The Pepper Monkey on a Rice Noodle Cake

Life has felt very busy since David and I returned from Houston. Several nights, we've simply eaten at the bottom of the hill at our favorite Milan eatery, The Village Deli and General Store.

However, since I [almost] always snap a pick of what I cook these days, I have evidence that I cooked more than I thought I did!

This meal is comprised of two different recipes. David said it was his favorite meal since the end of Lent.

The Pepper Monkey from V Cuisine: The Art of Vegan Cooking by Angeline Lindardis (Whitecap, 2007)
You could call this Tofu au Poivre, it is in fact a pepper monkey.

14 oz tofu
2 T olive oil
3 T balsamic vinegar
4 T dark soy sauce
1 t garlic powder
1 t onion powder
1/2 t ground cumin
1/2 t ground sage
freshly cracked pepper
1 c dry red wine
1 large onion cut into quarters
1 carrot, coarsely chopped
1 c parsley
2 c crimini mushrooms, halved
1 red pepper, cut into rings
1 green pepper, cut into rings
coarse sea salt
olive oil

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.
2. Oil a 13x9 casserole dish.
3. Slice to tofu into rectangles about 1/2 inch thick. Set them into the oiled pan, keeping them all flat if possible.
4. Mix together olive oil, vinegar, soy sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin and sage. Pour over tofu, cover with plastic wrap, let sit for 20 minutes.
5. Uncover tofu. Coat each side with a layer of freshly ground pepper, return to pan.
6. Pour wine into pan. Add veggies, beginning with onion.
7. Cover with foil, bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and vegetables.
8. Put broiler on high, leave pan in middle of oven. Cook on one side 4-5 minutes, then flip.

Some notes:
I didn't read the recipe super carefully, and so I set the tofu aside after coating with pepper, put in all the veggies and topped them with tofu. This caused me to climate the broiling step. We thought it was perfect as prepared.
Also, we had no parsley and no peppers of any kind and the whole thing tasted great.
The pan sauce was terrific atop the noodle cake!

The timing is just about right to cook the noodle cake while the tofu bakes. You might give the tofu a five minute head start.

Crisp-Fried Noodle Cake - another great recipe from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman (Wiley, 2007)

noodles (the recipe suggests 12 oz of fresh Chinese egg noodles or 8 oz of any dry long noodles or pasta - we used 14 oz of rice noodles)
1 T soy sauce
1 t dark sesame oil
1/2 c chopped scallions or chives
1/4 neutral oil (I used canola)

1. Prep the noodles as the package suggests. Drain and rinse. Set aside. If you wait any length of time, leave the noodles soaking in cold water, otherwise they get sticky (says the voice of experience!).
2. Just before cooking drain (if you haven't already) and then toss the noodles with the sesame oil, soy sauce, and scallions.
3. Put 3 T of oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat. When hot, add the noodles. Let cook undisturbed until brown and crisp on the bottom. This takes about 15 minutes. Resist looking as much as you can!
4. Use a large spatula to flip the noodles, first adding remaining oil to pan. Brown on the other side. Slide onto a plate. Sprinkle with a bit of additional sesame oil (you might skip this step, we found it plenty oily enough!) and soy sauce. Cut into pieces and serve.

Some notes:
1. This does not re-heat well. So serve when you have company or are very hungry. Our next-day leftovers were kind of chewy and blah.
2. The flipping is a bit dangerous. We actually did this twice and the second time put a pizza stone onto the fry pan, flipped that over, then re-oiled the pan and slid the cake from the pizza stone.
3. Flipping the noodle cake takes a bit of getting used to - be prepared for bits of noodle all over your stove! :)