Mock-Soto!!

I hate the nights that I just can't seem to figure out what I want to eat/cook. Or even if I want to eat/cook. These are the nights that, 9 times out of 10, I end up just eating popcorn or nuts (I have some fairly eccentric eating habits [beyond my veganism] which I may or may not go into here at some point).

But last night my indecision was coupled by crankiness and boredom. That fun combo usually results in my eating an entire loaf of bread and half a tub of veg margarine. I was determined not to let that happen, so I poured myself a stiff gin and tonic (Tanqueray Rangpur elevates the drink of African colonizers to new heights) and opened the cupboards.

Despite the amount of foodstuffs I have crammed into them, I still couldn't decide. Finally my roommate says, "RICE! MAKE RICE!" When my culinary conundrums (and the noisy cupboard rummaging and the theatrical sighing) interupt his naps decisions get made much quicker. And to be fair we haven't had rice in a while. And come to think of it, we hadn't had tofu in a while either. Tofu is one of those foods that, while delicious, I try and stay away from eating too often. Too much soy isn't good for a gal and it is usually pretty processed.

"What!?" you might cry, "A veggie who eschews tofu?!" Yup. But it still holds a place in heart since _Tofu Cookery_ was the first veg cookbook I ever got and tofu was the first veg dish I tried to make myself. It turned out terribly - I used the silken vacuum packed kind instead of the refrigerated extra firm kind to try and make a peanut satay barbecue thing. It was slimy and undercooked and I felt like crying because it was the first summer cookout of my vegetarianism and I really wanted to be successful. This was back when people still said things to me like, "Mmmmm....this steak is sooo good. Sure you don't want some?" while waving a forkfull of filet mignon at me.

But back to the now (when no one waves forkfulls of anything at me anymore). I cracked open _Tofu Cookery_ and began looking for a rice recipe. My one complaint about _TC_ is that many of the recipes seem to assume that you will be making your own tofu. This is all well and good for the tree-huggin' hippies out there with large kitchens and time to spare, but those of us getting our tofu from the grocery store have a hard time using 12 and 18 oz packages in recipes that call for 1/4 and 1/2 and 3/4 pounds. Also, many of the recipes have a distinctly 80's feel about them. A sort of "dinner party for the boss and his trophy wife" or "key party with the neighbors" kind of vibe. Maybe it's just the use of the word "cookery" that conjures up women in hostess pyjamas and sockless men in loafers lounging on some penthouse balcony. "Really? Toe-foo, you call it? Bruce? Did you hear that? There's absolutely no meat in this! Really!" But using these recipes as a guide, I've had some pretty good luck so in the kitchen library it remains.

While waiting for the rice and water to boil, I read the back of the bag which told me that short-grain brown rice was "ideal for creamy recipes such as risottos, gratins, and puddings." As luck would have it, there was a _TC_ recipe for "Risotto Verde" for which I happened to have all the ingredients. Below is my version of that recipe.

Have ready:

3 cups of cooked short-grain brown rice

at least a 10 oz pkg of frozen spinach, thawed, liquid reserved (I used a whole pound of frozen spinach)

Blend until very smooth, almost liquid:

1 Mori-Nu pkg (12.3 oz) of sliken firm tofu

2 tbs of oil (I used Enova this time)

3 tbs of the spinach water

1/2 tsp of salt (I am very sensitive to salt so I rarely use as much as is recommended unless I'm baking. The original called for 1 1/2 tsp.)

1/8 tsp of black pepper

Saute in a large frying pan:

At least a medium sized onion, diced

one heaping tablespoon of diced garlic (you know, the kind you buy pre-chopped in a jar at the store. Haute cuisine-heresy or not, it's one hell of a time saver.)

1/8 tsp of nutmeg

Once the onions are done to your liking and the garlic and nutmeg are fragrant, remove from heat and stir in the cooked rice, the thawed spinach, and the blended tofu mixture. Mix the rice in one cup at a time. Depending on how large a frying pan you have you may need to move the mixture to the oiled 3 or 4 quart glass baking dish before mixing in all the rice.

Bake in the dish at 325-50ish degrees for about a half an hour.

Now, if you've made risotto before, you might be shaking your fist at the screen shouting, "Imposter!" or cursing, or other similar things. Perhaps in Italian, if you're that kind of risotto-lover. While waiting for my dish to cook, I looked through my other cookbooks for risotto recipes. The few that I found all prefaced the instructions with warnings of the time involved and the work needed for sucessful risotto. One book even advised not to serve it as a side dish since anything that requires you to devote almost 20 minutes of your life stirring should be center plate. Huh? My dish took, literally, 10 minutes to prepare (not counting rice cooking time). A quick trip to wikipedia shed some light on the subject. Aparently, risotto is not completely synonymous with "creamy rice." And indeed, the preparation method outlined in the wiki article seemed daunting. When I told this to my roommate as we were eating our second (or third) helping of dinner, he replied, "So it's not technically risotto. We can call it...(thinking for a moment)... Mock-soto!" To get the full effect, imagine that you are a hapless Tokyo citizen who has just noticed a large lizard stomping toward your city. "Aieee! Mock-soto!! Run!!"

We both considered this dish tasty and filling enough to be given such a giant monster of a name and so it was christened. This version was "Spinach Mock-soto" but I have plans to terrorize future dinnertimes with an asparagus version, a mushroom and italian herb version, and a carrot and corn version.

Mothra beware.