I've always enjoyed making meals for my girlfriend and friends, somehow it relaxes me. This being said, I'm definitely not a chef, but I put a certain amount of effort and creativity in what I cook.
I had tons of ideas for this challenge, but unfortunately, due to work issues (litterally swamped) they all were beyond my reach.
So I opened the fridge and saw the ripe tomatoes, carrots, zucchini and the bean curd and I thought: "Meh, why not!".
I'm not a vegetarian, but I enjoy eating veg food, as well as cooking it.
I have to admit that I started cooking without a precise idea of what to do, then, dunno why, the game Jenga came to my mind.
So I opened a pack of fresh bean curd and voilą.: Bean Curd Tower!
BEAN CURD TOWER
Ingredients (for 2 people)
- 250g fresh bean curd
- 1 spoon/person olive oil
- 3-4 ripe tomatoes
- curry (to taste)
- 1/2 red onion
- 1 medium sized zucchini
- enough ginger to make the small fence around the mayonnaise pond
- 25 to 50g pistachios
- aromatic vinegar OR soy sauce (to taste)
Directions:
1) Wash the tomatoes, then carve out all the seeds and the core and cut them into little pieces (be sure to do that on a soup plate, so that you can gather all the juice that's going to spill out and use that for the sauce).
Finely mince the red onion.
Pour two spoons of olive oil in a large, deep pan (I used a wok, probably the best choice) and let it heat up for a minute, keeping the flame low. As soon as the oil starts to sizzle, add the minced onion and, after a couple of minutes, add the tomatoes. Raise the flame a bit and let it cook for 20 minutes (lid off).
2) While the sauce is cooking, cut the carrots in little strips (you can do it "a la julienne" too) and the zucchini in thin wheels.
When the sauce is around 10 minutes in the cooking, add the carrots and blend them with the tomatoes.
3) When the 20 minutes are over, add the zucchini to the wok. Now lower the flame, put the lid on and let it cook for let's say 10 minutes (it depends on how thin/small your zucchini wheels are). After you put the zucchini, mix them with the other ingredients, then add salt and curry (to taste).
Wait until the 10 minutes are over.
4) While the sauce is cooking, cut the bean curd in sticks. Pour two spoons of olive oil in a pan and let it heat up for a minute, then add the bean curd sticks and let them cook.
They have to brown for 3/4 minutes per side, so be sure you flip them all at the same time (consider only two faces of the stick, not all the 4 sides).
5) After the sauce and the bean curd are done cooking you can start arranging your dish.
Build the tower (or whichever structure fits you the most) first, so you will know how much space it's gonna take in your composition.
Then build the walls, laying down carrot strips. You can also build a sort of little hill on the back of the tower, as I did.
Now take a teaspoon of soy mayonnaise (the one I used is a lime&ginger flavored soy mayonnaise I bought - didn't have enough time AT ALL to make it myself) and place it wherever you like, building a fence made with little ginger sticks around it: now you have your mayo pond!
At this point, all it's left to build is the pistachios gate and, if it pleases you, some other nice details (without overdoing).
Pour the aromatic vinegar or the soy sauce on the tower at the end.
Voilą!
Unfortunately I didn't have the time I needed to display the dish as I wanted, as I had to rush to work right after arranging all the elements, so I took a couple of quick pictures with my 35mm and ran out of the house.
All that effort put in cooking something original and then boom, just a few minutes for shooting! Too bad.
Again, this idea came to my mind as I started cooking, didn't see it anywhere before.
You can do so many nice things with food... it's amazing how good some dishes can look, before you taste them.
Oh and btw, this one tasted pretty good, I ate it for dinner :)
I really REALLY hope you guys are going to enjoy this and please let me know if you'll ever try cooking this recipe, I'd be very curious about the results!
Have a nice week and bņn appetit!
~AL
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I am just looking through the previous challenges. I think the reason for low score is confusing focus. As a photo it just does not work well, sorry, I saw your frustration and I know it very well.
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