small cooking sheet or, like me,In a big pot.
3. Pour marinade over tofu.
4. Flip after 30-40 mins to get other side of tofu marinated.
5. Preheat oven to 375-400 degrees F, depending on your oven.
6. Lay slabs out on cooking sheet,Like This. NOTE: save the marinade! Use it for the veggies!
7. Bake tofu on one side for about 20 minutes, then flip to brown other side slightly. I over didmine, but it was still tasty.
8. Remove from oven, cube or slice as desired.

For the Pattypans:
1. Slice/chop/cube/whatever 450-500g of pattypans
2. Over medium heat in a very lightly oiled pan, sautée patty pans for 2-3 mins
3. add some of the marinade (1/4c? I didn't measure, just poured some in)
4. Sautée for another 5-7 mins, until desired tenderness. Add more marinade if needed. The balsamic vinegar sort of becomes a glaze.
5. Finished! Serves 2-4.



So, yeah. The way I put everything together was to make the pesto while the tofu was marinating and prepped the veggies and had the pasta ready to go. Once tofu was in oven, I boiled some water and sautéed the pattypans for the last 10 minutes of the tofu cooking. Everything was done at about the same time.

I'm really, REALLY excited to try baked tofu again. I'm thinking of doing a more asian-flavored baked tofu next time.