As promised over a week ago…I present to you the fantastic, the dynamic, the extra super delicious…Wish Tacos! Why the name ‘Wish’, because you are going to wish you can make them right now and after you eat them you’ll wish you won’t have to wait too long before you make them again.  Or it could be that they are sort of like fish tacos, but I am vegan so I named them Wish Tacos!.  That’s what us vegans do…think of snazzy names for recipes inspired by carnivorous meals.  You see I even made the exclamation point part of the name.  Am I cool or what?

This is another creation by my lovely wife (but I take credit for the name).  A good friend of ours that we haven’t seen for a few years was in Chicago for a few days and we made this meal for her and her new bo.  In reality, she actually jumped right in and helped Laviyah make the dinner for us men.  So if you notice a new set of hands in the pictures, those belong to Lori.  She actually tried to bogard every shot.  She must have been starved for camera attention back in D.C.  I’m happy we could satisfy her hand modeling craving.

I have a ton of shots like this.

And this!

Every time I attempted to take a picture of a food item, there’s Lori jabbing her hands or head into the frame.  There you go Lori.  You’re a superstar now.  Your hands have appeared on our world renowned food blog.  Maybe one of our 3 followers will offer you a hand modeling contract.  Now, can we do our job and get to detailing this recipe for everyone?

The recipe calls for one package of extra firm tofu.  Freeze the tofu overnight and take out to thaw about 3 hours before use.

Have your friendliest hand model squeeze out excess moisture from thawed tofu block.  Use a small clean plate or  a hand towel and press down.

Cut tofu block into sticks.  A block should yield about 18 to 20 sticks.  Place sticks into a square dish for marination.

Marinade:

• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 2 tablespoons Bragg’s Liquid Amino
• 2 teaspoons granulated Kelp

Add these ingredients to tofu and combine well.  Let stand for 15 minutes.

Battering:

We will need 3 bowls for our 3 step battering process.

1. 9 0z of Panko Breadcrumbs
2. 12 oz plain soy yogurt – thin out with 1/4 cup marinade
3. Flour mixture which includes:

• 1/2 cup all purpose wheat flour
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon granulated kelp

Now for the fun part, frying these babies up.  There are two ways you can do this.

1. For the professional chef – In a medium size sauce pan (10 quarts or so), heat up 4 cups of vegetable oil to 365 degrees.  Deep fry 3 to 4 tofu pieces at a time until golden brown
2. For the lay-cook (like myself) – I don’t have one of those fancy thermometer thingies so I wing it in a deep dish cast iron skillet.  Add vegetable oil to your skillet until it is about 1 inch deep.  Heat on medium heat.  Pan fry 3 to 4 pieces at a time until golden brown on each side.

Here’s our line up.  Pictured from left to right is the Panko breadcrumbs, the yogurt mixture and the flour mixture.  My stove is on the left side of my counter, so I will be moving from right to left (That’s the Jewish in me).  Line up your ingredients so you have a nice flow to the fryer.  The order is:

1. From marinade to flour mixture
2. to yogurt mixture
3. to Panko
4. to fryer

Let’s get a visual:

Dredge marinated tofu stick in the flour mixture. {Like my fancy slippers?}

Yo!  Gurt!  Next into the soy yogurt mixture.

Lastly, the Panko breadcrumbs.  Why Panko?  They fry up to a beautifully crispy golden brown.  Panko also gives a suprisingly light coating also.  It doesn’t soak up as much oil as some other breadcrumbs seem to do.

Drop the sticks into the oil and let the magic of scolding vegetable oil do its wonders.

Once bottom has reached its golden brown goodness, flip and fry other side the same.

Yep, vegans have oil addictions to.  Just look at that, a tower of fried tofu decadence.  Out of the fryer, let your sticks drain on some paper towels or, for Trader Joe’s obsessed shoppers like myself, some pieces of brown paper bag. It will be hard not to snack as you fry, but limit yourself to one or two, the final Wish Tacos! will be worth the wait.  Believe me, you’ll want to save some tummy room for seconds.

For the taco shell, we’ll be using a corn tortilla.  This makes a soft taco style, easier to eat than those crunchy shells that break into a million pieces after one bite.  Of course, I am using a Trader Joe’s brand.  Look at the ingredients: White Corn, Water, Lime.  That’s what I like, the fewer the ingredients, the better for you.

You will want to heat the tortillas up.  Eating them out of the package is too sour raw tasting.  Using a skillet, heat up a dash of vegetable oil on medium low heat.  Throw in your tortilla.

Heat up each side to a light golden color; just enough to heat tortilla evenly and it becomes flimsy.

Take out of skillet and lightly sprinkle each side with Kosher salt.  I recommend using a clean plate. Sorry, this shot was before my seconds.  The first round went right into my mouth, had no time to take pictures!

To assemble:  For each tortilla, add two tofu sticks and top with Cilantro Cole Slaw and diced tomatoes.  If you’re feeling a little frisky, add some vegan sour cream as well.  UMM, UMM, UMM! These tacos are tasty as tasty can be!  We served these with some Black Bean & Roasted Corn Salad.

Thanks to my dynamic wife and our friend, Lori, for a fantastic meal and lovely evening.  It was great seeing you, Lori, and catching up.  Take a bow for your efforts…

Well, instead of a bow, I got a head turn hair toss.  A true kitchen Diva star!  Even my wife is awe stuck at Lori’s amazingness.

A parting shot of the Wish Tacos!  Don’t you wish you can eat some right now?  Well, go ahead and make em.  You won’t be mad.