A few months ago, I posted a recipe that I tried to emulate from one of my favorite food places in Pittsburgh, Pho Minh. This is another that I have semi-successfully tried to adapt from a place in my neighborhood called Thai Me Up. This is one of my new favorite places in the city, because you can bring a 40 of malt liquor in there, and no one cares. In fact, if you linger over your 40 for long enough, the chef will bring you the most delicious almond-crusted cake you have ever eaten. Seriously.
Anyway, my favorite thing on Thai Me Up’s menu is Spicy Tofu with Basil and Rice Noodles. It is so good. So, I began searching the internets for a decent recipe, and ended up combining a few to recreate this deliciousness. It is certainly not as good as the original, but it’ll suffice.
The key to this recipe is absolutely Thai basil. I would suggest, if you can’t find Thai basil, that you substitute mint and go for an entirely different flavor—to use regular sweet basil wouldn’t do it justice. You can find Thai basil in most Asian groceries (for you Pittsburghers, I get it at Lotus in the Strip.) You can recognize it in a store or farmer’s market by its small, pointy leaves and purple stem. It tastes much stronger than sweet basil, with a slightly licorice-y flavor.

I also got some of these red Thai chilies for this recipe, the nice thin ones, but you could use regular red or green chili peppers from the grocery store for this as well.

You will need:
Oil (peanut would be great, I only had olive oil on hand)
1 shallot, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
Chili peppers, de-seeded and de-ribbed, as many as you’d like
Half a block of extra firm tofu, cut into 1-inch(ish) cubes
About 2 TBS soy sauce
¼ cup of water or vegetable stock (or slightly less)
Large bunch of Thai basil
Rice noodles, cooked according to package directions

Heat a bit of oil in a wok or large skillet. Add the shallot and cook 2-3 minutes. Add the garlic and chilies, cook another minute.

HEY! HERE’S AN IDEA! DON’T RUB YOUR EYES AFTER CHOPPING THE CHILIES. Because I did, and it hurt like hell. I threw myself on the kitchen floor, screaming like a wounded animal and frantically trying to…I don’t know…rub the chili pepper residue from my eyes? With my tainted hands? I screamed to Rob, “GET IN HERE AND TAKE A PICTURE OF THIS SHIT, I’M GONNA BLOG IT!”
He respectfully declined.

Anyway, once you’ve dried the tears, add the tofu to the pan and stir fry until browned on all sides, to your liking. Add the soy sauce and water, stir fry another minute or 2, until the sauce is thickened. Add a big handful of Thai basil leaves, either left whole or chopped once or twice (you want big pieces.) Stir to wilt the basil and remove from heat. Serve the mixture over rice noodles with a Thai basil garnish—it’s too pretty not to!

Now close up!

Now far away again!

So as it turns out, grad school takes up a lot of time. Yeah, duh, right? I just finished my finals this week, and all semester I’ve been sort of fretting about abandoning this blog–not because I care about it, but because I paid $45.99 for the hosting and URL. I kid, I kid. Well anyway, just as things all seem to get busy at once, they all seem to slow down at once too.
Then, my buddy Joe P. of Tower 41 Productions, who is pressing my band’s second album and whom I also proudly advertise on the tote bag I carry around, told me he had a bunch of recipes for me to try out. Add to that, my lone British reader MattJ sent me some lovely curry recipes that could be easily vegetarian- or vegan-ized that looked delicious and I never tried. And Laura’s been baking up a storm! Where is the failure here? Me. Fortunately, I never stopped cooking and having Rob take pictures, I just stopped posting. So anyway, here’s what’s coming up at thefoodsex:

Yeah! And to prove I’m not lying, here’s one of the recipes.

Chickpea Burgers

These were invented in a night of desperation, when Rob and I were both hungry and snipping at each other, as we’re prone to do when we don’t eat…oh, every hour or so. I frantically canvassed our pantry and fridge for stuff to throw together, and this is what happened.

You will need:
2 tsp olive oil
1 shallot, diced (or really, any onion but i like the sweetness of the shallot in this)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3 TBS roasted red peppers, chopped
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/3 cup dry bread crumbs (or slightly less)
2 TBS chopped cilantro, with extra leaves for garnish
2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
pinch of oregano
salt and pepper to taste

In a small skillet, heat 1 tsp of the olive oil and add the shallot and garlic. Cook for a few minutes until the shallot is soft. Remove from heat.

Dump the chickpeas into a mixing bowl and smoosh them anyway you can–a potato masher, a fork, your toes, whatever. Alternately, you could do this in a food processor, but make sure not to puree the chickpeas, as you want some chunks in there. Add the garlic and shallot, roasted red peppers, cilantro and spices and stir. Now, begin to add the bread crumbs a little at a time. Start with half of the 1/3 cup and mix. Pull a handful of the mixture out and try to form it into a patty. Add more breadcrumbs if necessary.

Once you have reached a good “burger” consistency, form the mixture into even-sized patties. I can’t remember if this made three or four patties–I was probably too busy yapping at Rob (see above.) Heat the remaining tsp of olive oil in a skillet for a few minutes, but don’t let it get to the smoking point. Carefully place the patties into the oil and don’t move them for about 3 minutes. Gently flip them over when they begin to brown on the bottom, then cook to desired brownness/heat. Serve on a bun with cilantro leaves and roasted red peppers on top.

Oh, how I wish I’d had better buns for these. They would have been so good on a big crusty multi-grain roll, but my whole-grain-challenged better half is a white bread fanatic. Sigh.

Rob ate his with A-1 steak sauce, I ate mine with spicy mustard. Good stuff!