I heart tofu today

I just made the most amazing, delicious, and possibly irreplicable tofu dish for dinner that I am going to attempt to describe here. Be patient -- it's quite a culinary story.

First, I created a marinade: rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, a few smashed cloves of garlic, a thumb-sized piece of smashed up ginger, and some red pepper flakes. I then cubed up half a package of extra firm tofu, lightly squeezed it dry between paper towels, and set it to soak for about 20 minutes in the marinade.

Then, in my cold cast iron fry pan, I poured a good amount of peanut oil. I added a few additional cloves of garlic, minced, another thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and minced, about half a small onion, minced, and a big handfull of "snowflake coconut."

Next, I turned on the heat to about medium. (My stove gets quite hot quite quickly -- you may need to adjust the heat accordingly. You want the onion/garlic/ginger stuff to lightly brown, but not too quickly.) When the onions are just turning soft, add the tofu (just the cubes -- not the marinade.) I cooked the tofu, stirring once or twice, until it was nice and brown. Then I sprinkled over a generous amount of sesame seeds, and added about a half teaspoon of red curry paste. Stir this about until the sesame seeds toast nicely. Then I added two big spoonfulls of peanut butter and some leftover cooked whole wheat linguine. I stirred this around until the peanut butter was all melty and everything stuck together in a big mess. (!) I added what looked like a nice amount of salt. Then I poured in enough water to "deglaze" the pan and added a couple of big handfulls of spinach. (I would have prefered to use veg broth, but alas, I was out.) I cooked it all down until the spinach was wilted and it had a very thick, almost paste-like sauce. I am now devouring this peanut-coconut-spice covered tofu noodle concoction with a side of steamed broccoli. Mmm........!