Chicken salad-esque sandwiches

This recipe came together when I decided I wanted to clean out my fridge before going to the grocery store. I had about a 1/3 of a bag of spinach, one carrot, half a white onion, and a package of firm tofu, and I figured I could mix them all together with some veganaise, mustard, nutritional yeast, and garlic salt for a kind of tofu salad. The end result was surprisingly good, crunchy, and flavorful, and somewhat approximates chicken salad.

Ingredients
-1 package firm tofu, drained and pressed with paper towels to remove excess water
-1 carrot, cut into matchsticks
-1/3 bag of baby spinach, roughly chopped
-1/2 white onion, diced
-2 T veganaise
-1.5 T spoonfuls Dijon mustard
-2 T nutritional yeast
-garlic salt to taste

Steps
1. Combine above ingredients and serve on toasted bread.

Sesame Tofu Noodles

Internship has been super busy so I haven't had time to post much...but I have been cooking, so I'll try to get the new recipes uploaded over the weekend. This recipe is a slightly adapted version of this one; it was really easy and packed a lot of flavor...plus it was great for lunch the next day.

Ingredients (makes 4-5 servings)
-6 garlic cloves, minced
-3 T sugar (I used light brown, but white would be fine)
-6 T rice vinegar
-6 T soy sauce
-2 T sesame oil
~5 green onions, diced
-4 T toasted sesame seeds
-one 16oz package angel hair spaghetti
-one package firm tofu, drained and cut into bite size pieces

(Note: I bought toasted sesame seeds, but if yours are raw you can toast them on a cookie sheet in a a 350 degree oven for about 5 mins.)
Steps
1. Place the garlic, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, and oil in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir constantly until the sugar dissolves. Turn off heat.
2. Cook the pasta according to package instructions in a large pot. About 4 mins before the pasta is done, add the tofu to the pot so that it gets heated up.
3. Drain your pasta and tofu and quickly rinse with warm water.
4. Transfer pasta to a large bowl. Pour the sauce over the drained pasta and tofu, top with sesame seeds and chopped green onion, and toss well.

Pico de Gallo

This is such a great summertime snack. We eat it with chips, but also just pour it over Romaine lettuce instead of using salad dressing. I use cherry tomatoes for this because I think they are a bit firmer, but I'm sure you could use larger tomatoes if your prefer. I actually used heirloom cherry tomatoes in this picture, which added some really nice color.

Ingredients
-1 plastic container of cherry tomatoes, cut into fourths or sixths depending on size
-3 cloves garlic, finely diced
-1 fresh jalapeno, seeds removed, finely diced
-juice of 2 limes
~1/4 - 1/3 C cilantro
-either 1/2 diced white onion or 1/4 diced red onion
-salt and pepper to taste

Steps
1. Combine all of the above in a bowl and stir well.

Best Ever Fish Tacos

My husband and I agree that this might be one of the best things that I've ever posted on Grad Gastronomy. I think several things went into making these fish tacos so amazing...unfortunately I can't take credit for them. First, was the super fresh (i.e., caught that day) halibut we used from the local fish market. Second, was the incredible Trader Joe's cilantro dressing we used for our fish taco sauce. However, I think even without all those things you could still recreate this recipe and wind up with some damn good fish tacos.

Ingredients (enough for about 6/7 small tacos)
-1 lb fresh halibut (or other white fish)
-1 C flour
~1 C beer
-1 small bag of pre-sliced cabbage
-pico de gallo (see link for recipe)
-Trader Joe's cilantro dressing (if you can't find that see below for a substitute)
-8 fresh corn tortillas
~1/2 C canola oil
-1 lime, cut into 8 slices

Potential sauce substitute (Note: I haven't actually tried this)

-1/4 C mayonnaise or plain yogurt
-1 T lime juice
-3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
-1 clove garlic, pressed or finely minced
-1/8 teaspoon cumin
-1 tablespoon water

-Whisk all of above together

Steps
(preheat oven to 350)
1. Cut your fish into pieces about half the size of your palm.

2. Mix your batter by adding the flour to a large bowl. Add in about 3/4 C beer. Stir. Keep slowing pouring in beer and stirring until your batter gets to be a pancake like consistency.

3. Submerge all your fish pieces in the bowl and make sure to get them nice and coated.
4. Heat a large skillet over medium to medium-high with about a centimeter of oil in the bottom (the amount of oil will vary depending on pan size). Make sure to wait until oil is hot before adding your fish. This will ensure it gets a good crunch.
5. Test your oil with a little drop of batter to see that it's hot enough...you want the batter to begin sizzling and browning. However, you don't want your oil so hot your batter burns.
6. Put your corn tortillas on a cookie sheet and stick in the oven to get warm.
7. Carefully add in all your fish pieces to the oil. Fry for about 2-3 minutes then flip and fry for another 2 minutes.

8. Transfer fish to a paper towel and pat to remove excess oil.
9. Assemble tacos by adding fish, dressing, slaw, and pico to your corn tortilla.

10. Garnish with lime slices.