gina_w, I made your poached salmon with chimichurri for supper tonight -- right down to the garnish. My husband and I both LOVED it! It is a definite contender for the party. Do you think that it would be good at room temperature? I don't want to be cooking during the appetizers or the soup course, but I am afraid if I keep it warm in the oven it will dry out, and even a reheat in the microwave might overcook it. Here is how I did the chimichurri and poached the fish (I'm sure you know how to do both, but just in case some other reader wants to know): I took a big handful of flat leaf parsley, 4 cloves garlic, and a bit of onion and minced them in the food processor. Then I added about 1/3 c of arbequetta olive oil, a little red wine vinegar, a little lemon juice, about 1/2 t of dried oregano, and S&P. That's it -- and it was really terrific. I poached the salmon by putting it in a deepish pan with water to cover, added some mirin, some peppercorns, and a bay leaf, as you suggested. I brought it to a boil, and then immediately took it off the heat, covered the pan, and let it sit about 10 minutes. eandhl, here is my recipe for stir-fried tofu. It was my first stir-fry. Many years ago, when I was about 22, my aunt gave me a wok. It just sat there until one day in the newspaper's food section, in the "kids in the kitchen" column, I found this recipe for stir-fried tofu and vegetables (I've rewritten it to leave out all the super-basic instructions like "peel the onion and put it on a plate"). I figured if kids could do it, I could, too! Now I love to cook all kinds of Chinese dishes, but this is the one that got me started. My kids always loved it. I make all kinds of modifications now, depending on what vegetables I have on hand, and I use sherry, dark soy, hot oil, etc. This is the basic; you modify it the way you want (use more or different vegetables; include water chestnuts and bamboo shoots; add or substitute chicken or beef for the tofu; etc.). Enjoy! Stir-fried Tofu and vegetables ¼ pound mushrooms 1 large carrot 1 small onion 1 small green pepper 1 - 2 pkg tofu (firm works best) 1 clove garlic 2 T water (I like sherry or mirin instead) 1 t cornstarch 2 T oil (I like to use peanut) 3 T soy sauce 2 t honey Prepare vegetables. Mix water and cornstarch in one bowl, soy and honey in the other. Stir fry vegetables 1 minute, add soy/honey mixture, cover and cook one minute. Stir in water and cornstarch and tofu, stir gently until heated, about 1 minute.

You're a nice mom Lowspark! Here are some of my recipes. I've stayed away from the asian ones, since there are a lot on that EAting Well Web site. Be forwarned that I usually find those "low fat" recipes manage to be low fat because they have about half as much yummy sauce as you would want, so you might need to double the sauce ingredients. Tofu isn't that low calorie, although they do sell lowfat tofu, if you can find it. The reason I mention different techniques and ingredient amounts is I try and use as many lowfat techniques as I can, and some people do not like this kind of cooking, so you can adjust to suit your taste, just as I usually adjust regular recipes to make them lower in fat. Like in the tofu parmesearn recipe below, I'd use less parmesean cheese. Hopefully living in a metro area you can get the commercially marinated tofu. It is so convenient. The brand I get is "White Wave" and also "Tofu Kan." There's one other brand I get at Giant but I don't know the name of it. I'm not sure how they process it to get it so flavorful, but it's definately an art. You really can't just marinate tofu without baking it, it won't be that flavorful. I googled "baked marinated tofu" and came up with lots of groovy recipes. Here's how I'd do it if I was going to make the tofu salad above. Buy a tub of regular tofu, the kind that comes packed in water, not the silken tofu. Drain it and rinse it and then slice it into 1/2 inch slabs (or slightly larger). Make a "tofu press" by putting some paper towels on a tray, then laying the tofu out on the tray, then topping with more paper towels, then