Since my recent move, I’ve reunited with some old friends. Cookbooks, stored in boxes, now have pride of place on a shelf, and they’ve arrived at just the right time — after months of cooking almost exclusively at home, I’m in need of inspiration. And many of these books remind me of times when I’d plan a vacation around restaurants I wanted to try.
It’s easy to forget how groundbreaking David Chang’s first restaurant, Momofuku Noodle Bar, was when it opened in New York’s East Village in 2004, but I recall the electric, special feeling of the place. Flipping through the “Momofuku” cookbook reminded me of a food combination I first discovered in its pages: tomatoes and silken tofu. In Chang’s clever riff on the caprese salad, the creamy tofu, cut into rounds with a ring-shaped cutter, stands in for mozzarella, shiso replaces basil and, because this is a restaurant cookbook, the cherry tomatoes are peeled. The salad is dressed with soy sauce and little else.
Chang’s salad served as a jumping-off point for my take on tomato salad. I’ll never peel cherry tomatoes at home, and I like to use an array of heirloom varieties — some sliced, some halved, others cut into wedges — because it makes the salad very pretty and because each of these tomatoes has its own flavor. I include the silken tofu (though I don’t bother with the fiddly and wasteful detail of cutting it into rounds); I love its wonderful texture and, cold in a salad, it’s incredibly refreshing on a hot day. For the dressing, I borrow from Vietnam, making a simple nuoc cham by stirring together fish sauce, sugar, lime juice, minced green chile (Thai chiles if you can find them, serrano or jalapeños if you cannot) and garlic.
I think all salads should have a crunchy element, be it croutons or nuts or bacon bits, and in this case, because I’m drawing inspiration from Vietnamese salads, crispy fried shallots make sense. (Before you despair over home frying, take heart — you can make fried shallots in the microwave or the stovetop, or you can buy a package of store-bought fried onions and use those instead.) And then there’s just one more thing to add: herbs, and lots of them. I use whole leaves of mint, cilantro and basil or Thai basil, if I can find it, the more the better. It could be a while before we get back to restaurants, so make this and imagine you’re at your favorite spot with your friends.
Jessica Battilana is a freelance writer and the author of “Repertoire: All the Recipes You Need.” Instagram: @jbattilana Email: food@sfchronicle.com
Tomato-and-Tofu Salad
Dressing
¼ cup fish sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Thai chile, stemmed and minced, or half a serrano pepper, stemmed and minced
Salad
2 cups canola oil
4 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
1½ to 2 pounds tomatoes (about 3 to 4 large tomatoes), cut into slices or wedges
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
16 ounces silken tofu, cut into large cubes
¼ cup mint leaves
¼ cup cilantro leaves
¼ cup basil or Thai basil leaves
Kosher salt, to taste
To make the dressing: In a small jar with a lid, combine fish sauce, sugar, lime juice, garlic, chile and ¼ cup warm water. Seal and shake vigorously until the sugar has dissolved. Set aside. (The dressing will keep, refrigerated, for up to a week, though it gets spicier as it sits.)
To make the fried shallots: Pour the oil into a 2- or 3-quart heavy-bottom saucepan over medium heat and add the sliced shallots to the cold oil. Line a plate with paper towels and set nearby. Fry the shallots, stirring frequently so they cook evenly, until they begin to brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Continue cooking, stirring constantly, until they are crisp and an even golden brown (at this stage they can go from nicely browned to overcooked very quickly, so be vigilant). Use a slotted spoon to transfer the shallots to the paper-lined plate. Let the oil cool, then pour through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean jar. (Do not discard the oil — it’s liquid gold, great for dressings and sauteed or roasted vegetables.) Store in an airtight container at room temperature. Alternatively, you can make the shallots in the microwave: Place the shallots in a medium bowl with ¾ cup vegetable oil and microwave at 100 percent power for 5 minutes. Stir and microwave for 2 more minutes. Repeat stirring and microwaving in 2-minute increments until shallots begin to brown (4 to 6 minutes total), then repeat stirring and microwaving in 15-second increments until shallots are deep golden (15 seconds to 2 minutes total), taking care as the shallots can overcook in those final 15-second increments. With a slotted spoon, transfer the shallots to paper towel-lined plate; season with salt. Reserve the oil for another use.
To assemble the salad: Arrange the tomatoes on a service platter. I like to lay down some thick slices, then top with wedges of larger tomatoes and halved cherry tomatoes. Tuck the herbs here and there around the tomatoes, then spoon over some dressing. Nestle in the cubes of tofu and drizzle a bit more dressing over the tofu cubes. Top with shallots and serve immediately, with any remaining dressing alongside.
August 15, 2020 at 02:48AM
https://ift.tt/33WFNns
Tomatoes & silken tofu mix it up in a cool summer salad - San Francisco Chronicle
https://ift.tt/3ekeW79
salad
No comments:
Post a Comment