secret special sauce

Maybe it's just me and maybe I've just heard one too many nasty rumors about the "cooks" in fast food restaurants, but does anyone else get skeeved out when they see "Chef So-and-So's Special Sauce" listed on a menu?  My brain just goes right to, "No, thank you!"  Yes, even in fancy restaurants with real chefs.

Anyway, I'm going to share tonight's dinner tale first, since it's relevant to the title, then we'll backtrack to last night's meal and activities.  My goal, both when I bought my groceries and even as I set out to start my chopping and cooking and whatnot tonight was to make Panang Cucumber Curry from the hallowed pages of the September Vegetarian Times magazine.  As I was going along, though, I realized that I made so many tweaks that what I made didn't actually resemble the recipe at all, aside from that they both involved cucumbers and the end result was a delicious curry.

Since I departed so far from the original recipe that I didn't actually consult the magazine at all once I started cooking, I feel completely clear to give you my easier, pared down recipe:

Tofu-Veggie Curry with Special Sauce
makes 4-6 servings (4, if you're piggy like me and Mister)

Ingredients:
1 cup basmati rice
1 3/4 cups water


14 oz extra firm tofu, cubed and drained
1 large hothouse cucumber, cubed
1 medium red bell pepper, sliced thinly lengthwise
1 Tbsp peanut oil
2 Tbsp tamari, divided
15 oz jar of prepared curry cooking sauce*


Boil water in a 2.5-qt saucepan with a tight-fitting lid.  Stir in basmati rice and cover, reducing heat to its lowest setting.  Steam for 20-25 minutes then turn off heat and allow to sit for at least 5 minutes, preferably 10.

Meanwhile, cube the tofu into 1" pieces and allow to drain on a towel.  [Alternately, you could press it for an hour, but my main goal here was a quick and easy meal.]  Heat the peanut oil and 1 Tbsp tamari in a saute pan or large, deep skillet until the tamari starts to bubble a bit.  Add the tofu and stir, gently but thoroughly, to coat all tofu with the tamari-oil mixture.  Cover and saute on medium heat 7-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, while you prep the pepper and cucumber.

About 5 minutes into the tofu sauteing time, lay bell pepper slices over top of the tofu and replace cover. Dice your cucumber, then stir the cucumber in with the pepper slices and tofu; at the same time, stir in the prepared curry sauce and the remaining 1 Tbsp tamari.  Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer gently 3-5 minutes, just until the sauce and cucumber are warmed through.

To serve, plate a bed of basmati and then spoon the curry over top of it.  You could garnish with a thai basil leaf if you want to be fancy.  I didn't.

* I used Patak's Original Jalfrezi Curry Cooking Sauce for our dinner and I quite liked how it came out.  It was not terribly spicy at all, so if you're looking for that aspect, you may want to also stir in any spare harissa or sambal oelek you have lying around.  Patak's has a whole line of curry cooking sauces, but be sure to check the ingredients - this one is vegan, but others use real cream.

Anyway, when I got home from work last night, my home was dark.  How many times have I started a Leftovers story like that?  Does anyone have the next line memorized?  I'll give you one hint.

So, since Mister was unconscious and slightly delirious and taking up the whole bed, I decided to try to "enhance" what was left of our totally anticlimactic Orecchiette con Broccoli.

I started out by heating some olive oil and white wine together in a skillet.  I added the last of the leftovers and sprinkled everything generously with my Mediterranean sea salt, but then I decided to also add some tamari.  There are very few things in the realm of stove-top cooking that I don't think would be improved by the addition of tamari.

Fortunately for me, this was definitely one of those things!  It was so tasty I was disappointed there was so little left!  In the end, though, it left more room for dessert: Soy Delicious Fruit-sweetened Chocolate Almond "ice cream."

My internet connection crapped out before I could come on here and babble, but that gave me a great excuse to do two things I'd been meaning to do for a while: I mended a hole in my bathrobe and a whole mess of socks while watching "Pretty Woman" for the first time in at least a year (that's a long time for me to go without!).

Did someone say Pretty Woman?


Purely by coincidence, there just happens to be a new post up on Pretty Woman in an Ugly World.  It's not about the Whole Foods experience, rather, I take on an even bigger giant - the Starpower of Starbucks.  Check it out if you have a chance!

sometimes the sequel is better

While it is rarely true in motion pictures, I find that a dish is usually better the second or third time I make it.  I can only imagine that this is because the first time, I stay strictly close to the written recipe, and on future adventures, I break free of the tyranny of the recipe, allowing myself to tweak a little here and there.

Tonight, I reprised Pasta Shells with Black-Eyed Peas from The Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook.  We liked it just fine the first time around, which is why I made it again, but since I looked back over my original post, I remembered to give it a little more flavor this time around.  Mission accomplished: a generous sprinkling of my beloved sea salt blend took this from a decent dinner to a fantastic meal.

