Funk Babblings

In my time with duriyah, we've quite enjoyed cooking together. One of our most common meals has been to get out the olive oil and fry some tofu (I add ground coriander, black pepper, thyme, and maybe a little ground cayenne or chipotle chile pepper), then sauté some vegetables such as bell peppers and summer squash (plus more pepper and thyme and of course olive oil*), then toss all that over noodles (more olive oil!) or rice.

However, more recently we've been trying to cut down on the fat in our meals. Oh no, don't take away my olive oil!

But one of my cookbooks includes a section on various cooking techniques, and one technique it lists is "sweating", which I understood from the book as being a little like sautéing, but dryer, without oil, and occasionally adding just enough liquid (vegetable broth, balsamic vinegar, water) to keep things from sticking. (Subsequent research seems to indicate that my understanding of the technique may be flawed, but I'm not sure.)

In my most recent attempt we had no vegetable broth, so I used a lot of balsamic vinegar (and some water). The tasty and unique result reminded me how good balsamic vinegar is when it's reduced to a thicker syrup. Yum.

* When sautéing I usually mix the olive oil with another oil that's better for high heat.