Tofu?! Yes, you can.

Whilst my noodles are soaking in hot water, and the rest of my prep is just waiting for me to heat up the stove and start cooking, I thought I'd update what I'm making today! It's really nice because it involves tofu. Most people I know fall into either of two categories. The first kind of people are not vegetarians themselves, so would never dream of cooking with tofu. But one of these days, they're going to have to cook for a friend or family member who is vegetarian, in which case they're going to serve a delicious 'tofu crumbled through tomato sauce served with spaghetti'. You know, because tofu is just like meat, only squishier. Yuk. The second group are vegetarians, who think tofu might be nice to add to a dish but feel a bit timid when they have to face one of those big blocks of processed white stuff, so rather opt for stuff made from tofu. Like smaller blocks. Today, I am going for a third option: I, a non-vegetarian, will face the processed block, and transform it! Make it delicious! It will be magical.

Ingredients
3 tablespoons of sambal (or, alternatively, of ground up whole medium hot chilis)
Enough oil to cover about a quarter inch of your wok
1 scary-looking block of tofu

Make sure the tofu is at least a little dry. You can do this by folding it into a clean tea towel and putting a brick on top of it (or just squeezing gently yourself), or you can do it with kitchen towels if you prefer. I squeezed the tofu, and I am proud of it.

Slice the tofu into finger-sized pieces, about a quart inch high. Heat up the oil in your wok, add the sambal and stir until you have a chili-flavoured oil with little chili seeds floating in it. Watch out for the hot oil! Now add the first batch of the tofu pieces, just so many as will cover the bottom of your pan with a little room to flip them over later. After about 5 minutes (depending on how hot your oil is!), the bottom of the tofu will be crispy and chilicious, so you can flip the tofu. Wait another 5 minutes or until the rest is crisp and transfer this batch onto a plate lined with kitchen towels. That way, you'll drain the oil. Now do the next batch, until you end up with the tofu in the photo!

Hurray, you've conquered the tofu! Make a stir fry with this, some bok choi, water chestnuts, ginger, coriander, garlic, sesame seeds, soy sauce and noodles - it will be delicious.

A decent curry

I've just come back to the UK after a long holiday. I've also moved into a new studio, with (finally!!) a a proper kitchen that has room for all of my cooking equipment, the different kinds of flour I have, all the herbs and spices, and (most importantly) I can now give my pestle and mortar a prominent in-view spot on the kitchen counter. So what else could I cook, in my very own new kitchen, than a curry? This one's simple, but you make it from scratch so it feels pretty impressive.

My curry when it just started to boil

Ingredients
A 2-inch piece of fresh root ginger
2 cloves of garlic
2 tsp dried cumin
1 tsp dried coriander
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 tsp of tomato puree
A small bunch of fresh coriander
2 tomatoes
200 grams of chickpeas
2 tsp oil (neutral in taste)

Peel and roughly chop the garlic and ginger. Roughly chop the fresh coriander, stalks included. Put the garlic, ginger, fresh coriander, spices, tomato puree and oil in the mortar and crush everything with the pestle until you get a fine paste. The leaves of the coriander will probably just wilt, don't worry if they still show as little green specks in your paste. Heat a frying pan on medium heat, put in the curry paste you've just made, add the chickpeas and about 200 ml of water. Slice the tomatoes into quarters and add this to the curry. Bring to the boil and wait until the water has evaporated and you're left with tender chickpeas. The tomatoes will break down, so you can pick out the skin of the tomato before eating. Serve in a bowl with rice or naan bread, or just eat as-is, enjoying your new kitchen :-)