The shells were a little bigger than I thought they'd be, once they were all cooked up.  I knew they weren't as small as the ones I usually get, but these are really big - as in, almost clever-hors-d'ouevres-stuff-them big.  It was actually kind of fun trying to see how much "filling" I could force into each shell before stuffing it in my mouth.

I'm an adult.  I can play with my food if I want to.

extreeeeeeme close-up!

Anyway, in about 24 hours, I'll be trying to force myself to go to sleep so I can get up at some horrid time like 4am (which is when I should be going to sleep, not waking up).  Fortunately, the happy ending is that after I sleep through a four hour plane ride and groggily locate the bathroom and Starbucks at the Salt Lake City airport, I will find myself in San Francisco, ready for a much-needed, incredibly deserved [albeit short] vacation.

I've been researching cocktails on Esquire.com so I know some fun things to order (I am Over-Prepared Woman - that's my superhero name), and I've scoped out a natural, non-toxic nail salon where I hope to get a manicure to pass the time between my flight's arrival and my sister's.  This time tomorrow I'll be packing and panicking and hopefully, remembering to check-in online.  I'll be packing my fun little owl book as well as my camera (and the battery charger!), but I have absolutely no idea if I'll get a chance to post while I'm out there.

That being said, it's time to reveal what's behind Secret Door #1.

I've decided to create a new blog.  Don't worry - I'm not abandoning this one!  Angst Loves Spinach will continue to be my primary blogging home, but Pretty Woman in an Ugly World is going to be a kind of supplement, so to speak.

I realized that although this was meant to be a "look ma, I'm learning to cook vegan!" blog, there are a lot of times I've written up reviews of restaurants or other food-oriented establishments.  Customer service is very important to me and I feel like it is a dying art.  In an effort to put the spotlight on those businesses that continue to offer World Class Customer Service, as well as expose those who don't quite know how to spell it, I've created this new blog.

The spark behind it was two-fold.  If you want to wander over there, you'll find the "story" laid out amidst the tabs (which I know are still woefully lacking from this blog, and I hope to correct that soon!), but let me give you a brief synopsis:

As I mentioned in the last post, 13 of Mister's and my friends joined us for an evening of fun at North Bowl, based on our recommendation because we so enjoyed the first time we visited.  Our experience this time around was so far from the first experience as to be unrecognizable.  Our waitress was quite possibly the worst waitress I've ever had.  It was embarrassing, since it was my suggestion and most of our friends were from out of town.  I sent off a long, detailed, and "passionate" email to the management that very night, letting them know how unacceptable our experience was.

Management's response was swift and favorable - they reviewed their video tapes, identified the "culprit" and will address this occurrence with her.  Additionally, at the time of my choosing, Mister and I and two friends have been invited back to the bowling alley for a round of bowling and drinks on the house.

At my work, we try to keep an evaluation of World Class Customer Service by asking ourselves at the end of a customer interaction, "How does the client feel about me?  How the customer feel about our company?"  So, how do I feel about North Bowl?

I'm thrilled with them.

Seriously!  Within 12 hours of me writing that email, the management took the appropriate steps to ensure my future satisfaction with their establishment.  That kind of customer service is so out of fashion these days that it reminded me of something I had pondered long ago.

In the beginning of the movie, "Pretty Woman," Julia Roberts's character, Vivian (perfect '80s name) finds herself rudely turned away from a boutique on Rodeo Drive.  She is devastated because all she wanted to do was buy a dress so she would look appropriate for her dinner date.  I'm sure at least most of my readers are well enough acquainted with the scene that I don't have to rehash it, but here is what has stuck with me for years now: when she returns to the hotel and gets "in trouble" with Barnard, the hotel manager, she tells him her sob story (while losing her composure) and he, despite his notions about her and her occupation, has an irrepressible desire to make it right.  He picks up the phone, calls a fancy department store and calls in a favor, resulting in Vivian getting the perfect dress and everyone is happy.

The reason this stuck with me is because it is my opinion that a person should not have to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars per night at a high-end hotel to be treated with respect and dignity.  The a$$-kissing is nice and I suppose that's something for money to buy, but it just feels like more and more often, we accept substandard service simply because there is no outstanding service available (or affordable).  I had an entrepreneurial moment while watching the moving about 5 years ago that I would like to get into hospitality just so that I could start my own hospitality business modeled after the service demonstrated at the Beverly Wilshire, but somewhere "normal" people could go.  Everyone deserves a little sucking up once in a while, don't you think?  (that is, by the way, absolutely a goal I have for this vacation - we're staying in two boutique hotels and I expect to be treated like a female version of Edward Lewis.)

So, in an effort to shift our service paradigm, especially in a time when money is far more scarce, so far more valuable, I want to highlight businesses that either offer incredible service consistently or companies, like North Bowl, who are willing to do whatever it takes to regain your business after someone messes up.  Occasionally, I may also write a scathing review of a business that exhibits unapologetically horrendous service, obviously hoping to influence my readers to take their hard-earned dollars elsewhere.

So, if you get bored in my absence, please, feel free to poke around on Pretty Woman in an Ugly World and let me know what you think!