eclaire (what’s in a) name?

remember last week, when mike and i took a leisurely hike in discovery park and i mentioned i was in the eye of the storm as far as school went? yeah, well, here i am in the storm!

this weekend has been full of studying for my two midterms next week. while i know that it’s a privilege to be able to attend grad school and learn all this stuff (and i’m definitely learning a ton!), midterms are really not very much fun. but hey – after next week, i’ll be 25% of the way through this program. not that i’m counting….

somewhere in between studying for the upcoming exams, counting the number of days left in this quarter, school year, and program (seriously, my brain is silly like that, and i’ve never been able to not count the days left of school), i wandered into our sun room – aka mike’s office – and noticed that our cymbidium bloomed! the cymbidium is a beautiful orchid that mike’s mom gave us from the plants outside their house in santa cruz, and originally came from a plant that belonged to mike’s grandma. cymbidiums are usually pretty easy to take care of, but it took ours at least a year to flower when we first received it, and we split it up even further before we moved – my mom and mike’s sister have part of it – and it made the huge move up here to seattle, so i wasn’t expecting flowers this year. but there they were, and it was the highlight of my day!

ok, flower rambling aside – thanks for indulging me – let’s get to the recipe, friends!

i love love love indian food, but we rarely make it at home. if we do make indian food at home, it’s usually either chana masala or some sort of curry – nothing terribly exciting.

so when we saw this recipe for a quick, 30 minute saag tofu dish, we just had to make it. it’s super quick – and even quicker if you use frozen spinach. we had a lovely bunch of fresh spinach sitting in the fridge from our csa box, though, so i managed to overcome my hatred of washing spinach for long enough to make this dish.

i really loved the spices in this meal, but it was definitely better the second day – so if you have the luxury to make this the night before, do it! if not, it’s still a tasty and healthy meal, and will save you the trouble of calling for indian take out….ok, i apologize for the short post, but it’s back to the books for me! hope you’re all doing well!

one year ago: spaghetti sauce
two years ago: butternut squash and sage risotto

saag tofu

yields 4 servings
borrowed from vegetarian times

• 8oz extra firm tofu, cubed
• 2T canola oil, divided
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2½t curry powder
• 1t fresh ginger, grated
• 10 oz frozen spinach, thawed and drained (or 1 bunch spinach, washed, dried, and roughly chopped)
• 2T water
• 1/2c plain yogurt
• 1/4c (soy) milk
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1. pour 1T of the canola oil into a large saute pan and heat over medium heat
2. add the tofu cubes and cook for about 5 minutes, turning every minute or so, until golden
3. place the tofu into a bowl, put that aside, and add the other 1T of canola oil
4. heat the pan over medium heat again, and add the onion, sauteing for 5 minutes
5. stir in the garlic, curry powder, and ginger, sauteing for another minute
6. add the spinach and water, allowing to steam for one more minute, or until most of the water has evaporated
7. remove the pan from the heat and stir in the yogurt and soy milk, then add the tofu cubes
8. serve with rice and enjoy!