Spicy Tofu & Buckwheat (v0.1)

This one is inspired by Disco Beans, possibly the best Japanese cafe I've been to. Seriously, instead of reading my blog you should be going to Disco Beans. It's great. Nonetheless, they have recently added this delicious tofu and buckwheat thing, and I wanted to have a crack at making something similar. I have a feeling that the buckwheat they use is toasted, and I used green. But that's okay.

I should also point a thanks to this informative website about how to cook buckwheat the Russian way.

Ingredients

2 cups of buckwheat

6 cups of water

~350 grams of firm tofu

spring onions

margarine (Nuttalex is good!)

olive oil

Marinade/Sauce

1 long red chilli

2 long green chillis

1 whole tomato

3 cloves of garlic

1 inch chunk of ginger (skin on)

1-2 tsp Vincent's (not me...) vegan fish sauce

2 tsp vegan shrimp paste (yes, such a thing exists)

Method

1. Prepare marinade by putting it all in a blender and puree-ing-ish.

2. Toss chopped tofu through marinade and let sit for a couple of hours.

3. Boil water in a large pot, once boiling add buckwheat, wait until it boils again then reduce to a low heat and cook for about 10-15 minutes. Cover with a heavy lid and remove from heat for a further 10-15 minutes.

4. Fold a tbsp of margarine through the buckwheat.

5. Heat oil in a pan, add tofu and most of the marinade and fry until fragrant.

6. Transfer buckwheat to a serving dish, fold the tofu and leftover marinade through the buckwheat.

7. Chop three spring onions over the buckwheat and tofu, then serve.

Pictured here with my rice balls.

Experimental, Japanese-inspired buckwheat and chilli tofu with riceballs. #vegan #goodluck

A photo posted by Vin G (@vinpous) on Jul 27, 2015 at 1:59am PDT

Rice Balls (v0.1)

Rice Balls

In my spare time, I have been re-watching the Rurouni Kenshin TV series, which is seriously endearing viewing if you're into Anime. A commonly eaten food in the series is the humble rice ball, which, for animated food looks really damn good. I thought I'd attempt to make some.

I must give my thanks to the 3 hungry tummies blog, for providing some insight into how to make them.

http://3hungrytummies.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/onigiri-japanese-rice-balls.html (warning: recipe is not vegan, mine is!)

Served here with spicy tofu and buckwheat.

Experimental, Japanese-inspired buckwheat and chilli tofu with riceballs. #vegan #goodluck

A photo posted by Vin G (@vinpous) on Jul 27, 2015 at 1:59am PDT

Ingredients (rice ball)

2 cups of whole grain basmati rice
~ 1.2 litres of boiling water
2 tbsp white miso paste
Nori

Ingredients (fillings)

(set 1)

7 mushrooms

2 long red chilli

1 cloves garlic

---

(set 2)

half avocado, cubed

Japanese pickled ginger

Japanese pickled daikon

Method

1. prepare filling set 1 by putting ingredients in a blender and blending to a course coleslaw texture. Place in dish for later

2. place filling set 2 in a separate dish for later

3. Combine until dissolved the miso paste and the water.

4. In a rice cooker or whatever, cook the basmati rice with 3:2 ratio miso water (6 cups of water to the  2 cups of rice). Keep warm.

5. Once cooked, lay the rice on a flat surface near the fillings, make a small bed of rice, add about 1-2tsp of filling (depending on the size of ball you want), cover with rice, then using your hands shape into a ball being sure to compact it as much as possible.

6. Repeat until you have all the balls you want

7. Cut nori into strips and place ball in it. You could make this like a sushi roll if you wanted.