Comfort food: pork chops with applesauce, roasted chicken, pot roast, steak and potatoes. Most of these classics include meat. Now restaurants are coming up with inventive yet classically comforting ways to use food that was once seen as only a replacement for the "real stuff." Instead of using tofu as merely a protein source, we are starting to see the use of it in dishes, accentuating the product rather than covering it up with sauces and encrusting it with spices. More restaurants are tending to the population that may not lead vegetarian lifestyles, but want to eat healthier or be more spontaneous with their meal choices. Asian cultures use these "substitute" proteins as a very large part of their diet, and the US is finally jumping on the bandwagon realizing that it can be interesting. I just read an article on the chef at my last internship site, Grace (Portland, ME), plating tempeh with braised collard greens, carrot marmalade, and lime pickle. Some are too close-minded to see the beauty in a dish like this.f As children, we are told to try this and that, making faces at the green things and smiling at the ice cream. But even as adults, we need to remind ourselves to test new things. Food is all about experimentation.
Right now, I'm trying to come up with a new dish to replace the Curry plate on the menu that is past its prime. I thought of an Indian recipe I've made in the past: kitchari, an ayurvedic dish loaded with good things for the entire body. It is fragrant with spices, yet each and every one can be differentiated on the palate. I want to pair this with braised chard, and a date-tamarind chutney. When trying to brainstorm the dish that would fit most with our menu, I thought of doing a crispy tofu tikka masala dish. I then presented this idea to Annie, and she said that the population coming to Greens generally does not order anything with tofu. And to that I say, let's make them enjoy it! Let's do something so good with this product that they want to order it. We could introduce it first as an inexpensive first course. Maybe I'm crazy and maybe this idea is completely out of the spectrum of good business practice, but there has to be a way to educate this country on the wonders of vegetarian protein. What better way than to give them the opportunity to put something in their mouth!
Below is the article from Flood's Tempeh dish, and a picture that I took (stole) from the site.
http://www.pressherald.com/2014/10/22/vegetarian-kitchen-tempeh-remains-unfamiliar-to-many-american-cooks/
Right now, I'm trying to come up with a new dish to replace the Curry plate on the menu that is past its prime. I thought of an Indian recipe I've made in the past: kitchari, an ayurvedic dish loaded with good things for the entire body. It is fragrant with spices, yet each and every one can be differentiated on the palate. I want to pair this with braised chard, and a date-tamarind chutney. When trying to brainstorm the dish that would fit most with our menu, I thought of doing a crispy tofu tikka masala dish. I then presented this idea to Annie, and she said that the population coming to Greens generally does not order anything with tofu. And to that I say, let's make them enjoy it! Let's do something so good with this product that they want to order it. We could introduce it first as an inexpensive first course. Maybe I'm crazy and maybe this idea is completely out of the spectrum of good business practice, but there has to be a way to educate this country on the wonders of vegetarian protein. What better way than to give them the opportunity to put something in their mouth!
Below is the article from Flood's Tempeh dish, and a picture that I took (stole) from the site.
http://www.pressherald.com/2014/10/22/vegetarian-kitchen-tempeh-remains-unfamiliar-to-many-american-cooks/