put another tray on top. Can use large plates for this. Then, put some heavy cans or books on top of the press to make it "press" down on the tofu. Use about 3 layers of paper towels. Enviro me uses clean dishtowels, you're just pressing water out of the tofu so it's not going to stain the towels and they can be washed. You don't have to press the tofu, but it presses water out and cuts down on the baking time. Press for about 15 min. Next, get some good italian dressing (I like Ken's brand or Newman's Own). Put a little bit in a shallow baking pan, then layer in the tofu, then cover with more dressing. You can use lowfat dressing. Bake in an oven. The temp can vary from 350-400 degrees, depending on how closely you want to watch it. I would say maybe 375. You want to bake it until the tofu dries out and is coated with the marinade. It will take 40-60 min. Turn halfway through. This baked marinated tofu will keep a few days in the fridge and can be used in salads and other dishes, or in sandwiches. Frankly, as you can see it's bit of a pain to make this compared to buying it already done in the store! You can use other marinades, such as teriyaki sauce. You can make your own marinade from scratch too. Here's a couple of my more traditional recipes. I've stayed away from the hard core stuff like curried tofu stew, lol! Tofu Stuffed Bell Peppers 4 peppers 4-6 mushrooms 1 clove garlic or 1/2 tsp. minced garlic/garlic powder 1 small onion 4 oz. tofu (can use silken extra firm or water-packed firm) 2 cups tomato sauce pinch oregano, basil, salt, pepper 1 TBLSP red wine (optional, could use maybe balsamic vinegar or leave out) 2 tsp olive oil 1 tsp. sesame seeds (to make sesame seeds digestible, I toast for about 10 min. and grind in the food processor, then keep in fridge for when I need them. Can leave out) 1 tsp wheat germ (or 2 tsp. if you don't have the sesame seeds) 1 cup cooked rice Steam peppers for 4-6 min. Put 1/2 of sauce in the bottom of a small baking pan. Saute onion and mushrooms in oil, add spices, tofu, rice and wheat germ and sesame seed. Stuff gently into peppers, top with remaining sauce. (Can sprinkle some italian shredded cheese or parmesean cheese over the top) Bake at 350 for 30 min. Low Calorie Quiche (use the crust below, which is a health food kind of thing, or whatever kind of quiche crust you like. As you know, I'm piecrust challenged so I usually use store bought, lol! I got this recipe from "Vegetarian Times" magazine, and have never made the crust, just the filling. It sounds good, and I have been known to make an oil-based pie crust.) Crust: 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup white flour 1/4 tsp. salt 1/8 tsp. baking poweder 1/4-1/3 cup canola oil 2 TBLSP lemon juice 1 1/2 tsp. honey 2-3 TBLSP cold water 1-2 tsp. sesame seeds (see above for how to prep. them) Preheat oven to 375. Grind oats to coarse flour in a blender or food processor. Mix dry ingredients together. Drizzle in oil until the mixture looks like coarse sand. Add lemon, honey, and 2 TBLSP water til the dough forms a ball, add more water if necessary. Roll between two sheets of wax peper. Sprinkle sesame seeds to coat bottom of pie pan. Prick crust on sides and bottom. Bake 10 min., then remove from oven and reduce heat to 350 degrees. Filling: 1 tsp. water or olive oil (I'd probably use at least 2 tsp. or 1 TBLSP EVOO) 1 cup diced onion 1 tsp. minced garlic (or less, I don't use that much) 3 cups broccoli florets (I often use frozen broccoli) 1-2 TBLSP water 2 large egg whites 10 oz. package soft, silken tofu 1 TBLSP prepared dijon mustard 1 tsp. dried basil 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg 1/4 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. white pepper 1-2 TBLSP grated parmesean cheese Heat oil in a skillet over med. heat. Add onion and sautee 3-5 min. until translucent. (you may need to add more oil or water, this is a low cal recipe, I probably use more oil than this). Add garlic and broccoli and water. Steam until broccoli is bright green, ~2 min. Drain veggies if necessary. Place in the pre-baked pie crust. Whip egg whites until frothy. Add tofu, spices and parmesean. Blend until smooth. Pour into pie crust. Garnish with strips of red pepper if desired. