Taco Tuesday: Gochujang tofu, peanut slaw and grilled miso eggplant

This week for Taco Tuseday I am going to take a culinary journey to the far east in the gochujang laden land of Korea. This taco is vegan and also gluten free. Gochujang is a sweet and spicy fermented red chili paste. You can make it yourself, but you wont have bad results if you use store bought. I like to use Annie Chung's gochujang, and it says on the bottle it really "good on everything". This is a vegan taco, but if you had not known before hand you probably would think the tofu was egg and the eggplant was steak( yes its that good). The only thing you want to do ahead of time is deal with the eggplant. Soaking salted eggplant is essential for having tasty eggplant. If you do this over a bowl you will notice that a brown liquid comes out, this is a bitter liquid (if you don't believe me try some of the juice and you will be salting and soaking your eggplant in the future). They can be soaked for at least on hour, then hit them with your marinade overnight for some serious umami joy. 

Ingredients:

1 block extra firm tofu

1 package Tortillas

1 cup chopped scallion

1 medium eggplant

1 cucumber

2 carrot

2 limes

4 tbsp gochujang (korean hot pepper paste)

4 tbsp peanut butter

2 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp rice vinegar

2 tbsp dark miso paste

sesame seed fo garnish

Instructions:

First thing your going to do is ready your eggplant. Do the soak and marinade involved --  with this it would be best to start the night before or in a bind 4-5 before hand. Slice your eggplant into 1/2 circles. Put on a wire rack over the sink or big pot, and salt both sides, coating thoroughly. Let salt draw the bitter juices out of eggplant, rinse salt off put in bowl one hour later. Then mix dark miso with 1/2 cup water, mix well. Coat eggplant in miso mixture, cover and let marinate overnight. If you dont have time due, note that the longer the marinade the better the flavor.

Cut your cucumber and carrot in a matchstick fashion, and put in mixing bowl. Add in 1/2 chopped scallion to bowl. Add 2 tbsp sesame oil, 4tbsp peanut butter, 1tbsp soy sauce, 2tbsp rice vinegar into bowl. Mix vegetables and dressing well. Cover and let sit in fridge to develop flavor.

Heat up large dutch oven or skillet with 1-2 tbsp of sesame oil. When pan starts smoking, start crumbling in your tofu. Crumble by squeezing pieces of the tofu between your hands -- squeeze vigorously.  Let your tofu start brown, stirring occasionally. When tofu has gotten a nice brown, add in a mixture of 3tbsp gochujang to 1/2 cup water. Also add in 1/2 cup chopped scallions.Let cook down for 2-3 minutes, equally coating all tofu in gochujang sauce.

Heat up your Tortillas in pan -- medium hot pan, couple minutes on each side. Set aside

While tofu is cooking heat up a grill pan (if you dont have a grill pan you can use a skillet). Put marinated eggplant on grill pan, cookin 2-3 minutes per side. Make sure your eggplant has good char marks on them if using a grill pan. Take off heat, cut into strips and put aside.

You are now ready to assemble your taco. Start first layer of taco with tofu gochujang mixture. Then lay out strips of eggplant. Top with peanut slaw, sesame seeds and dollop of gouchujang sauce for extra spicy and flavor. Serve with slice of lime. 

Nosh Hard. Nosh Burlington.

Weekly Nosh: Slider Trio

Feeds 3 for hearty dinner.

Nosh Burlington has been on a bit of a hiatus -- but rest assured NB is coming back better then ever. 

To start things off with a bang I'm putting up my slider trio recipe. This recipe comes from my love of tapas and smaller bites. I've found that when eating a burger, as tasty as it may be, I find myself getting bored of it before I'm done. The idea of 3 smaller sliders making up a dinner plate excites my palate in a way that a single burger just can't do. 

At first this recipe might seem intimidating, but with a little practice it can be whipped up in under an hour. The hardest part is getting your falafel to the right consistency. The easy fix for this possible roadblock is to do a test batch. I test batch all my burgers before doing the final product. With the turkey and beef simply grill up a small patty -- and if it tastes good, you're set. If it is lacking, spice it up and try again. The same goes for the chickpea, make a small patty and fry it up. Keep in mind the burger patty element is meant to stand out for its own flavor and the topping is there to help compliment it. Don't over spice your patties (every time you over-spice a patty a baby seal gets clubbed).

Burgers:

Beef

1 pound ground beef

1/2 tbsp garlic salt
s+p to taste

Turkey

1 pound ground turkey

1/4 cup fresh chopped sage

s+p to taste

   











Chickpea

1 can chickpeas, smushed

1/2 cup chopped parsley

1/4 cup garlic

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 large egg

1/2 cup panko

2 tbsp cumin

1tbsp coriander

s+p to taste

                                                                     

Sauces:

Cranberry Crema

1 cup fresh cranberries

1/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup greek yogurt

1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar

Harrissa Feta Spread

1/2 cup feta

1/2 cup greek yogurt 

1tbsp harissa

1 tbsp lemon juice

Stuffing
1 onion
2 carrots
3 stalks celary
1/2 cup beer
2 tbsp butter
1/2 tbsp dry sage
s+p to taste

Toppings:

1 cucumber

1 pickle

1/2 cup roasted red peppers

1 onion

1/4 cup bourbon
1/2 package duck bacon

Instructions: Preheat oven to 350
First thing your going to do is mix up your burger's. Mix your beef, turkey and chickpea burgers according to the ingredient list. After all of your burger mixes are done, do a test batch of each. Spice accordingly, and once you have a good mix of all three cover and put aside ( in the fridge if your going to be awhile).

Rough chop your onion, carrots and celery for your stuffing. For this small batch of stuffing I used a bread pan, but any similar sized vessel will do. Load your vegetables, beer, butter and seasonings in your pan and bake for 20 minutes or until crispy on the outside but tender on the inside.

When you put your stuffing in take your onion and slice it into long strips and put in a pan on low with a little oil (use a neutral oil such as canola or vegetable). Caramelizing onions is a timely process and will take at least a half an hour, so be sure to keep it on low heat and stir frequently. When your onions are getting a nice brown hit them with the bourbon (be sure to taste your bourbon a few times too make sure it has not gone bad) and stir for 2-3 minutes then take off heat.

While your onion is caramelizing down put your cranberries in a pan, just covering with water and bring to a boil. Once your berries are boiling turn down to a simmer. Cook berries down for 5-10 minutes until they start to break down. Once broken down take off heat and add sugar, yogurt, orange juice and lemon juice. Blend up your cranberry sauce with whatever blender you have. Cover and let chill in refrigerator.

Mix your harissa, feta, lemon juice and yogurt cover and let chill.

Put duck bacon on to cook (I cook my duck bacon and then cook the beef in the rendered duck fat).

At this point you should be ready to make your burgers. Form patties and cook your turkey and beef patties. Beef should be cooked to a medium rare (or however you like your beef) and turkey to a well done. Form and fry your chickpea burgers. While the patties are cookin lay out your pickles, cucumber slices, roasted red peppers, bourbon onions and sauces. Lay out your platter.

Nosh Hard, Nosh Burlington.