The Smoking Kitchen

Tofu with Chimichurri and Minted Peas Under Oil

I swear to God I cook meat.

This is now my fifth post without one morsel of flesh involved, and I’d like to assure everyone that this website isn’t the first step in a process that includes such things as leaving informational pamphlets around and prompting “philosophical talks” that are thinly-veiled conversion attempts, and which ends in an inevitably doomed confrontation with stronger, meat-fed federal employees.

In the meantime, here’s some more frigging tofu.

The origin of this meal was an Internet search for “marinade parsley garlic.” Previously, I had only known parsley as my least favorite part of the Passover Seder, and I recently bought a ton of it in order to expand my conception of it beyond merely a tool to taste my ancestors’ tears. When it’s not dipped in salt water and eaten raw, I like it.

The first result of my search for a marinade involving parsley was a recipe for chimichurri, which is Argentinian pesto, more or less. The sauce is usually served over meat (especially beef), either as a sauce or a marinade. According to Wikipedia and lazily cross-referenced elsewhere, chimichurri was an invention of an Irishman named Jimmy McCurry who helped fight for Argentinian independence. The natives loved his dish but of course couldn’t pronounce his name. Therefore, chimichurri. There’s really no part of this story I’m not skeptical about.

I looked at a bunch of recipes, and they varied. The common denominators, though, were parsley, garlic, and olive oil. I chose a recipe from Epicurious. I picked this one because I’ve heard of Epicurious.com and because it was the first website that came up besides the previously cited Wikipedia page.

First, though, I had to press the tofu.

This time I got Mu Tofu, which is made right here in Chicago.

Don’t believe me? Here, let me bring my camera closer:

Sweet, it’s kosher, too. I can put it on matzah and be completely miserable.

I like this tofu a lot, actually, because it’s cheaper, because it’s gratifying to buy local, because it’s even more gratifying to tell people I buy local, and because it has a harder consistency than other tofu I’ve eaten, making the tofu-pressing process much, much quicker.

After the tofu was pressed, I rubbed it with olive oil, salt, and pepper and baked it in the oven at 375 degrees for twenty minutes (a new tofu-cooking technique recommended by Vegan Melanie).

While the tofu was cooking, I made a Jamie Oliver recipe he calls Minted Peas Under Oil, a name which leaves nothing to the imagination.

Here are the (frozen) peas with mint leaves strewn about:

Here’s the above with boiled water poured on them:

That photograph is easily the greatest photograph I’ve ever taken. Let’s look once more:

It’s peaceful, isn’t it? It just makes you think. Hold on, I’m going to zone out for a bit.

Anyhow, here are the cooked peas and mint, which I then covered in olive oil. Oliver’s instructions weren’t to cover them in olive oil, but to COVER THEM IN OLIVE OIL. It’s really not a fine distinction. You can’t see here, but trust me, I’m almost out of olive oil now.

Did you find yourself looking at that photo and wishing you were closer? I have good news for you:

The peas are supposed to sit for at least thirty minutes so you have time to figure out exactly how many dollars of olive oil you just dumped on frozen peas, so I set them aside and made the chimichurri.

Here are the ingredients for the chimichurri:

1 cup (packed) fresh Italian parsley
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup (packed) fresh cilantro
2 garlic cloves, peeled
3/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt

Here’s the after picture:

And here’s the final plate, with the chimichurri spooned over the cooked tofu:

Whoa, that’s a lotta green.

CHIMICHURRI - IT WAS LIKE I WAS ACTUALLY IN IRELAND

The Indian who Jimmy McCurry stole the chimichurri recipe from was onto something, that’s for sure. This version was quite zingy, owing to all the vinegar and the cumin. It was good, just a more intense taste than I was expecting. I think it’ll mellow out as it sits in my fridge, or as it looks at my picture of the peas under water:

I’m going to experiment with different versions, since not all the recipes I saw called for vinegar, although I imagine this version would be good over beef. I also suspect it might be good with salmon.

Since chimichurri can be used as a marinade instead of as a sauce like I used it here, I’m going to try it in that capacity later this week.

THE PEAS - THE OIL…THE OIL…

These were very good. The mint flavor was extremely subtle. Instead, I believe the mint just gave the dish some sweetness. Next time I’ll try it with some more mint, just to see how it tastes if the minty flavor is more overt.

As far as the amount of oil I used, I’m fairly certain it was a power trip by Jamie Oliver to see if he could get nunces to blindly follow his directions and do something ridiculous like turning their bottle of olive oil upside down and losing half their supply.

DID THESE TWO DISHES EVEN GO TOGETHER?

I’m not sure. The chimichurri sauce was sweet and sour, and peas were sweet, too. Those flavors seem to hit at the front of the mouth, and because of that they actually seemed sort of nice together.

On the other hand, ideally there’d be something to balance it out. Also, the amount of oil consumed tonight turned me temporarily blind. Beware.