Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Brains

Earlier this week I asked Mom to send me one of my favorite recipes - Brains for the crockpot. Since Mom is amazing, she sent it to me, so the other day, I made Brains for the crockpot.  Now, Brains had a different name originally, but originally it also had lots of dairy products in it, so I'm comfortable simply calling it Brains.
It got its name while I was in high school, when someone, I can't remember whether it was a friend or foe, asked, either jokingly or jeeringly, if I was eating brains.  It went kinda like this: "What are you eating? Brains?!?"  For some reason I felt compelled to answer affirmatively.  The name Brains stuck.  Personally, I think it's a better name than the original name that had the word "surprise" stuck in it somewhere.
This is the recipe, as Mom sent it to me:

 Ingredient amounts per serving
1- 2 medium potatoes
2 oz firm tofu
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/4 cup goat milk, broth or boullion
1/2 Tbsp. Butter
one medium red onion, diced
1/2 Tbsp. Thickener, (flour, potato starch, etc)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/8 cup mayonnaise
1/4 tsp dried thyme or fresh thyme leaves
1 slice cooked, crumbled bacon

Butter the inside of the crock. 
Peel and cube potatoes, 1- 2 medium potatoes per serving needed, and place in buttered crock. 
Cream together in a blender 2 oz firm tofu, 1/8 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp pepper, 1/4 cup goat milk or boullion, per serving. Set aside. 
In a saucepan, melt about 1/2 Tbsp. Butter per serving. 
Saute in the butter, one medium onion, diced per serving.  Red onion is preferred but white will do. 
When onions are soft but not browned, sprinkle with a thickener (flour or potato starch), equivalent to the butter used, to make a thick paste. 
Add to hot thick bubbly paste the mixture of creamed tofu, salt, pepper and boullion or goat milk. Cook, stirring constantly, until it has formed a thick sauce. 
Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.  Stir in until well blended, 1 tsp Dijon mustard and 1/8 cup mayonnaise per serving.  Sauce will be thick and creamy. 
Mix in to potatoes and put in crock.  Sprinkle with 1/4 tsp dried thyme or fresh thyme leaves and 1 slice cooked, crumbled bacon per serving. 
Cook in crock on low for 8 hours or high for 3 to 4 hours. Serve and enjoy.

So after lunch, before  I had to head back to class, I decided to make a batch and stick it in the crockpot.  I was in a bit of hurry (and slightly lazy), so I didn't bother to peel the potatoes, just washed them gently and cut them into big chunks.  I did use butter on the crock, but that was the only butter I used.  
Instead of chicken broth like we usually use at home, I used goat milk, just because I could.  Since I was a little concerned about the strong flavor of goat milk, I threw a chicken bouillon cube in as well when I was whir-whirring the tofu and milk.  
I fried the bacon in my cast iron and then used the bacon fat for frying the onion.  Tapioca starch was my thickener of choice and I replaced the mayonnaise with veganaise (egg free, GF, dairy free mayonnaise substitute). 
I mixed it all up and chucked it in the crockpot and then went back across for the street for class.  Because my roommates are awesome, they even turned the crockpot off for me at dinner time because I was still sleeping off a large dose of Benadryl.  So when I finally woke I, I had a wonderful pot of Brains ready to eat. 
Between the drugs still in my system and the fact that I was eating something called Brains, I did feel a little like a zombie.  But I'm not a zombie.  For reals. 

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