Farro Salad with Tofu

Thanks to Eat, Write, Retreat I received two samples of farro from Tuscan Fields. Not only did Tuscan Fields give away samples of their product to try, but they are also offering a scholarship for this year's Eat, Write, Retreat conference being held in Philadelphia. 

Wouldn't it be awesome if I got picked?

***I didn't win. Tack on the choke Michigan played out in the second half and I am super sad***

Moving on...

I'm pretty limited in my grain knowledge, but after some research I can tell you that farro is a type of wheat grain. The name farro apparently covers emmer wheat, spelt, an einkorn. The grain commonly grown in Italy is emmer wheat. It looks very similar to wheatberries and has the same nutty flavor when cooked. I used it as a substitute for the brown rice in what is quickly becoming one of my favorite dishes.

Farro Salad with Tofu

1 package Tuscan Fields Farro Perlato
1 package firm tofu, well drained
~1/8 cup tamari
4 ounces sun ripened tomatoes, cut into thin strips
8 ounces frozen petite peas

Preparing the tofu takes a little longer so start on the this first. Drain the tofu - I used the two plate method, but you can use baking sheets with raised sides. Give it about ten minutes and enough liquid should be expressed. Cut into even sized cubes and place in a bowl. Add half of the tamari and toss to evenly coat. Cover and marinate in the fridge for ten minutes.  Try a piece to see if it's seasoned to your liking and add more as needed.

Place on a parchment lined and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven. Bake for approximately thirty minutes, or until the tofu has browned. Cool.

Cooking the farro was relatively easy. A good rinse in cold water  before adding it to a pot of boiling water. Takes about twenty minutes and what you get is a grain that doesn't clump and has a chewy consistency. Maybe it's just this picture, but the cooked farro reminds me of puffed wheat cereal. Drain well and allow the farro to cool. I poured the farro out onto a baking sheet to speed up the cooling.

The tomatoes and peas can be done last since it's pretty quick. If you have sun dried tomatoes you can use those, but just reconstitute them in hot water and squeeze out the excess liquid. If you have the oil packed ones, try to drain off as much of the oil as possible. As for the peas, add them to a pot of boiling water for a few minutes. Pretty much when they all float to the top it's time to drain and rinse under cold water.

To make the salad, just add everything into a large enough bowl and toss, making sure all the ingredients are well incorporated.

Enjoy!

Ice Cold Tofu

Here's the thing with posting pictures from my phone via email - I can send a picture and give the post a title, but I can't put content. So that means having to pull it up on my computer/tablet and working on it... when I get the chance to do so. And lately that has been a trickle.

But comments help. And Jon, thanks to your comment, here's the update.

Not too long ago, tofu was on sale at Chopper. Two for four, something along those lines, so I grabbed a bunch. This is the silken tofu, which I have only seen used for this. You can cut it up to look pretty, or you can be in nom nom mode and just cut it loose from its container and plop it on a plate. A splash of soy sauce, a little dribble of sesame seed oil, and a grind of pepper and you are set. This was M's vegetarian version, to mine I added some minced scallion and a generous helping of bonito flakes. 

Extremely easy to make, and perhaps the perfect snack when the weather is like this.

Go. Try it. You can thank me later.

For the Rain

It’s cold and dreary, and the rain doesn’t look like it will let up any time soon. Time to make some soup.



Vegetarian arroz caldo. Normally the fried tofu is used for a topping, but I used it instead as the “meat” of this soup. I need to work on the frying part, as it was a bit too oily for my tastes. But overall, this was pretty good. M and I were fighting over the last of this.

Sautee garlic, onion, ginger. Add rice and cook for a minute or two before adding broth. Bring to a boil and then set heat to low and let simmer until rice is cooked. Add saffron and scallions.Season to taste.

One of a Kind Tea House (Albany, NY)

I have been off for the last two weeks and honestly... bored out of my mind. I'm in that weird transitional state where I'm tired of school, but I still need to study, and I am not even thinking about the "job market." To clear my mind, I headed back up to Troy. While I didn't do that much, it was good to be back.

On Friday, I met up with Albany Jane and John at One of a Kind Tea House in Albany. It's located on Central Avenue, next door to Van's. All Over Albany has covered it, and if you check Albany Jane's blog, she's does a better job of writing up the visit than I will in the following paragraphs.

