So I tried my hand at making preserved lemons today. This is ostensibly because I found lemons for 50% off, and of course I only bought half as many as I needed. I had to run out and get more today as a result. Now I have extras so I suspect that lemon-cranberry muffins will be happening in the near future.
There were other reasons too. One of them being that I’ve been stressed lately and being in the kitchen is a nice way for me to take my brain off of that and focus it on something productive. Deliciousness plus an hour of stress-free living is a pretty good deal! The other was that I’ve been looking for a way to spice up my quinoa. I don’t like quinoa nearly as much as I feel like I should.
Preserved lemons seem like they would be easy (salt! lemons! and a sterile jar) but in actuality I couldn’t figure out how to pack them in there, nor get juice out of them. So I ended up needing about as many lemons as I kept just to juice. It felt like making lemonade.
On the upshot I can open them in a month (given that February is shorter I’ll peg the date at March 1st) and then I’ll know whether this is worth trying again or not. I hope it is. I’ll be sick of winter food by then anyway, and likely need to wait another couple of months before anything fresh has grown.
Of course it was so good that I didn’t get a picture of it. You all know what pad thai looks like, anyway. It does have a few steps, but you could shorten that by buying pre-fried tofu rather than cooking your own. You could also make the sauce a day or two in advance (keep it in a jar in the fridge). If you did that (I didn’t) then this would be the perfect meal to come home to after a long day out and about.
Mine is inspired from the Vegan Black Metal Chef but I really disagree with how much sugar he uses. It took me a few tries to tweak this recipe enough to get it to my liking. If you don’t like metal you can watch the video on mute. He’s got it all subtitled. Here’s what I’m working with:
because hey! Credit where credit is due, and we should always cite our source material. At the very least now you know how to chop garlic and green onions effectively, and how to cook the rice noodles.
The main modifications that I’ve made are broken into two categories – that of tofu, and that of sauce.
So first, tofu.
I don’t like deep frying. I don’t own a deep frier and while I own big enough pots I have a personal philosophy that states that if I need to dress like a fire fighter for my own safety then chances are that I’m not interested. Instead I bake mine because I have a toaster oven. Coat your tofu in (melted) coconut oil and put it in your toaster oven on bake (or bake it in the oven) for a half-hour or so, 350F. It will eventually turn a golden brown and get crispy. I also use smaller cubes – about the size of a D20 if you’re into that type of thing.
The Sauce!
The sauce is the secret to any pad thai. Here’s what went into mine:
3 Tbsp sugar. Dissolve this in a half-cup of warm water. Add
2 Tbsp sambal olek (this is a type of hot sauce. I don’t like Sriracha for this because I’d have to use so damn much of it, and the vinegar comes into play in some unpleasant ways)
3 tsp tamarind sauce (I have tamarind chili sauce – I don’t think it matters). For my next trick I’d like to find tamarind paste.
2-3 tsp cider vinegar. You can also use white vinegar, but maybe keep it to 1-2 tsp. I find it packs more of a punch.
The scrapings of my peanut butter jar. This was around 2-3 Tbsp peanut butter.
3 cloves chopped garlic. I might add four next time.
a generous handful of cilantro
Stir it all up. He’s very correct in that it’ll look somewhat like puke. That’s the texture that you want too – very liquid. You’ll have to add another cup of water to get everything to cook. You can add it now, or if you’re using a bowl that’s a bit too small you can just add it to the pot when you stir it all up.
The Vegetables
I couldn’t find bean sprouts at the store. I used snow peas, thin slices of red pepper, and the green onion. It was perfect. Do whatever makes you happy. Just make sure that they’re cut thinly!
I used coconut oil to cook with because it has a high smoke point and my smoke alarm is sensitive. Also it tastes good. Cook it as he says; when he says to stir a lot just stir continuously and make sure that you get all the way down to the bottom.
Make Stuff / Do Things 