One Hot Stove: 2026

Friday, January 16, 2026

Vegetable Tofu Shawarma, Shredded Tofu, Mandarin Orange Cake, a Leafy Sweater

Veg Shawarma I

This has inadvertently turned into a tofu-themed post. But these recipes from the last week are keepers, and I want to share them and record them on the blog, so here we go-

Every now and then, friends will send me links to recipes they've loved. My grad school friend L A few months ago, she texted me a link to this recipe for Jeanine Donofrio's Eggplant Sheet Pan Shawarma. We bonded 25 years ago over a shared love of home cooking and vegetarian food. This midwestern girl fed me sambar on those dreary evenings while I was writing my dissertation round the clock. The recipe she recommended is a vegetarian take on the deeply meaty dish, shawarma.

What gives the dish its distinctive flavor is the shawarma spice, and the recipe in the link shows how you can make it in a minute or two, simply by mixing a few spices that we commonly stock in the pantry- ground cumin, smoked paprika, ground cinnamon, ground cardamom, ground turmeric.

It is interesting to see how spices that I use every day create a completely different flavor profile when remixed in different proportions. It is such a great spice blend. The other interesting thing is that I love both sweet potatoes and eggplant, but had never thought to put them together. This is precisely how I like getting out of cooking ruts, not necessarily with new techniques and ingredients, but using staple ingredients and familiar techniques in a slightly different way.

These are the components I used for the first veggie shawarma bowl:

Eggplant and sweet potatoes roasted with shawarma spice
Veggie meatballs
Sliced cucumber
Tahini yogurt sauce (made as per the linked recipe)
Cilantro

Shawarma tofu

I made another shawarma bowl this week, with the addition of tofu. The tofu shawarma was inspired by something I read online on a cooking forum. The marinade has soy sauce, lemon juice, shawarma spice mix, and a bit of olive oil. The person who suggested this also suggested peeling firm tofu using a potato peeler into thin slices so that it becomes similar to kebab meat. I found that this was time-consuming so I cut simple batons. The marinated tofu was pan-fried- incredibly flavorful.

The second component was the shawarma spice-roasted sweet potato and eggplant. I used the air fryer this time. Something about this combo with the spice is really good- warming and cozy.

The other two components of the bowl: tahini yogurt sauce and massaged kale salad. All of it put together made for a grand dinner.

Veg Shawarma II

* * *

I first came across the concept of grated tofu on Johanna's blog Green Gourmet Giraffe last April. Somehow, I had never thought to shred tofu before! We buy the hi-protein tofu from Trader Joe's, and high protein just means that lots of water is squeezed out and the tofu is extra-extra-firm. The dense block of tofu shreds like a dream on your average hand-held box grater. No need for squeezing/ pressing. No need to pull out the food processor.

Tofu fried rice

In cooking, how we prep the ingredient makes a big difference for the final dish. A raita tastes quite different depending on whether you use large-diced cucumber or small-diced cucumber or shredded cucumber. Onions bring something quite different to a curry depending on whether you cut them into slices, large dice, mince them, or blend them into a paste. In the same way, grated/shredded tofu feels different in a dish compared to tofu that has been cubed neatly versus tofu that has been torn into ragged pieces (the latter is excellent for soaking marinade into crags).

I had some leftover rice, and I used half the rice and half the shredded tofu to make a quick fried rice with the usual suspects- cabbage and assorted bits of veg, soy sauce, ginger, garlic. The tofu "disappears" into the rice. I served it with kale and a homemade peanut sauce.

The following day, I used the other half of the rice and tofu to make a quick tofu veg pulao for our lunchboxes, using the usual spices and some peas and carrots from the freezer.

* * *

We cleaned out our pantry last weekend. It was a task scheduled for winter break, but between the lazing and the unwinding and the lolly-gagging, who had time for it? Anyway, we has no plans last weekend and worked together to empty out the pantry completely, wipe it down and restock it.

I found a can of mandarin oranges that needed to be used up. When it comes to cooking, I so rarely follow recipes closely. Faced with a fridge full of ingredients, I can easily cook up something by look/feel/experience alone. Baking is different for me. I've never made a cake off the top of my head.* I seem to need the crutch of a recipe for baking. Finding a recipe with canned mandarin oranges but without boxed cake mix took a fair bit of digging but I found this one that looked simple enough.

Mandarin orange snack cake

Simple it was. One bowl, basic ingredients, and the batter was ready long before the oven was even preheated. This kind of snack cake is ideal for a beginner baker.

It has the typical egg, sugar, flour, fat (oil here), a flavor- vanilla, tiny bit of salt, baking soda, and an addition- mandarin oranges. It goes to show you that simple baking does not have to be time-consuming.

