$5 challenge, smoked tofu and smoked eggplant.

Just as life has ebbs and flows and the wild variability brought about by the seasons, I too have phases and moods. Too many my wife will tell you quietly but at the moment we are trying a phase of eating without meat. We figured we had become meatcentric and for reasons of health, economics and to a degree animal welfare, we thought we would tread the vegetarianism and vegan road, where and when we can.  Hey, life is dull without change however permanent or not.  There are a few exciting challenges brought about by this decision and one is how to make good use of the barbecue.

Smoked tofu and smoked eggplant.

I have made a "tray" for the trivet or cake rack to sit on by folding some aluminium foil. This helps to deflect any direct heat and if the food was going to "leak" it would keep the barbie clean. The rack or trivet is then positioned on top of this and placed on the barbecue so it is being affected by the heat but not directly with the flame underneath. This is a Weber Q so this spot is dead centre on the grill . Any barbecue with a lid will have some means of being able to cook under indirect heat.

A block of silken tofu is placed on the rack as are two slim otherwise unprepared eggplants, 200gms.

I am Mister Cheap so my smoking material in this case is peach wood. Every time I prune or trim one the the fruit trees, I keep the branches and let them dry out. To use these for smoking simply place them in water for an hour or so then place them directly on the grill surface.

The pre-warmed barbecue has the lid closed and I set the timer for fifteen minutes just so I am reminded to check everything is okay. It is easy to become distracted and we are dealing with fire! The barbie is on low.

You couldn't do this inside!

At fifteen minutes everything is fine, smoking away and the branches are not on fire. I let it go for a further twenty minutes and call it a day and remove the food to the safety of the kitchen to cool.

Smoked and ready for the next stage.

As a matter of interest I am doing this at lunch but I will do the next stage at dinner time. It is easy to get this all organised ahead of time.

Slice the eggplant and carefully cut the tofu into bite sized chunks. Dredge the tofu in cornflour.
I figure this needs a sauce so chop and onion and cook until slightly caramelised, throw in a can of tomatoes and the spices and herbs you want. This has a teaspoon each of ginger, cumin, turmeric and garlic plus a splash of worcestershire sauce.

The sauce is on and the eggplant is being fried in a splash of rice bran oil as is the tofu. Having realised the meal will be a little light, I have spread a wrap with some horseradish sauce, layered sliced tomatoes on top, sprinkled dried basil over this and placed it on a pizza stone in the oven at 200degs C.

The tofu is carefully turned to brown it all over the the egg plant slices treated similarly.

So here is how the tucker turned out.The sauce is centered so you can have as much as you want when you want. So you have from bottom left the tomato slice, the eggplant slices, the tofu and some beetroot relish that was in the fridge and a few slices of pickled ginger.

The tofu was amazing. I think cooking it on the BBQ helped to take the water out of it so when fried it was crunchy with a beautiful soft gooey inside. The eggplant really held the smokey flavour well and was excellent. The rest was really nice also and there was plenty for two of us with left over slice and sauce for lunch the next day.

• Tofu, silken, block of 300 grams  $2.52 and that is Aussie dollars
• One wholemeal wrap $0.37
• three tomatoes $4 per kilo, 250 grams=$1.00
• one onion $1.12 per kilo, 100 grams = $0.12
• eggplant $3.899 per kilo, 200 grams=$0.80
• tin of tomatoes, $1.00
• TOTAL $5.81

Okay, I didn't quite succeed in the $5 challenge but if you had tomatoes growing in the garden that would make your sauce and wrap topping. Plus there were leftovers so that has to be a bonus. Give me a break!

If this is the future for us, bring it on! The flavours really were amazing.