Sweet and Spicy Tofu With Soba Noodles to Refuel and Restore

New York Times

2 days ago

Good morning. It's nice to be up before dawn this time of year, the sky lightening into morning nautical twilight, the horizon visible even without a view of the actual sun. There's possibility everywhere: to see striped bass on the water's surface, maybe, slurping bait across the tide, or to have a chance encounter with a great horned owl returning from a long evening hunt.
They're making egg sandwiches at the gas station, taking the first batch of bagels out of the oven at the deli, unloading the food truck at the supermarket. There's Bruno, idling his boat out of the harbor, bound east and hoping for tuna, while Sharon starts off on a 10-mile run. I ride my bicycle through the neighborhood idly, thinking about breakfast, about lunch, about the dinner I'd like to serve in the late afternoon, so everyone can get to bed early in advance of another busy week.
By the time the sun's up and heating the asphalt, I've got my plans dialed: cut fruit for breakfast with a dollop of yogurt, a hero from Caputo's for lunch and Sarah Copeland's sweet and spicy tofu with soba noodles for dinner. Sarah neither shallow-fries the tofu nor marinates it, which makes for a simple preparation, but you can certainly do one or the other, or both, if you like — and on a weekend, unpressed for time, I do like. (I use the dressing as the marinade, then fry the cubed tofu in more oil than she calls for, so it gets super crisp.)
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Then, with Sunday sorted, I can turn to the rest of the week. …
The chef Dale Talde taught me how to make this recipe for orange beef. It rewards the use of very good steak for the beef, and of fast hands at the wok to cook it. Dale once told me to add a pat of butter to a Chinese-ish sauce I was making for another dish, and sometimes I do that with this one, to add a little plushiness to the salty-sweet orange sauce. You might join me.
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