What's for Dinner, Wed., Dec. 20, 2023
Appetizer: goat cheese and pear slices.
Roasted beet and feta cheese salad with toasted pecans. The beets are roasting now. The RG showed me how to roll them in olive oil or butter, then Malden salt, and roast them.
Hungarian mushroom soup.
Pink Lady Apple kombucha.
Dessert: Other half of the plum galette I made a few nights ago. No-sugar ice cream on top. Toasted walnuts.
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I already have a big salad made up in the refrigerator for later.
I learned how to make baklava years ago, before the Internet 
My husband worked a man who had immigrated from Greece. His wife baked Greek cookies at the holidays and sold baklava by the piece. First time I tasted it, I thought I'd died and gone to Heaven. I bought a cookbook from the school, a fundraiser and there was a recipe for baklava in there. I've used it ever since, tweaked just a little.
In case you ever want to try it, this is the recipe I use, and I dry it in the oven. It has a good flavor and texture. The link isn't secure, or I'd add it. You can google Tofu jerky, the original story:
Copied from the website:
The story and original recipe
I created a monster.
It was 1992. I was living in Colorado, I went to my favorite natural foods store and bought tofu jerky. I said, “I can do this!” and made it. I posted the recipe to Usenet (this was when the WWW was a few pages run by some wacky high-energy physicists) because I thought it was cool and others would appreciate it.
If you do a search of “tofu jerky” on the net, you’ll find this recipe the most. People, none of which know me, have circulated it around and around, usually with credit, pointing to my old CSU email address. I wonder how much mail comes to that address still, most of it certainly spam, with the occaisonal “I love your tofu jerky recipe!” mixed in.
If you use about.com for your recipes, it’s there. It’s even in a book but I can’t recommend you buy it because 1) they’ve retitled it “Original Pepper Tofu Jerky“, and it’s not original (to them, anyway.) 2) Maybe the book gives me a credit, but I don’t know becuase it’s British.
The problem is the recipe’s wrong. It’s way too strong. In retrospect I’ve learned this. Actually, you can modulate it by not draining the tofu, or soaking it for less, but now I recommend cutting it with water, perhaps by a 2:1 ratio of marinade to water, before soaking the tofu. Experiment. I don’t know how you like your tofu jerky. How should I?
1/2 cup soy sauce
3 to 4 tbsp liquid smoke
1/8 cup water
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder or 1 clove crushed fresh garlic
1 tbsp fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp honey
1 pound firm or extra firm tofu
Cut and drain the tofu. Take a 1-pound cube, cut it in half, and then slice it into strips on its short side. Strips should be about 4 to 5 millimeters in thickness. They may look big, but they’ll shrink to about half their size. (if your tofu is 3x6x2" you are cutting it so you have 2 slabs 3x6x1" and then you'll slice the slabs into this slices 1/4" or less)
Mix all the marinade ingredients together well. Put the tofu in a single layer in a shallow baking pan or cookie sheet and pour the marinade over it. Let soak for several hours or overnight. (I put the tofu and marinade into a bag and put on a plate, turned the bag a few times)
Drain excess liquid (may be reused) and dry tofu in food dehydrator or warm (200 degrees F) oven. This will take 4 to 8 hours, depending on weather. If you live in a sunny, hot, dry climate, you can sun-dry it. It will take all day.
Flip the tofu over hourly so it dries evenly. Tofu jerky is delicious and keeps indefinitely. Dry the jerky until it is very chewy, but not crispy.
Be creative: Use low-sodium soy if you want less salt (it is rather salty). Use tabasco or ground cayenne if you want it hot. Chili powder makes chili jerky. Oregano and basil make pizza jerky.
If you like the recipe, tell me all about it at tofujerky@chairthrower.org.
I took a picture of the batch last year: https://imgur.com/gallery/SNeNZBr
Happy Thursday!
I like it. I have to keep slapping my hands while I'm making it. It's for the girls! lol
Let me know what you think
