Tofu & veggie stirfry in orange sauce

Yes, I'm still on my Asian food kick. And so you can imagine my delight at coming upon the "noodlemania" feature in the most recent issue of Vegetarian Times (April/May 2011), which offers recipes for 5 Asian noodle dishes to "rev up weeknight meals." It's like this magazine always knows what I'm craving.

I took one look at the main dish - a bowl of broccoli, browned cubes of tofu, and flat noodles - and decided I needed it. But instead of going with their Thai-inspired coconut sauce, I opted for an orange sauce I saw over at vegalicious. I'm always intrigued when sauces incorporate fruit; maybe because it's slightly out of my comfort zone, both in taste preference and culinary know-how. But when it's done right, it's a nice change from the familiar, and this orange sauce looked basic enough to not mess up.

Roasted Cauliflower with Cherry Vinaigrette

When I think of cauliflower, I picture their hard white florets on a customary Crudité platter, right alongside the dehydrated carrot sticks and stringy celery. To me, cauliflower was always broccoli's slighted cousin, bearing resemblance in shape but falling short of its taste, nutritional benefits, and appearance. And while I empathize with my pale pigmented brethren, I can't help but think a uniformly white vegetable is just a bit suspect.

Yet recent experiences have made me reconsider. I've grown addicted to the roasted cauliflower sandwich at Num Pang Sandwich Shop, a tiny, bustling establishment just south of Union Square that defies cauliflower's natural state by roasting it into a creamy mash. It's paired with Chinese & Thai eggplant spread and served, like all of the sandwiches, on freshly baked semolina baguettes from Parisi Bakery with pickled carrots, cilantro, cucumbers, and homemade chile-mayo. Oh lord, I need one of those sandwiches now. 

Simple Veggie Stir fry

I've been on a big Asian food kick lately; I'll have to recount some of my adventures in crispy spring rolls, Vietnamese sandwiches, and savory noodle dishes in another post. But, much as I love treating my palate to restaurant-prepared dishes, what I'd really love is to be able to make my dish last long enough to pick it apart; to identify ingredients and spices and ponder how I might prepare the meal in my own kitchen. While I don't believe I possess the necessary devotion or skill to recreate these meals, I'd like to be able to whip up a version that satisfies me just the same.

So I decided to start with the one of the very few Asian dish in my repertoire: a vegetable stir fry. Now, my typical "stir fry" dish involves a bag of frozen mixed vegetables, soy sauce, crushed garlic, and white rice; so it wouldn't take much to step up my game.  But, after a little experimentation and research, I found that a few subtle changes can make all the difference.