How to include your vegan friends...

That is my friend Tara. Tara is a wonderful vegan. Meaning she doesn't preach about, hardly talks about, doesn't frown when I eat meat in front of her, and volunteers at a farm animal rescue. So you know she's not being trendy.

I love eating with Tara, because it means I have to eat something healthy, and I have to be creative. And she always makes something so good you wonder if maybe someday you'll be debating the merits of fake sour cream someday.

So Tara came over to Jay's for Thai night last week, and it gave me and Jay a reason to eat some of that not very well known, secret hidden Asian ingredient called tofu. Have you ever heard of it? Supposed to be flavorless, texture-less, and uniformly disliked by carnivores everywhere?

I like tofu fried, and that's about it. But man, do I love fried tofu. I remember in high school, this friend's mom made this awesome fried tofu patty with eggs and scallions. It was crispy, but light and fluffy, and I couldn't stop thinking about it. I still haven't figured out how to make it the way she did, but I also thought ramen only came in 50 cent plastic packages covered in salt.


So Tara brought these marinated tofu steaks she pan fried for us, and then covered in homemade bread crumbs. She marinated them first in Italian seasonings, then covered with barbecue sauce. And it looked and smelled just like meat. It did, however, taste like tofu. But good tofu.

And I made this green curry rice. I have to admit, I wasn't too much of a fan of this rice. It was definitely edible, and I'm posting this because Tara asked for the recipe. But I think it overdid it on the basil, and maybe next time I will leave out the fresh basil, and rely solely on the green curry paste.

Oh, and then we watched Fairy Tale Theater, because I just got the DVD set and I'm making everyone watch it. We watched The Princess and the Pea with Liza Minnelli that night, but Saturday I watched Aladdin, and I think James Earl Jones deserves an Emmy for his portrayal as the crazy psychopathic strangely seductive and likable genie.

Green Curry Rice

Ingredients:
-2-3 cups rice (we used white, but maybe wild would be good with this)
-1 can coconut milk
- 2-3 red bell peppers
-1/2 red onion
-2 tbsp fresh basil (if you REALLY like basil, or, like I'm going to, substitute cilantro)
- 2 tbsp green curry paste
-1-2 tbsp lime juice
- 1 jalapeno diced
- salt and pepper to taste

Cook the rice. Figure this out on your own, Jay has a rice cooker.

Saute the peppers and onions until soft. When done, add the coconut milk, green curry paste, lime, broth, basil, salt, and pepper. Simmer until warm.

Then pour over the cooked rice and mix.

The end. But really, you can do whatever here. Add more jalapeno, cilantro, maybe some mango. Your vegan friend will be happy to have something she can eat, and you'll be well on your way to realizing you don't need butter and eggs for everything.

For dessert, I was lazy and just brought some fruit. I mixed up some chili and sugar for dipping, which was awesome with the pineapple. I tried to do that with sugar and ginger too, but I used dried ginger, and it was lackluster. But the chili sugar is now a staple in my kitchen. I made a big bowl of it just to use whenever I feel like running to Dunkin Donuts.