The crazed glutenfest binge continues.  It’s making for some weird photographic material, which I always like.  (I think it might take a while to finish the project.  I’ve got through 3 kilos of gluten flour in two weeks.)

Yesterday’s chewy starch-frenzy took me to meatball territory and this pretty fine recipe from Felicity, which I made without the gram flour.

Today, inspired by The Stripey Cat, I thought I’d simultaneously finish the glutenous little nuggets off and give the credit crunch the bird, by using more or less a whole bottle of wine in a single dish.  Gravy, French style.

Formidable, it was.

In addition to sliced up meatlessballs, I used two types of soy: a really firm smoked hazelnut tofu, and silken tofu, deep fried.  I’m not sure I liked the lurid pink colour adopted by the unfried tofu. Next time I’ll fry the whole lot really hard, to get a more mellow shade of brown.

Other than that, I just followed the original Tofu en Meurette recipe.

I served it with an experimental take on Colcannon, which was not terribly attractive, but tasted lovely, and mopped up the juices.  At least the Colcannon was seasonal and thus cheap, offsetting the tofu/wine extravaganza.  (I reckon the meal turned out at £2.20 a portion).

Fancy, ugly Colcannon

Ingredients (makes about 4 portions)

• 2 medium potatoes
• 1/4 of a large turnip
• 1 parsnip
• 1/4 of a celeriac
• 1/4 of a large white cabbage
• red wine
• your favourite frying oil(s)

Method

Finely dice the root vegetables and put them on to boil in salted water for 10 minutes.

Melt a knob of “butter” in a large pan.  Add shredded cabbage and a dash of red wine.  Cover and cook over a medium heat, stirring a fair bit.  I think it tastes nice just slightly burnt.

When the root vegetables are done, strain them, and then throw them into a hot wok and a tablespoon of olive oil.  Stirfry until it starts getting a bit mushy, then stir in the cabbage.  Season well with salt and lots of black pepper.