Chipotle!

No, not the burrito chain that used to be majority owned by McDonald's. Though yesterday I was thinking about Chipotle as I was eating a mediocre burrito at Moe's Southwest Grill, since I actually would have preferred Chipotle. At Moe's they nickel and dime you for things like guacamole, resulting in your burrito costing almost $7, while at Chipotle guac is included with the vegetarian fajita burrito.

Okay, no, really: fast food burrito chains really aren't what this post is about. Rather, it's about the chipotle painted tofu I made from my recently purchased 1,000 Vegan Recipes by Robin Robertson . (Incidentally, a more interesting blog about the book called Cooking From 1,000 Vegan Recipes is available here, where six cooks are chugging their way through the recipes, with nice food porn pics to go with it.

I made the Chipotle-Painted Baked Tofu on page 288, and it was pretty delicious. I won't give the recipe, as I actually like the book enough that I think you should go out and buy it (or check it out from the library) but it basically involves making a sauce of chipotle, soy sauce, and oil, "painting" the tofu, and baking it. I did bake it on both sides, and applied more of the sauce than the recipe called for, both of which I'm happy about. When I make this again, I'd use an additional chipotle, or find two really big ones.

Enough of the blah blah blah, and on to the images:

Relax, little tofu: you'll be saved from your blandness soon enough!

The book has the helpful hint on what to do with the rest of those chipotles: wrap them up in portioned sizes, and freeze them for future use. A excellent idea, 'cause an entire can of chipotles in adobo will knock your damn block off, and most recipes call for just one or two chilis.

Here is the chiptole "paint" in the food processor. It's kinda swampy and not real attractive looking, but my picture of it isn't real good.

Here is the tofu mid-bake. The four on the right have been turned over and re-painted, while the four on the right have not yet been turned.

Since no good recipe is complete with ONIONS!, I set the extra onions from my veggie stock prep to carmelizing.

Here is the final product, ready to assemble:

And here is the plated product, on a chili-lime tortilla with carmelized onions. It was delicious, and has me pretty excited about making more recipes in the book. Speaking of which, I also made roasted vegetable stock using the book, so another post is coming up quick.