Yellow Curry Paste

This paste is awesome. Its very easy to make, but it does take some time. It's extremely versatile in that you can use it in stir fry, pad thai, beef, chicken, pork, shrimp, vegetables, tofu, the list goes on and on and on.  Pretty much just add coconut milk!

So this recipe will definitely make more than you need for one meal. You will need to freeze the rest into an ice cube tray so that you can just pop one or two into the dish you are cooking when ever you like!

I love curry so I put it on everything! Don't be afraid to get creative!

Ingredients 

• 1 6 inch piece of fresh ginger
• 4 shallots
• 4 heads of garlic, as in the entire thing
• 1 chile serrano/jalepeno or more if you like a bit more spice
• ¼ cup of fresh cilantro
• lemon grass, fresh or from gourmet garden
• I finely chopped fresh lemon grass and slowly added to taste at the end
• chili pepper paste to taste 
• I used Gourmet Garden
• There's also Thai Red chili paste
• 2-3 tbsp turmeric
• 2-3 tbsp curry powder
• 2 tsp roasted ground coriander
• 2 tsp salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Thinly slice ginger, drizzle with olive oil and place flat in an aluminum foil packet
3. Remove the outer layers of skin from the garlic and Chop the tops off of garlic, but keep the skins on everything
4. Drizzle garlic and shallots with olive oil (with skins) and individually wrap them in aluminum foil. 
5. Bake for 20 minutes, remove the ginger packet, and continue to bake the shallots and garlic for another 30 mintues
6. Combine everything in a food processor or blender. I've found that the easiest way to deal with the soft garlic is to pinch from the bottom of the head of garlic and squeeze the cloves out.
7. Portion out what you need for today
8. Freeze the rest in tablespoon portions in an ice cube tray. Freeze for a couple of hours, then place cubes in a freezer safe ziplock bag

Basil Pesto Baked Tofu

This is an interesting one because it is so versatile! Its lunch, dinner, snack, and even a salad topping. Today I ate it simply as you see above with a side of veggies. But in the past I've thrown it into veggie stir fry bowls, rice bowls, salads, curries, pad thai, ramen, salads, the list goes on.

Tofu is a blank canvas. The possibilities are endless. I love pesto, so that's what I did today. I bought a huge pack from Costco, so I'll play with it some more and see what I come up with!

Ingredients

• Firm tofu
• Basil Pesto Sauce

For the Basil Pesto Sauce

• Fresh Basil, from your basil plants if you're a boss
• Garlic, whole or chopped
• Olive Oil
• Parmesan Cheese
• Pine Nuts/Almonds/Hemp Seeds (whatever is on hand)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
3. Drain the water from the tofu
4. Horizontally slice into 3 thinner layers
5. Set aside the amount of tofu that you need for today, and refrigerate the remaining tofu in a container with water.
6. Cut your tofu into 3 equal rectangles
7. Salt the tofu if desired and sandwich the tofu between two paper towels. Place a heavy can, or any other item you have on hand on top. This will help dry the tofu a little
8. Spread a small amount of pesto on each side of the tofu
9. Bake for 15 minutes on each side, possibly a little more depending on desired crispiness
   Note: The bottom side of the tofu will be browning, not the top.