Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Tofu Thai Wraps w/ Spicy Peanut Sauce


Is there a dish or special sauce from your favorite restaurant that you can never quite figure out how to recreate?  I have a serious problem folks, I terrible miss Anchorage sometimes, not for the majestic mountains or the crisp clean air, but for the restaurants..how sad is that, I mean really.

There was a place called Bears Tooth that my husband and I could never get enough of, hell he even proposed to me there, thats how much we loved this place : )
Now when I say they had great food, I really mean they had kick you in the teeth slap you on the ass great food!!
I'd have day dreams of infiltrating their kitchen to steal their recipes like some food ninja spy. I actually contemplated taking a second job in the kitchen while I was stationed in Anchorage just to learn how to make their menu and gain all their delicious secrets.
Another reason why this place was so fantastic was their health conscience and vegetarian/vegan conscience menu.  You could sub any meat dish with tofu or they had a giant menu with items that didn't contain meat at all.

This Tofu Thai wrap with peanut sauce was always a favorite of mine and my husbands.  They originally make it with chicken but we could always order it with tofu.  My true favorite part of the wrap was the peanut sauce, I could seriously drink it straight, it was that good.  We would always try to save enough of the sauce to dip our chips in, but that rarely happend.  Why do dipping sauces come in such tiny dixie cup sized containers, its never enough!

 So tonight, after another food fantasy about Bears Tooth I thought I should finally give it my best shot, the ingredients for inside the wrap were pretty dead on.  Though the peanut sauce just wasn't as excellent as the original.  Still looking for the best Peanut sauce. Though this one will have to do for now.

Tofu Thai Wrap with Spicy Peanut Sauce
By Oishii Treats inspired by Bears Tooth


Yields 3 Wraps
Ingredients
3 Large flour tortillas
1/2 Red Pepper sliced thinly
1/2 of a large cucumber sliced thinly the long way
1/3 of the tofu block from a 14oz package of extra firm tofu
1/4 Cup of cashews
a handful of green cabbage sliced thinly
a handful of red cabbage sliced thinly
a handful of dried Japanese somen noodles (used for cold noodle dishes)

Spicy Peanut Sauce

Ingredients
2 Tablespoons smooth peanut butter
2 Tablespoons coconut milk
1 Tablespoon Lime Juice
1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crushed red peppers

Directions
-In a small bowl whisk all your ingredients together for the peanut sauce until combined.
-Preheat the oven at 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper
-Drain your tofu and cut about 1/3 of the block from the package and set onto some paper towels
-Cut the tofu into 1/4 inch thick piece, once the tofu is cut, place another paper towel on top and gently apply pressure to the tofu to help drain excess water.  do this for about 1-2 minutes.


- place your sliced tofu on the cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and apply with a brush some peanut sauce to the tofu and bake for 10 minutes, turning once, brush again with peanut sauce and bake for another 10 minutes.
- Remove your tofu and set aside to cool.
- Cook the somen noodles according to package directions, takes literally 2 minutes and rinse in cold water.
Now assemble your wrap.
-Brush the middle of the wrap with peanut sauce and add some red peppers, cabbage, cold noodles, cashews, tofu and cucumber, add some more peanut sauce and fold into a wrap.  use the extra sauce for dipping.


On another wonderful note I have a couple people I need to sincerely thank.  Chris from My Mother's Daughter for passing on the One Lovely Blog Award.  She has such a beautiful blog with wonderful stories about her family and I was honored she would think of me and pass on such a sweet award. Second CJ from Food Stories for nominating me for the very first monthly Food Stories Award, how cool! Seriously I'm always surprised to receive these awards from my blogger peers, its so wonderful to be recognized by some amazing bloggers and to have the opportunity to pass on the love.

                     









There's only a couple of rules to the One Lovely Blog Award first write 7 random facts about yourself and second nominate some blogs that you enjoy.

1. I have minor hearing loss from working around F-15, F-16 fighters. Not to mention the same equipment I worked on had small jet engines in them.
2. My border collies name is Ardie.  We named him Ardie because as a puppy he looked like a rodent or tiny aardvark with his long snout and pink dotted nose.
3. I drive the coolest Japanese car ever, a 1996 Nissan Rahseen. Looks like a tiny jeep cherokee
4. Cannot stand mayo, love miracle whip but hate mayonnaise.
5. I almost didn't enlist in the military because I was offered a partial scholarship to run cross country at a college back in OR.
6. Speaking of running, I set a record in basic training for the fastest 5k and 1.5 Mile for females. 18:20 and 9:06
7. One day, hopefully a couple of years from now we will be stationed somewhere in Europe.

Some blogs I would like to pass this on to.

Willow from Will Cook For Friends, Anna from Crunchy Creamy Sweet and Tess from Slow Cooking Kitchen

For the Food Stories nominee you share one randome fact about yourself and nominate 5 other bloggers that you enjoy reading. I think im good on the random facts about me tonight ;)

My Nominees are:

Kit from I-Lost in Austen, Chris from My Mother's Daughter, Serena from Serena Bakes Simply from Scratch, Canadian chicky VIMWAC, and Zoe at Bake For Happy Kids





20 comments:

  1. this sounds really good and worth a try :)

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  2. This looks great! I can't wait to try it. Thanks for sharing!

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  3. We love wraps! These look great! The sauce sounds amazing - can't wait to try it. Thank you for sharing, Neshanne!

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  4. Great write-up on your nomination & congrats, Neshanne. By the way, I loved your post about your experiences in anchorage. Since I've seen your pic of you in the military garb, I could totally visualize you as a food ninja spy!

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    1. lol thanks CJ, I still wish I took that second job there.

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  5. Thanks for the nomination! This made my day. :D

    And oh my gosh yes! I recently ate at a restaurant that was *so* good, and I haven't the slightest idea what all of the ingredients were or how to replicate it. I hadn't considered trying to work there to learn their secrets, but I was thinking I might try to sneak into the kitchens by telling them I'm a food blogger and want to do a piece on them. Ninja! Haha!

    These wraps sound delicious, even if they aren't the same as the restaurant's. :)

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    1. Glad it made your day =) Thats a brilliant idea to say you want to do a interview, hmm ideas are floating around in my head :)

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  6. This looks lovely, I've been looking for something light to take in for lunch and this looks perfect. Thank you!

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    1. this is a perfect grab and go wrap. Hope you like!

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  7. These look awesome! I love wraps - but never thought to try it with peanut sauce. Sounds mouth watering. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. Hi laurie, omg peanut sauce will rock your world, so tasty with wraps, chips, veggie sticks you name it :)

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  8. Hi Neshanne. I've been looking for an easy sauce for my wraps and this peanut sauce just looks tasty. Thanks for sharing.Meriem

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    1. Glad you like the sauce, its super fast to whip up. have a great day!

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  9. I don't know what it is about tofu, I'm pretty sure it's a mental thing, I just can't get past it. This looks very yummy though. Maybe I should try baking it.

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    1. I totally get where you are coming from with tofu Cass, I don't use it often and there is only a few dishes I will put it in. It's all about how you prepare it, I think I prefer it baked. If u do try it, bake the tofu for at least 30 minutes that way more of the moisture is baked out. :) good luck. =)

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  10. I was a bit slow to get around to posting! Life has been a bit crazy but I would like you to know it means the world to me! I hope you have a fabulous day sweetie! XOXO

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    1. No worries, glad you got it =) have a wonderful day!!

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