Well I have no excuse for forgetting to post, except that I forgot it was Monday. I hope you all survived the commute into work/your coffee break without ladybeekeeper today.
Julius has been loving his play kitchen, which I PROMISE I will show you soon. Maybe next week?! I’m just daunted by uploading all the pictures I took. Anyway, he has been making lots of imaginary foods for us lately. The other day he made me “soup” and when I asked what kind of soup it was his response was “muffin soup”. Sounds innovative, I want the recipe.
The other day when we were getting Julius ready for bed, Will told Julius “give Mama a kiss, she is going to go work on projects”. He said “I projects” which translates to “I want to work on projects” (he’s working on verbs). Curious, I then asked him “what’s your project, Julius?” He responded, “ummmm…. muffins.” I don’t know if this muffin project has anything to do with muffin soup, but I’m letting you in on the ground floor people – invest now!
We’re in Nashville for Thanksgiving, so I thought this would be the perfect time to post my vegetarianized version of Colton Chicken Curry Casserole. Chicken Curry Casserole is what Will requests every year for his birthday, and is one of the first recipes that I asked Amy for while Will and I were dating. It is delicious, but sadly not vegetarian, and since I’ve migrated from flexitarian to vegetarian for the last few months I can’t partake. But instead I’ve been perfecting my Vegetarian Curry Casserole, and have finally settled on my favorite version. I’ve made it at least 4 times now. I started with different types of beans, and multiple types of cream of something soup and eventually settled on tofu and cream of mushroom. You really can’t taste the mushroom flavor at all, but if you really abhor mushrooms, cream of celery has almost the exact same taste.
Tofu Curry Casserole
- 1 block extra firm tofu
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon cayenne (depending how spicy you like it)
- 1 Tbsp corn starch
- 1 10.5 oz can cream of mushroom soup
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1.5 Tbsp curry (to taste)
- 2.5 cups frozen peas
- 1.5 cups cheese
- ¾ cup cornflakes
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Press tofu for 20 minutes or so between clean kitchen towels and weights to remove moisture. Cut tofu into 1″x.5″x.5″ cubes. Whisk corn starch, cayenne, turmeric together. Toss tofu gently in spice mixture and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake tofu for 15 minutes and remove from oven. Lower heat to 350 degrees F. While tofu bakes you can assemble the casserole. Whisk together cream of mushroom, mayonnaise, lemon juice and curry. Cover a 2 qt casserole dish with the frozen peas. Spread cooked tofu over the peas. Cover with cream of mushroom mixture. Sprinkle cheese on top followed by cornflakes. Bake in 350 degree F oven for 30 minutes, or until heated through.
Baked seasoned tofu on top of frozen peas.
Do you always press the tofu? Do you know if it makes a big difference for this type of dish?
I have always pressed it. It has a lot of moisture in it since it’s usually packaged in a water bath to keep it fresh. Honestly though, I doubt it would matter a ton for this type of dish. It may help it hold it’s shape a bit better, but that doesn’t matter much for this. Pan frying though I would definitely press it…