Not for the Faint of Heart

About two weeks ago, Steve and I made something called "Really Spicy Tofu and Peas in Coconut Milk" from the, of course, Mark Bittman cookbook. I've given this entry its title not only because of the spiciness of the dish, but because we made our own coconut milk, which was a dangerous endeavor itself.

Ingredients
3 large onions, quartered
One 28- or 35-oz. can tomatoes with their liquid
2 T neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 T garam masala or curry powder
1 1/2 - 2 lbs. firm to extra firm tofu, cut into cubes
1 1/2 c peas
1 1/2 c coconut milk
chopped fresh cilantro leaves for garnish
~5 cloves of garlic
1-3 dried chiles

Put the onions, tomatoes, garlic, and chiles into your food processor or blender and blend until smooth.

The more chiles you add, the spicier it will be, so be careful. We actually kept ours pretty tame, only adding two chiles. I think next time we'll add more.

Put the oil in a deep skillet or saucepan. When hot, add the tomato mixture, salt and pepper and spices. Cook until it becomes thick and sauce-like, about 10 minutes. Add the tofu and peas, cook for five minutes. Then comes the time to add the coconut milk. We made our own, which can be accomplished by blending about 2 cups of boiling water with shredded, dried, unsweetened coconut (we had some laying around so we thought we'd use it instead of buying the milk). But be careful! We're not sure what happened, but we think it may have been the very hot water - when we turned the blender on, a very powerful force made the top blow off (even though I was holding it down) and we had coconut shreds all over the kitchen.

After you wait for the water to cool down and you can blend it enough, you strain out the shreds and you have your coconut milk.

So after you add the coconut milk to the pan, you bring it to a boil, adjust seasoning, and serve. Voila! It was very yummy, reminiscent of some sort of Indian dish. We definitely recommend the recipe, but suggest that you just buy your coconut milk instead of trying to make it.