Recipe revamp

Back when we were first married there was this dish we used to love. I don’t know where the recipe came from--maybe a magazine? But we ate it all the time. I don’t recall ever eating any vegetables with it. But that’s kind of how we used to eat--meat and rice. This was so amazingly flavoured but relatively high in sugar. You wanna know what it was? Course you do.

 Cinnamon soy chicken and sweet rice. Whoa it was good. The recipe has long since disappeared and often we have thought about how we could recreate it in a healthier vegan way but neither of us could remember much about it. But after some recent conversations and getting Spiderman to travel in the WABAC machine he dredged up a memory.

 

Equal parts soy sauce, sherry and sugar plus 1 tsp cinnamon for the chicken. I know we used to buy cooking sherry when we lived in the US, but have not found it here. I had found sherry vinegar which might work. It would make it more tangy. Hmmmm.

 So I marinated tofu with ¼ cup tamari soy sauce, ¼ cup sherry vinegar, 1.5 TB agave syrup and 1 tsp cinnamon.

 

But what about the rice? It was white rice cooked with cinnamon and had 1 cup powdered sugar sifted into it at the end. These days we really dig brown basmati rice as it is healthier and I think 1 cup icing sugar is way too much. I decided to cook the rice in a bit of coconut milk--to add sweetness plus 1 tsp cinnamon and sifted in ¼ cup icing sugar. It was perfect.

 

But what about vegetables? I know we never used to eat those funny coloured things, but these days we love them. So I roasted a sweet potato, and onion and a pepper to go with it.

 The verdict:

Really good--the rice was spot on like we remembered and plenty sweet, the veg complimented it nicely and the tofu was good. Not as sweet as the chicken, but the tangy went well with the sweetness of the rice. We’ll definitely be having this again. How nice to rediscover and veganise an old favourite.

Cinnamon Soy Tofu and Sweet Rice

 Optional: freeze tofu overnight and then thaw in the fridge. it gives it a chewier texture we like.

 

Press your tofu to get the excess water out and then marinate for one hour with:

¼ cup tamari soy sauce,

¼ cup cooking sherry if you can get it, sherry vinegar if you can’t

 1.5 TB agave syrup (or maple syrup)

 1 tsp cinnamon

 

The veg:

Preheat your oven to 200C/400F.

Cut up 1-2 sweet potatoes, 1-2 onions and a red pepper and drizzle with 1 TB oil. Cook 15 minutes, stir then 15 more.

While you are preheating the oven start the rice.

 1 cup brown basmati rice

1 tin light coconut milk plus enough water to make a total of 2 cups liquid (or do what I did--1 cup plant based milk, plus 1 cup water plus 2 TB coconut butter)

1 tsp cinnamon

Heat the liquid and the cinnamon and then add the rice when liquid boils, turn down the heat and put the lid on. Our rice cooks in 25 minutes.

 The tofu:

Carefully remove it from the marinade and pan fry--not too high heat as the sugars will burn--until brown on both sides. I started it right before I stirred the veg. Whilst it is cooking add 1 tsp arrowroot (or cornstarch) to leftover marinade and at the end pour over marinade and let thicken.

 This is how it looks when you are done:

 

It really was amazing--all sweet and tangy. Now go and make it yourself.