Broccoli and Tofu Stir-Fry

Before I was a rabbinical student, I was a college student. Back when I was starting college, I decided to study Mandarin. I knew I wanted to learn either Mandarin or Arabic, because at the time my life's ambition was to be a diplomat, and I figured that experience with a critical language would be helpful. As it turns out, Arabic definitely would have been. It would have helped me with Hebrew and potentially offered me opportunities to live and study in the Middle East prior to beginning rabbinical school. I wish I were proficient in Arabic and it's number two on my list of languages to study (Hebrew being, by necessity, at the top).

Yet, despite Arabic's obvious ties with rabbinical school, I'm so glad I made the choice I did. Studying Mandarin, and the deep engagement with Chinese cultures that accompanied that study, was an incredible part of my college years and early twenties. I got to spend a semester in Beijing and a year in a village in northwest Yunnan, places the rabbinic path may never have taken me. There's a lot more I could say about that, but, for now, I'm focused on food.

When I lived in China, I ate a whole lot of broccoli. It was delicious and nutritious and available most of the year, and stir-fried with a bunch of ginger and garlic there was really nothing better. I might not eat quite the amount of broccoli now that I consumed back then, but it remains my favorite vegetable, and I still love to stir-fry it now and again. Adding tofu to the mix and eating it over rice makes for an easy and relatively quick dinner.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rice and 2 cups water
• 1 container of tofu, drained, pressed, and sliced into triangles
• 2 cups chopped broccoli florets and stems
• 3-6 cloves garlic (big range, I know, but I love garlic more than your average joe). Chop one clove roughly into larger pieces and mince the rest.
• 1-2 inches of ginger (see above-- if you like ginger, go for the larger amount). Chop a half inch roughly into larger pieces and mince the rest
• 3 large scallions, minced
• several glugs canola or peanut oil
• 1 tsp rice vinegar
• 1 TBL soy sauce, plus more for serving
• 1 TBL sesame oil
• 2 TBL sesame seeds
• Sriracha to taste (I usually put a small swig into the wok and then top off my bowl)

Procedure:

• Set up your rice to cook. I imagine you know how to cook rice already. I like to put mine in a rice cooker and press the "white rice" button or "brown rice" button and go about my culinary business. ;) 
• Prep your veggies, separating out the roughly chopped garlic and ginger, along with a few pieces of scallion, to flavor the oil.
• Get out a large pan (preferably a wok, if you've got one), heat it over medium high, and coat the bottom in oil. You'll probably need a tablespoon or two, depending on the size. Add the larger pieces of garlic, ginger, and scallion, and a pinch of salt, and swirl them around. This will make the oil, and your food, delicious.
  
• When the pieces start to brown, remove them (you can toss them or put them back in later, or munch them while you cook), and add your tofu triangles. You want the bottom of the pan to have enough free space for flipping, so you may need to do this in batches. Fry the tofu until golden on the bottom, then flip (carefully! you don't want to leave the crust on the bottom of the pan!) and repeat til it's golden on the other side. Remove to a plate and repeat if necessary. 
  
• Add another tsp or so of oil, just enough to swirl around (the pan should be plenty hot still), and add the broccoli and minced garlic and ginger. Toss around, keeping the heat medium high, until it starts to crisp up a little bit (with the wok this hot, that shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes), then add 2 TBL of water, quickly cover the pan, and let it steam for a couple of minutes more. The broccoli will turn a beautiful vibrant green and still keep its nice crunch. Uncover and add the scallions. Toss around for another minute. Taste the veggies and make sure they're cooked enough. 
  
• Return the tofu to the wok, add the sesame seeds, and toss around for about a minute. Then turn the heat to low. 
• Stir in the rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and sriracha (if using). Give it all a good stir and taste, adding more of any condiments you'd like. 
  
• Serve over rice (or rice noodles would be good too), with extra soy sauce and sriracha.