We have tofu. We have mango. We have curry.

Continuing on the “recipe” theme from the last post, here’s a review of another recipe.  This one is called “Tofu and Mango Curry” and comes from my friend @dharmaloser.  I’m not going to reproduce the recipe, you can find it for yourself here. But, I found myself looking at the recipe last week and noticing that I had all the ingredients in the house already. Well, all except the edamame. Hadn’t actually heard of that before, so Ellen and I looked it up. Wondered if we could substitute green beans (@dharmaloser said yes, but might need to cook it longer).  When Ellen came home from the grocery Friday night, she had a bag of edamame. Who knew? (Oh, yeah, we didn’t have lemongrass either.)

Saturday afternoon we set about making this dish.  It went together pretty easily once I had prepped the ingredients, and it smelled wonderful, although I think I overcooked the shallots/ginger/garlic. I always do that.  And I can never cook tofu without it sticking to the pan, big time.  It always sucks up the oil and then forms this atomic bond with the cooking surface.  But, we muddled through.

Once it was “plated” (that’s a fancy cooking term, right?), we served it up.  The kids were less than thrilled.  We have come to realize that there are some dishes that we make that are “grown-up” dishes and some that are “family” dishes, but the kids always try them.  The “grown-up” dishes usually involve making a separate meal for the kids, and Ellen and I have a nice quiet dinner later.  This dish actually ended up somewhere in between – the kids weren’t excited about it, but they ate it. (The adults thought it was yummy, though.)

I always try to make a recipe the “right” way the first time, so I can see what was intended, then the next time I start going “off-book”.  I think the next time, in addition to different tomatoes, I would cut the tofu smaller. I think that may have been part of the issue for the kids. I also put in a block and a half, maybe a block would suffice.  I would also add more mango and maybe a little less curry powder – try to sweeten it up a little – and more edamame.  We actually had to kick the kids out of the kitchen because they kept coming in to scarf more of “those lima bean pea things”.

We served it on top of some jasmine rice, with a side green salad, and it was delicious and very filling.  In our quest to eat more healthily (and less), it’s one we’ll be making again!