So often, I find myself stuck in a rut of the same recipes over and over, with some variations here and there but generally in the same format. Meanwhile, I have an entire shelf of cookbooks of all shapes, sizes, and vintages, just waiting to be used! And yet I continue to go back to my faithful recipes (including Old Faithful, of course). It’s a shame.
Tonight I broke free of that rut and delved into a cookbook I’ve had for ages, having picked it up at a little bookshop in Havana, Florida, nearly 15 years ago. I’m a sucker for handmade cookbooks – those spiral-bound affairs that support the Junior League, or the volunteer fire department, or the Methodist church, or what-have-you – and I’m also a sucker for vegetarian-friendly materials. Put the two together, as in the one I have to show you tonight? Magic, folks. Magic.
The “Leon County Food Co-Op Cookbook, Second Edition,” circa 1979, is the book of choice for this evening, and it fit the bill just beautifully in terms of preparation and final result. But what is even more exciting, to me, is that I know the Leon County Food Co-Op all too well; I grew up in Leon County, Florida, and even though we now live far away, LeeLee and I remain card-carrying members of the city’s premier co-op, now named New Leaf Market! So to find this in Havana – a short drive from Tallahassee/Leon County – years ago was quite a thrill. To use it tonight was even more fun.
I decided to go to the “Main Dishes” section and grab the first recipe that caught my eye. Lo and behold, that happened to be member Frank Brown’s recipe for “Non-Nuclear Tofu and Rice”! (I don’t think the co-op will mind if I display a photo of the recipe down below this post – New Leaf friends, if you DO mind, please let me know and I shall cease and desist posthaste!)
This is an incredibly easy, hearty dish that didn’t take but a few minutes of hands-on work to put together (cooking the brown rice took a bit longer, but the rice cooker did the heavy lifting there). And though it takes longer, do use brown rice; I can see how it stands the test of the frying pan much better than white rice would, and it makes a heartier meal to boot!
I confess I misread the instructions a little bit and instead of “dous(ing) the heat and add(ing) tamari,” I doused the rice with tamari, and it was all the better for the mishap. So let my lesson be your instruction.
LeeLee and I each went back for seconds – of the non-nuclear entrée and the English peas I served alongside – and were pleased to see that there’s plenty left over for one of us to enjoy a nice lunch. We’ll definitely make this dish again – and we won’t be strangers to the rest of the cookbook, either!
:)