The mention of bubble tea is what initially drew me to this place. Not that I'm a huge bubble tea fanatic. I think the last one I had was years ago in Edgewater, and that was pretty mediocre (at Mitsuwa no less!). And then there was that time at Garden State when one of the tapioca pearls went down the wrong pipe. Safe to say I've been cautious on the bubble tea since then.

They go for $2.95, which is on the cheap side when it comes to bubble tea. According to the menu you can get them either hot or cold... but I just can't picture someone ordering a hot bubble tea. I was leaning toward the papaya, but when I asked the server if it was green papaya or regular papaya, the non-answer answer made me go with mango instead. I couldn't tell if it was made fresh or from a mix, but it tasted like sweet mangoes.

AJ and AJo went the smoothie route, and ordered lychee and green tea smoothies. Nice and thick, about the consistency of Jamba Juices. I think it may be something to check out the next time I go there with M. I also saw on the menu they have Vietnamese coffee, but no Thai iced tea. If they ever choose to put that on the menu, they will win me over even more.

Hold on... here's a thought- what if you put tapioca pearls in a Thai iced tea? I think I have to do this!

Instead of entrees, we each ordered a couple of small dishes and shared. In the picture above, one of my dishes, Golden Tofu. From what I could tell, the silken tofu may have been lightly battered and then fried. The end result was tofu cubes that had a slight crunch as you bit into it, followed by the creamy center you expect with silken tofu. Accompanying the tofu was a vegetable stir fry (zucchini, mushrooms, julienned carrots), which I could not stop eating. Both the tofu and vegetables were topped with a sauce, but I wasn't sure exactly what they were made of. I definitely tasted coconut, and something salty/sweet, which AJ may have discovered to be miso.

I also ordered the Calamari skewers, which as you can see, are not on skewers at all. It was sliced however, and came with what I think was the wrong sauce. Reminded me of the sweet and sour sauce you find at McDonalds. Corn syrupy, when something savory would have been a better choice. The squid itself was good, slightly charred on the outside, but still moist on the inside. It was presented on top of a bed of what looked like broken up fried lumpia wrappers. Only these fried pieces were slightly sweet, and lumpia wrappers on their own don't usually taste like that.

AJ ordered the spicy chicken wings, and found them not to be all that spicy. And they look a bit too saucy, but thick saucy... and that's just too much. I didn't try any, so this is all I can say about these wings. Perhaps if you go, you can ask for them to be spicier?

She also ordered the grilled lamb salad, which is pretty much a mixed salad topped with lamb and served with either the house sauce (the not-so-great sauce I got with my squid), or the spicy garlic sauce. I was imagining bigger slices of lamb, like you would see on a grilled steak salad, but then again... the pieces were small enough so that if you were to mix everything together, hopefully the meat will have dispersed evenly throughout the salad. The lamb was alright, especially if I came across a crunchy grilled piece. The salad was meh, but I wasn't really expecting a salad at a Chinese restaurant. Oh and the spicy garlic sauce? Didn't taste all that spicy... or garlicky for that matter.

AJo ordered the House Spicy Shrimp soup (which I did not take a picture of), and the beef curry. I didn't try the beef or the vegetables, but I did try some of the curry sauce. And it was good. Good enough to dip bits of lamb in. Good enough to dip the calamari in. Good enough to just get a cup of it and drink on its own. This small sampling makes me believe that OoaKTH knows what they're doing when it comes to curry dishes.

The curry was served with scallion pancakes, which I forgot to take a picture of, but they were really good. Not saturated in oil, like I've had at other places. These were slightly glistening and very flaky. Pair this up with some of the lamb and that curry sauce? I think we have a new dish in the making- curry lamb scallion pancake tacos? What? Yes!

The Golden Tofu was my favorite dish, but the curry a very close second. And for the price (the tofu is a whopping $3.95) it's something you really shouldn't pass up. I'm already planning my next trip there... this is something M needs to try.

One Of a Kind Tea House
305 Central Avenue
Albany, NY 12206
(518) 729-3067


M-F 10:00 - 9:00
Sa 11:00 - 10:00