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 min. Tofu Sloppy Joes - serves 5 6 TBLSP oil 1 large onion, diced 2 med. green peppers, seeded and diced 2 cans spanish style tomato sauce 1 1/2 TBLSP chili sauce/powder 2 TBLSP tamari or low salt soy sauce 1 tsp. salt 1/8 tsp. black pepper 1/2 tsp. dried oregano 1 TBLSP prepared brown mustard 1 TBLSP brown sugar 1 1/2 lbs firm tofu, frozen, thawed and squeezed dry and crumbled Saute onion and peppers in oil, Add tofu and soy sauce. Add tomato sauce and spices. Simmer over low heat until nice and thick. Serve on whole wheat hamburger buns with sweet potato fries and coleslaw. Tofu Parmigiana 1 1/2 lbs. tofu 2 eggs (or 1 egg, 2 egg whites) 1 TBLSP tamari or low salt soy sauce 3/4 cup toasted wheat germ 3/4 cup grated parmesean cheese (or less, maybe 1/2 cup) oil for cooking 1/2 cup onions, sliced 1 carrot, shredded 2 cloves garlic, minced or to taste (I use one clove) 1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced 2 cups tomatoes, seeded and diced, or 2 cups thick tomato puree (I use canned crushed tomatoes) 1 TBLSP fresh basil or 1 tsp. dried 1 tsp. oregano 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes salt to taste 8 thin slices mozz cheese Press tofu until dry, or use a marinated kind. Slice tofu into 8 thin slices. Beat together egg and tamari/soy sauce. Mix together what germ and 1/4 cup of the parmesean cheese and put in a pie plate or on a large dinner plate. Dip tofu in egg, then dry mixture. Refrigerate while you prepare the sauce. (Geez, I don't know why you have to do that, you could prepare the sauce in advance!). Saute onion, carrot, garlicand mushrooms in oil. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer until thick and all flavors combined. Fry sliced tofu until golden. Heat broiler. Sprinkle baking pan with sauce and 1/4 cup parmesean. Place browned tofu on sauce in a single layer. Tof tofu with mozzarella cheese slices. Pour on remaining sauce over and around the tofu. Top with remaining parmesean. Broil until bubbly. Serve over brown rice. A fancy dish for special occasions.

I finally made it the way the original recipe was written at eatingwell.com. I finally found the canned chipotle peppers. Not sure why but I had looked several times in the grocery store (on separate visits) in the section for the jar of red peppers. Not sure why I didn't look closer to the cans of tomato sauce but in any event, thanks to breezyb, I finally looked for them in the right spot, found them and tried this. It was very good the way the recipe is written, I agree. But I also think the real reason it is so good is the chipotle/mayonaise mixture. MMMMM is that good. I'm going to use that again. I may never go back to using plain Hellman's mayonaise again. --Alice

My favorite is Grit tofu from their "Golden Bowl" The Grit is a fantastic vegetarian place in Athens GA. 1 container of extra firm tofu (best from your store's refridgerator section and not the boxed tofu) a few tablespoons of nutritional yeast soy sauce or tamari sauce oil for frying or deepfrying or a non-stick skillet Although they deep fry the tofu at the restraunt, I pan fry it. I slice the tofu in half, place it on a plastic cutting board and then prop this up with a plastic lid or jar lid so it's angled into the sink. Place a piece of plastic wrap, or a clean towel on the tofu and balance a thick telephone book on top. This will press the extra water out. I drain for 1/2 an hour. Cube your drained tofu and toss into your skillet. I use a non-stick skillet with no oil. It browns the tofu nicely. Brown tofu on all sides, then turn off the heat. Quickly sprinkle on about a tablespoon of soy or tamari sauce, then let it sizzle a bit until it dries up. Finally, toss the nutritional yeast on and coat your tofu. SUPER DUPER DELIOUSLY YUMMY!!! We eat this several nights a week as 'croutons' on large salad as our main course! GGG