Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I made the "Scampi" for the first time yesterday. It was soooo good, much better than I anticipated! I used super-firm, high protein tofu from Trader Joe's, and the constarch mix didn't stick to it. Instead it stuck to the skillet (I don't have nonstick cookware so I used stainless steel. Nonstick was not specified in the recipe and I didn't anticipate that this would be an issue). I ended up having to add extra olive oil to prevent burning and I also wonder if I had it on too high a heat level. My stove is kind of sucky and I have to get a good look at the burners and guess what the heat setting is based on the size of the flames.

I would appreciate tips from anyone who has made the "Scampi" recipe in the past (pretty sure someone raved about it here) as to how to get the cornstarch to stay on the tofu instead of the skillet.

Even so, this meal was absolutely delicious. And completely unexpected. I haven't cooked with dulse before and I wasn't sure I would care for it but my husband and I both loved it.

i use 'earthfare' store brand and i love it. bought one kind at the grocery store once, and didn't like it as much.

I am having trouble finding dulse. I've found the granules at Earth Fare but not the powder. Which form of dulse did you use?

I didn't even notice that it called for powder! I just used granules and they worked fine. Organic dulse granules and the brand is Main Coast Sea Vegetables.

We don't have earthfare stores here. I haven't found a brand of hoisin sauce I like as much as the kind I've had at restaurants.

well that is good to know that you used the granules and they were just fine. i was concerned it might be crunchy. i did just find a vegan recipe online for crab cakes that doesn't call for dulse so i might give that a whirl....

i've seen MCSV brand at Earth Fare. how did it taste in the dish? nicely fishy??

Well I'm most grateful to my Earth Fare store. I ♥ it. We have no Whole Foods or anything else like that. Do you have a WF? Have you thought of asking the restaurant owner if you could buy some of their hoisin sauce "to go"?! You should do it!

The brand hubby bought at the grocery was Dynasty. It wasn't fantastic, but it wasn't awful either. If I didn't know how great the Earth Fare stuff tasted, I would probably like the Dynasty brand more ;)

I didn't find it crunchy. At least with Main Coast brand the dulse granules were pretty small. The flavor was more sea vegetable than fish, but it blended nicely with the garlic, dried basil and dried oregano. The end result was really quite good, withe the only problem being the cornstarch issue I mentioned above.

Yes, we have Whole Foods and they have hoisin sauce but so far the brands I've tried there have been okay but not wow. The restaurant hoisin sauce I remember loving was something I tasted when I lived on the other side of the country, so going to the restaurant to purchase some is not an option. I'm going to try more grocery store brands but if none of them work out well enough, I may try an Asian market.

Well I definitely do not recommend the Dynasty brand hoisin sauce.

Regarding the cornstarch issue, I'd e-mail Robin. I've e-mailed her before with a couple of recipe questions and she is fairly prompt with writing back.

I made the deconstructed banh mi salad tonight, using tofu since I didn't have any seitan on hand. It was really, really good! Really, the stand out part was the tofu with the sauce, because I'm pretty sure that stuff would be good on a million other things and it really reminded me of the sticky brown sauce they use on the charcoal meats at Vietnamese places. It was a pretty light and healthy feeling meal, but if you've got a big appetite, this might really only make 2 or 3 servings for you, especially if you only use 8 oz tofu (see below). I might have used a bit more of the veggies on each plate, too, since I was kind of eyeballing what looked right. You could also always bulk it up by using more bread, because the recipe only calls for 1/2 a baguette, so... yeah.

The biggest change I made was to use double the tofu (and as a consequence, I doubled the oil, ginger, garlic, and soy sauce that you sprinkle over it) because I figured that I'd end up wasting the other half of the block if I only did 8 oz. I really should have quadrupled it, considering that my partner kept running back to the skillet to steal more little pieces of it until I made a frowny face because I had planned on eating that for lunches the next two days... Haha. He usually hates tofu and eats like a bird, so I was surprised!