weird asparagus dish, vaguely Moroccan

Mr. P thought that tonight's dinner was Moroccan because of the combination of toasted cumin and tahini. It all started out with a recipe and took a left turn at the asparagus, which wasn't even in the original recipe (green beans were, but we often use asparagus instead).

I had half a brick of tofu left from another dish, which I cubed and marinated in soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine, and Chinese hot oil (I've labeled its jar HOT HOT HOT and keep it in the fridge -- you use tiny amounts at a time. Oh, and it's bright red and not artificially colored, so far as I know.)

Meanwhile, I toasted cumin and mustard seeds in oil, then added and sauteed strips of onions, followed by carrots that I'd cut into tiny matchsticks, and a little later, the tofu and its marinade. Eventually I added asparagus cut into 2-inch lengths, stirred, and covered, letting the asparagus steam itself.

While that was all happening, I made a sauce (told you it got weird) of tahini, toasted sesame oil (from a chinese store -- I don't like Trader Joe's attempt), a dash of soy sauce, and juice of half a lemon.

When the asparagus was cooked, I put the veggies in a bowl, and stirred in the sauce. We served it over brown rice, so now we're down to just a quart of rice for the rest of the week.

And despite its strange mix of flavors, it was really good and there were no leftovers. Mr. P thought it would be especially tasty over soba -- Japanese buckwheat noodles. We could also try it over whole wheat spaghetti.

Not sure if I can ever reproduce this one, of course, but I'm sure I can at least make variations on the theme.

Tomorrow night, kitchen's closed while I go off to a professional meeting. Mr. P is invited to eat leftovers, but it's more likely that he'll indulge in hummus and chips, one of his favorite bachelor meals.