NEW 'SODE: "Tuna" Salad Sandwich

HALF-ASSED RECIPE: Tofu Chilaquiles

Happy birthday, America! Here's something Mexican. I woke up at a ridiculously early hour this morning, and for some reason, was thinking about chilaquiles. I've had it many times, and I'm a big fan, but I never took a shot at making it before...so here's my version.

14 oz firm tofu (1 package)
6-8 dried chiles (any type or combination)
2 c vegetable stock
4 cloves garlic
1 onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
1 cobb of fresh corn (de-cobbed)
1 28oz can of diced or crushed tomatoes
8 oz cooked pinto beans or black beans (drained and rinsed)
2 TB cumin
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 corn tortillas
Olive Oil
Cooking Spray

Here' we go. Snip off the stems of the chiles and empty out the seeds. Then roughly cut them into 1 inch strips (scissors work best for this operation). Put them in a small pot with the vegetable stock, the whole garlic cloves, and half of the diced onion and bell pepper. Then bring it to a boil and drop to a simmer for about 10 minutes. This will rehydrate and soften the chiles.

In the meantime, lightly spray both sides of the tortillas with cooking spray or coat them with oil, put 'em on a sheet pan, and bake in the oven at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until crisp.

When the chiles are soft, add the canned tomatoes to the pot and puree with your immersion blender (or simply add it all to a blender or food processor). Season it with salt, pepper and 1 TB of cumin (or to your taste). Your sauce is done. If you removed it from the pot to blend it, return it to the pot and let it simmer on low, while you do the rest.

In a large pan, over high heat, sautee the corn, and the remaining onions and peppers in a little olive oil. When they start to brown, crumble the tofu into the pan, and season it with the rest of the cumin, the tumeric, paprika, salt, and pepper (or use the spice blend from my Breakfast Burrito episode). Sautee it all for 6-8 minutes, then add the beans and a couple ladles of the sauce. Oh, and...DON'T FORGET ABOUT YOUR TORTILLAS!!! As soon as you take them out of the oven, hit them with some salt and pepper, and lay them on a paper towel to drain.

Build your chilaquiles as follows:

One small ladle of sauce in the middle of the plate
One of the tortillas on the sauce
A couple spoonfuls of tofu mixture
Another tortilla
More tofu mixture
Some vegan soy cheese if you have it...I didn't...I also didn't have any avocados that I would have sliced and added to the top, and I was being too lazy to make any sour "cream" like I did in my Pancakes II: Addendum episode. I also would have added a fresh jalepeno or a couple fresh serrano chiles to the initial simmering stage, but this was pretty impromptu, so I went with what I had.



I recommend you make this right now, and you'll have a ready made breakfast to cure your hangover tomorrow, or to bring to your pyrotechnically challenged uncle in the recovery room. Two fingers down, eight to go...an American tradition.