Tofu Scares Me

A lot. I enjoy those delicious little white cubes, particularly in a stir fry of noodles or rice and veggies and an appropriately spicy sauce. I don't know how to make tofu, though. I mean, is it cooked when you buy it? How long do you cook it for?

Besides, isn't stir fry expensive? Tofu's not exactly cheap, and all those vegetables must certainly add up.

So I set out Sunday evening to make stir fry as economical and delicious as possible, while still thinking about how responsible my food sources were.

First, my rice is organic short grain brown rice from Whole Foods. I realized the other day that Whole Foods (as do some other grocery stores, particularly smaller co-ops), sells some of their grains loose, in bulk. This saves on packaging both for the environment and your wallet. This meant that I could buy organic brown rice for the same price as non-organic, and I can bring the same container back to the store to refill when I am out.

I also included some snow peas from the CSA, as well as some shell peas, asparagus, and red pepper from Haymarket. Now, Haymarket is not a farmer's market. The vendors sell goods they have acquired from a wholesale market in Chelsea. Basically, these are the leftovers. The produce equivelent of the reduced price item section in a supermarket. On a grand scale.

This is an ethical dilemma. Is it okay to buy these goods? On the yes side, I would argue that this produce will be thrown out otherwise. Also, the vendors at Haymarket are "local" in the sense that they are running their own local small business, i.e. their fruit/veggie stand. On the no side, these items come from anywhere and everywhere, with little thought as to source, amount of miles traveled, carbon footprint, responsibility of the grower, etc.

I think the yes side can win out if one shops carefully at Haymarket. First, many packaged items, such as berries and lettuces have their place of origin on them. With a little careful looking, I found strawberries that were not from Chile but from California. California's not great, but for the same price I chose something with several thousand miles less of a footprint. You can also occasionally find organic produce at Haymarket, especially lettuces. Just watch the labels (on the produce, not the handwritten signs by the vendors). Lastly, I try to make some simple, smart choices. Are there blueberries from the U.S. being sold at Shaw's, Whole Foods, and Stop and Shop right now? Yes; okay, then I can buy blueberries at haymarket. They're likely from the US too. Kiwi? Those are never really in season in the US, so I avoid more exotic fruits and veggies. I also try to avoid items like apples, which could come from New Zealand or the US right now.

So, my stir fry veggie total from Haymarket was a whopping $3. This picture is deceptive. We had stir fry leftovers for lunch until Thursday following Sunday dinner.

My tofu was firm organic tofu.

After pre-cooking the rice and the vegetables, I mixed everything in a wok with tofu and some szechuan sauce from Super 88. Was it good? Absolutely! Would I make some changes before serving stir fry again? Again, absolutely.

1. Next time I will buy extra firm, or super firm, or firmiest of the firm tofu. "Firm" wasn't "firm" enough. It crumbled.

2. I will add the tofu to the wok a couple minutes early with the sauce so it can pick up more of the flavor. It was a little bland.

3. I will cook the rice longer and the veggies less. I thought the former would "finish" with the stir fry and the latter would be fine. The opposite was true.

So learn from my mistakes, and have no fear! Tofu won't hurt. I think. I should try again before making any promises.