Food Network Friday – Jamie’s Moorish Pork Chops

You’ll have seen that I picked the challenge for this Food Network Friday. The only problem is that I hadn’t really given a thought to how I’d do it when I picked it. I had some vague thoughts of stuffed seitan or tofu then put it to the back of my mind. Then all of a sudden, time had flown and I had to crack on with it. Even as I was getting the ingredients out of the fridge I wasn’t really sure what I was doing.

I decided to smoke some tofu to start with, so I smoked an 8oz block of tofu for 15 minutes with oak chips. While that was happening I went about my beans, as below:

2 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup finely chopped vegan chorizo (I used some Redwoods tht I had hanging around the freezer but I prefer to make my own from Viva Vegan)
1 peeled and chopped red onion
1 stalk finely chopped celery
1 chopped red pepper
A few sprigs rosemary
2 bay leaves
1.5 tins flageolet beans
1 bag spinach
1/2 tsp liquid smoke

I pretty much followed Jamie’s instructions for the beans but used the above ingredients. I just had some celery floating about that needed using and it always goes well with beans. I could have used white beans but I adore the colour of flageolet beans and hardly get to eat them so I used them instead.

Once the tofu was smoked I prepared the stuffing just as Jamie did but then I got stuck. My tofu wasn’t a very sensible shape and I wasn’t all that inspired about how I was going to cook it once stuffed. Suddenly I had a brainwave. Why not abandon stuffing the tofu, and use both the tofu and the stuffing together to stuff something else? Yes! What to stuff? Filo pastry! Brilliant. So I grabbed some ancient filo out of the freezer and quickly defrosted it. I cubed my smoked tofu and mixed it up with the oregano, raisin and sherry stuffing, then made 2 parcels with the pastry. I baked the parcels until golden, and sat one each on top of the beans. (I didn’t use all of the bean mix; I’ll have some of that for lunch tomorrow).

So, how was it? I loved the smokiness of the tofu and the sweetness of the raisins against the beans. There was a lovely mix of vegetables and beans, and a nice contrast of textures, especially with the crisp pastry. I thought the rosemary dominated a bit so I’d cut that down next time, but otherwise I loved it. I can’t wait to see how Tami gets on with it as she doesn’t use beans much in her cooking.

If you haven’t joined in with a Food Network Friday yet, why not? It’s great fun to get out of your normal flavour comfort zone and discover new techniques and ideas. Keep an eye out for it on Tami’s blog – as you’ve seen the translation needn’t be too literal!!!

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