Preheat oven to 350F

Typical temperature for cakes and cookies

Lightly spray a 9x9 baking dish

Typical size of baking dish for a small cake yielding 9-12 snack-size servings

In a bowl, beat 1 egg

Add moisture, leavening, richness

Add 1/3 cup sugar, 2 tbsp. oil, 1 tsp. vanilla

This makes the wet-mix portion of the batter

Add 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. baking soda

Salt in tiny amounts enhances the flavor of sweets, baking soda provides the leavening/rise

Add 1 can mandarin oranges, drained, mash it in

Suddenly, a plain cake is an orange cake

Bake for 20 minutes or so, until a toothpick comes clean or with crumbs attached

Can also press lightly on the surface of the cake; if it springs back, it is done

On the warm cake, I drizzled a glaze- this I did not need a recipe for, it is just powdered sugar mixed with a bit of heavy cream. This is just a wonderful little snack cake. I might have to stock up on a can or two of mandarin oranges to make it again.

*Come to think of it, the one cake I could make without a recipe for is the first one I learned to bake as a child- where we weighed out 3-4 eggs, and then used that same weight of butter, flour, and sugar. This is the concept behind "pound cakes" (1 lb of each main ingredient). However, it is a greasy and heavy cake, and I prefer modern cake recipes which have slightly different proportions.

* * *

A year ago, I knitted a Summer Ella sweater for myself (I posted a WIP, that is, work in progress pic on this snowy day post.) This sweater was fun to knit and has been a joy to wear.

I made my sister the same sweater green as a birthday gift last month, starting it over the Thanksgiving break and finishing it over the winter break. Again, it was a most enjoyable knit. I even made it in the same Norwegian cotton-linen-viscose yarn (Sandnes Garn Line) but in a green colorway- Matcha- that I like even better than the one I made for myself. Green is a good fit for the leaf lace, after all.

I'm rooting around for my next knitting project- one option is to make a pile of dishcloths from a lot of cotton yarn that I have lying around. The other option is to cast on a sweater, for which I have several candidate patterns.

Tell me your highlights from the week!

Sunday, January 04, 2026

Food with Friends, Elodie Dress, Fitness Audit

Jan 1 dawned with a bright morning and clear skies. I met my running buddy K for a "first sunrise" run-walk by the local lake. It was a quiet and peaceful start to the year.

Sunrise and contrails

* * * Food with friends * * *

Caramelized
onion dip

I can't remember the last time I stayed up until midnight on New Year's Eve. This year we were invited to the home of friends for a small gathering of three families. I made the appetizers, caramelized onion dip, served with potato chips and baby carrots, and vegetable puffs or fauxmosas- puff pastry encasing a samosa style filling of peas and potatoes. These vegetable puffs are always a hit whenever I make them.

The caramelized onion dip was simple to make but turned out great- caramelized onions seasoned with salt and pepper, balsamic vinegar and herbs mixed with some cream cheese and sour cream.

Puff pastry samosas- a #1 crowd-pleaser
recipe

Our hosts made the main dish, which was a build-your-own-bowl style buffet with an array of roasted veggies, kale cooked in coconut milk, beans, chicken for the omnivores, a variety of toppings, and three homemade sauces. It was delightful. Dessert was brought by the third friend, and it was equally delightful- an upside down orange cake with cornmeal, served with whipped cream.

Our three girls are close friends, and while we ducked out and came back home around 9 pm, they had a sleepover and watched the last episode of Stranger Things which was released that night. They were very disappointed with the ending, from what I heard. I haven't watched this show at all.

Overnight yeasted
waffles

On New Year's Day, I had K and her family over for brunch. V made overnight waffles- Mark Bittman's recipe which makes the most amazing, light-as-air waffles. Our twist to the recipe is to sub some of the AP flour with cornmeal and almond flour for added taste and texture.

I made hash brown casserole and the Jan 1 staple- greens and beans, a Southern superstition for good luck in the new year. I made kale salad and black eyes peas coconut curry, roughly this recipe. We had fruit on the side, and lemon berry quick bread brought over by K. And plenty of coffee to wash everything down!

Later on new year's day, my other friend invited me over for an early dinner- her spouse and sons were at the beach and she took advantage of a blissfully quiet house to have three girlfriends over. Again, it was a greens and beans menu- chana masala, my black-eyed peas, rice, raita, vinegary collard greens, hibiscus tea and a thin, rich slice of her aunt's famous pound cake. Let the record show that I did everything in my power to ensure good luck for the coming year!

When I arrived for dinner, the three of them were writing down stuff on slips of paper. It turned out to be a "burn list" ritual. We sat down and wrote our regrets from the past year on slips of paper- not just regrets but things we wanted to leave behind in the old year such as situations and events that caused fear and anger- and threw the slips of paper into the fire pit, symbolically starting the new year with a fresh slate.

All these gatherings with friends made me deeply grateful for the community we have here.

