the little monkey used to help me make granola. it was really sweet, and fun for me because i ended up with granola AND a nice together activity.
today he wanted to "help with the noodles" so i enlisted him to stir up some sesame sauce. he's a pro at holding a measuring spoon, and dumping it out on command (ok, he sometimes jumps the gun, wha-ev).
it did not work. he got frustrated at some point - with a toddler, it could have been a cool breeze on his nose - and had a little spazzz which led him to pick up the sauce. as I watched him do that, I also watched the impulse go out of control and the tahini, rice vinegar, sriracha garlic MESS was all over the kitchen as he threw it to the ground.
i improvised another sauce which turned out great, but that was after i hosed down the rug outside and cleaned a goopy gloppy mess from my cabinet and counter, and had a good talk about when it's ok to throw things and when it's not (throwing shoes in the kitchen, for instance, is on the buzzkill list).
he even helped clean up, once we had calmed down.
So! here's the sauce. dress some noodles with it and eat it cold thank god!
1/4 c tahini
2T soy sauce
2T fish sauce
2T rice vinegar (i used the last of this in the first batch, so i omitted it from the one i actually tasted. i didn't miss it?)
generous dash of powdered ginger. fresh would be good of course.
chopped garlic clove
1T (or less) sriracha
1) i used a bag of brown rice spaghetti instead of the fettuccine Cook's Illustrated suggested, and dressed it with a splash of sesame oil while the noodles cooled.
ooh! here's a tofu lesson!
2) drain the tofu, cut it up, put it in a sandwich of paper towels, and let it get strained for a few minutes (or an hour?) then put it in a pan with hot hot oil and just leave it there for a while. a few minutes or whatever. the recipe said 8-10 minutes, but i think mine cooked for a half hour! who can tell though, when you're going up and down the stairs trying to fold the laundry and lure the kid inside. it took a while. i kept thinking of Julie & Julia, "don't crowd the mushrooms", just leaving it be and trying not to overflip.
omg i got crisp, browned tofu cubes, with creamy delicious interiors, instead of the mess of crappy tofu crumble i used to get before i gave up on the Curd [almost] altogether. (did everyone else know this? how was this information not in my "welcome to Oregon" vegan starter kit???)
3) mix the sauce into the noodles, with a little bit of noodle water (or plain water if you dump the noodle water down the drain)!
4) add in some vegetables, preferably semi-julienned and semi-cooked, and brightly colored because otherwise everything is beige and ew! (garden-picked zucchini, lettuce, and arugula did the trick tonight) the recipe calls for scallions for just this purpose.
on second thought: use greens! it's so much nicer to have a salad with some noodles in it than a bunch of noodles with a rare veggie. ignore this note if you're taking it to a party, greens don't keep.
Enjoy with white wine and later a bunch of cookies. <3 r
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