Nooched Tofu

So I have been trying to sneak a bit more soy products into our diet. To reduce the amount of meat we eat, and because it is alleged to help with symptoms of perimenopause. There has been some resistance from certain family members though, who find it bland.

But this, now this is tasty tofu! Flavoured-up with soy sauce, garlic and sesame oil and coated with nutritional yeast flakes - 'nooch' for short! The coated tofu is quickly toasted in the air fryer, and it's ready to go - in a stir fry, on a salad, with pasta and tomato sauce, or just eaten by itself. And even the tofu-hesitant here are eating it up with gusto.

If you've not come across them before, nutritional yeast flakes are small savoury flakes of processed yeast, with a vaguely nutty, cheesy flavour. Like marmite, they are rich in B vitamins. You can find tubs of it in larger supermarkets and health food shops under the brand name Engevita.

Parsee Red Curry

This curry is adapted from the "Parsee Red Chicken Curry" recipe from 50 Great Curries Of India by Camellia Panjabi, for making in the Instant Pot. I have added vegetables and chickpeas to it to fill it out for use as a bulk cooking recipe for portioning out and freezing.

Simple Meatloaf

This particular recipe has been knocking around the kitchen scribbled on the back of an old envelope for a couple of months now, so it's time to write it up here. It turns a packet of cheap mince into a midweek roast dinner.

Notes on running a cake plant (aka Hermann or Amish Friendship Cake)

Cake plant recipes did the rounds in the 70s / 80s, and we were given starters to feed by friends several times over that period. Inevitably, we would maintain them for a couple of months, handing out starters to any friends who weren't sick of it yet, before it just became too much of the same cake over and over, or the mixture managed to overflow the storage bowl and cause a mess. The mixture would be discarded, and the instructions filed away until the next time we were given a starter to try again.

Over the years, on rediscovering the archived instructions, I have restarted the culture from scratch a few times. These restarts have eventually suffered the same fates as the originals.

Over time - and especially over this last strange year - I have evolved how I manage the cake plant starter away from the original instructions. I have also added to my stock of recipes using the starter. So I am recording the details here, so I don't forget them once working from home stops being the norm.

Slow Roast Belly Pork Slices and Vegetables

I've made this dish a couple of times now, so this article is to record how I've been modifying the original recipe, which is here. This also works if you replace the belly pork with chicken thighs and drumsticks.