Saturday, May 13, 2006

Tofu for a romantic dinner, plus links

Even if you don't do Recipe Saturday, scroll past the recipe for the links!

Crescent Dragonwagon's big ol' Passionate Vegetarian cookbook is my forever favorite, and I'm always returning to it. This isn't in it, but it's on her
website. I made it for us for Valentine's Day this year. It's not so long ago that the idea of making something with tofu for part of a romantic dinner would have been laughable to me. I also love the chocolate-orange version. So so easy, so so GOOD!

It can be veganized if you choose your chocolate carefully!

Chocolate-Raspberry Dream Mousse

Ingredients:
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, cut up
2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, cut up
2 tablespoons raw (untoasted) cashew butter*
2 10.5 ounce packages silken tofu, firm or extra-firm **
2/3 cup sugar, preferably an organic/ less-refined sugar such as Rapadura,
Sucanat or turbinado, available in natural foods supermarkets
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 to 3 tablespoons Chambord (raspberry liqueur)
1 to 2 pints fresh red raspberries

Directions:
1. Prepare the mousse. Melt cut-up chocolates over hot water. As chocolate
melts, place cashew butter in the processor. Add the silken tofu and sugar, and
buzz smooth, stopping to scrape sides. Add melted chocolate, unsweetened cocoa,
and Chambord. Buzz again, processing until all is very smooth. Scrape down sides
a few times as necessary.
2. Divide mousse among your prettiest individual parfait dishes (preferably
glass, and footed). Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to two days in
advance. Just before serving, top with fresh raspberries.

Important ingredient notes:
* Don't substitute the more full-flavored nutty roasted cashew butter for the
raw called for. Its mild buttery note is rich and non-assertive, non-cashew-y.
You won't taste it as such, you'll only experience the voluptuousness it
imparts. This richness allows the chocolate and raspberry flavors to shine
without distraction.
* * Also, use the specific variety of tofu called for. Only "silken" will give
you the dreamy, creamy texture wanted here, not conventional water-packed tofu.
The shaggy texture of the latter is suited to stir-fries and the like, not
spreads, mousses, and dishes where smoothness is required. The kind of tofu you
want here is always labeled "silken." If it's not so labeled, don't get it for
this.
The most widely available brand of silken tofu in America is Mori-nu, and it's
sold ascetically packaged, un-refrigerated. (Sometimes supermarkets mistakenly
refrigerate it, however, it doesn't need to be, though other types of tofu do).

Now, for the links:

Remember that photograph of my beloved Sinead that I was upset about? She sic'ed her lawyers on the websites that interpreted it...um, the way I and many other fans did. Obviously she'd just enjoyed much too much kung pao and Yuengling at one of our many fine Chinese restaurants, obviously. :-) I love the Smoking Gun.

Working Assets swears it won't turn over customers' call records to the government unless it's forced. I like the idea of switching over, a LOT.

How to get a word into the dictionary. "Concept" *should* be a verb, damn it!

The Pope says gay love is "weak". Sounds like an expert to me--someone who is supposed to be celibate and hasn't had a relationship for many years!

And finally, Mark Twain wrote about Hawaii! I didn't know about this stuff.

6 comments:

alan said...

For Christmas I ordered some chocolate raspberry candy bsrs from Alaska for my wife; I never dreamed how wonderful they would be.

I guess I'll be trying tofu for the first time!

:o)

alan

sttropezbutler said...

I've tried tofu Alan and I've yet to get it. Silken or not!

But I do get you Cracker and hope you have a fab week!

STB

dondon009 said...

The pope thinking gay love is weak is like the pope thinking "what pedophelia"?

I am so over the hypocrisy within the Catholic church!

Jon-Marc McDonald said...

Loved the links, and will try the recipe

Aaron said...

If you're not a Veggie you should try Mapo Tofu. Or I'm sure there's like Sork or some other ground pork alternative you can try if you can't stomach the pig killing. That dish is a great use of Tofu's sponge-like properties and goes well served over sticky rice. Mmmmmm.....

Dr. Deb said...

I don't mind Tofu. I can make it taste pretty good if I marinate it and grill it. Yum!