* * * Elodie dress * * *

I bought a wrap dress pattern (Elodie from Closet Core patterns) months ago but have been waiting to get to a fabric store 30 minutes away and buy the material needed to make it. We finally made it to the fabric store earlier this week and I was about as excited as a kid in a candy shop. It is a gigantic warehouse with oversized rolls of fabric packed to the rafters- pretty overwhelming- and the folks there were kind and helpful.

However, it was overall a disappointment. I was looking for apparel fabric, mostly cotton blends. Usually, fabric bolts have fabric content and laundry instructions listed- essential information. None of the fabric rolls in this store were labeled! You had to ask the staff about fabric content, and then the store clerk tested the fabric by lighting a corner on fire. True story! That's the burn test for fiber content. But it is only say if the fabric is fully synthetic or has some natural fiber content. It really doesn't take the place of a proper label.

The vast majority of the fabric in the store was fully synthetic- aisles and aisles of decorative polyester, polyester jersey and home decor fabric. I think this is a wholesale warehouse that mostly sell to professionals- such as interior designers and costumers. If one were making dance costumes or prom dresses, this place is magical.

I did manage to find one fabric- a cotton blend in a black print- that looked (to my inexpert eyes) like it would work for my dress, and was happy to have fulfilled the reason for the trip. I might go back sometime and dig some more- they did have a roll or two of linen, and some denim- but overall, I'll have to look for fabric in other stores in the area, or buy online, or wait until my next trip to India.

Back home, I was excited to work with my new fabric and started on the whole dress-making process. I washed and dried the fabric. Printed the pattern, assembled it and cut out pattern pieces. Cut all 20 pieces for the dress- a bit tricky and time-consuming as the fabric was slightly slippery/stretchy. Watched a very helpful sew-along and followed the pattern instructions one step at a time. It took several hours over 2-3 days, but yesterday afternoon, I sewed the last mile-long hem and finished my first dress. Sewing a garment is practically instant gratification compared to the longer process of knitting a garment.

The fit is great and the dress is perfect for wearing to work. Wrap dresses are flattering on a variety of figures. The busy black pattern is hiding a multitude of wonky seams. I can see myself making this dress again in different fabrics!

* * * Fitness audit * * *

It is that time of year when many resolutions are made. If you have 2026 goals that involve exercise and fitness, you might like today's moment of fitness, which is all about doing a fitness audit of your life.

Instead of giving information, I'm assigning homework, which will involve finding some peaceful time for reflection, and a pen and paper or a blank document on your computer to jot your thoughts.

This fitness audit will help you to assess where you are and where you would like to go from here, using 20 questions. Not all may apply to every person, but you might find some that are insightful for you.

(Exercise history) Starting from my teenage years, what forms of exercise or sports have I tried?
(Exercise history) Are there activities I’ve done before and loved that I would like to try again? (for example, swimming/ dance/ yoga/ badminton...)
(Current health status) What is my current health status?
(Current health status) Do I have any medical limitations that I will have to take into consideration, such as injuries or chronic conditions?
(Current fitness level) Do I feel comfortably fit, flexible and strong in my everyday life, doing common activities such as climbing stairs, hauling groceries, picking things off the floor?
(Current exercise habits) How often do I exercise, and what types of activities do I do?
(Knowledge) Do I know how much exercise and the types of exercise I should be getting at my age?
(Barriers) If I don’t exercise as much or as often as I want to, what is getting in the way? Boredom? Time? Consistency?
(Lifestyle factors) Do my other lifestyle factors support exercise? Do I fuel my body with nutritious food?
(Lifestyle factors) Do I get adequate sleep?
(Lifestyle factors) Do I rest and recover between workouts? Am I being over-zealous and overtraining?
(Mindset) How is my exercise mindset? Am I being realistic in how fit I should be at my age?
(Mindset) Am I comparing myself to others?
(Access) Do I have access to fitness facilities or equipment or safe places to walk?
(Access) Are there resources that are available that I'm not tapping into, such as a workplace gym?
(Social circle) Do I like to exercise alone, or would it benefit me to have someone else exercise with me?
(Social circle) How could I find a workout partner, coach, or supportive community?
(Social circle) What are my friends doing for exercise? Could I text or call them and ask? It might result in ideas and inspiration.
(Goals, aspirations, dreams) What do I dream of doing in terms of exercise/fitness? What is my short term goal- for the first half of 2026?
(Goals, aspirations, dreams) Do I have any long-term goals or bucket list items related to fitness or exercise, such as participating in a race or climbing a mountain?

Use your own answers to these questions to-

Identify your fitness strengths
Identify your fitness gaps
Set a few doable goals or intentions for 2026

My own goals are the same as last year- getting stronger, building muscle, and improving my body composition. I'd like to do a couple of 5K races as an incentive to keep running regularly. As much as I wish I could take a dance class or two each week, it is unrealistic to fit that into my life at this time.

Share your own goals and resolutions if you like, related to exercise or otherwise!