No more chicken noodle soup for me.

Gainesville is a 45 minute – 1 hour drive from Athens, GA. For various reasons I ended up spending a fair amount of time in Athens, though I never did learn to find my way around the town.

One of my favorite things in Athens was The Grit. The “indie-rock Moosewood.” One of my favorite things at The Grit was The Golden Bowl: browned tofu cubes sauteed with soy sauce and nutritional yeast served over brown rice. Now, you can get vegetables and in your Golden Bowl, but I always preferred them on the side, leaving a perfectly beige, perfectly delicious mix of the best tofu you have ever eaten, brown rice, and cheese. Umami and yet just bland enough without being boring. A perfect comfort food.

After I moved outside of easy driving distance to Athens, I was compelled to figure out how to make a Golden Bowl at home because the meal is an addiction. I succeeded. My home-made Golden Bowl hit the spot.

A couple of years later, The Grit published their cookbook. Sure enough, I had nailed the recipe and technique except for that second frying of the tofu that creates a little extra crispiness.

I make mine with tamari instead of soy sauce, and with mozzarella cheese. It is what I’ve been eating for the past couple of days. With veggies on the side, of course.

Here is the recipe:
The Golden Bowl

• 15 oz. extra-firm tofu
• Vegetable oil for sautéing the tofu
• Tamari, to taste
• Nutritional yeast, to taste
• 2 cups cooked short-grain brown rice
• Butter, to taste

• Cut the tofu into cubes smaller than playing dice. Lightly oil a nonstick skillet and place over high heat. Allow the oil to heat slightly, then add the tofu. Sauté, tossing with a nonmetal spatula, until evenly and lightly golden brown, about 10 to 15 minutes.
• Sprinkle lightly with tamari (I use about a tablespoon here) and sauté briefly to further brown the tofu. Remove from the skillet, draining and discarding any excess fluid. Wipe the skillet dry.
• Add a tiny bit of new vegetable oil to the same pan and place over high heat. Once the oil is very hot, add the tofu again.
• Sauté, tossing with a nonmetal spatula almost constantly, until the tofu is nicely browned. Sprinkle with tamari to taste (another tablespoon for me). Sauté, tossing until the tofu and pan are pretty much dry.
• Sprinkle liberally with nutritional yeast, coating the tofu cubes and all the vegetables. Tossing vigorously, sauté for a few seconds. Repeat this step once and remove from the heat.
• Place 1 cup of hot cooked short-grain brown rice in each of two bowls. Add some butter to taste and stir into the rice to melt. Top each bowl of rice with 1/2 of the tofu. Sprinkle liberally with shredded mozzarella cheese, stir well to mix and melt the cheese.
• Devour.

So, if you can’t get a photograph of some food item you have made before the food item has almost disappeared, the food item might have turned out well.

The cheesecake, while not up to being a real food model, turned out very well.

Here is the recipe…

Total ingredients
3 oz. (7 whole) graham crackers
3 oz chopped pecans
1.75 C. sugar
4 tbl. Unsalted Butter
4 eggs
1.5 lbs Phil. Cream Cheese (3 larger boxes) softened
9 tbl. (4.5 oz) half-n-half
1 pint sour cream
1 tea. vanilla

Notes:

• Soften the cream cheese a hour or two before you start. If you forget, it’s not a deal breaker, but it will be harder to incorporate into the main batter.
• Some people bake a cheese cake in a water bath, I don’t. But I do put a METAL
  pan of water in the oven under the cake while it bakes.
• In the topping, I have been known to substitute a few tabl. Of either Amaretto or
  Baileys Iris Cream instead of vanilla
• Use a 9” springform pan

Crust:
3 oz. (7 whole) graham crackers
3 oz. chopped pecans
.25 C. sugar
4 tbl. Unsalted butter

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Pulse crackers and chopped pecans in food processor until evenly and finely ground. Transfer crumbs to bowl and drizzle melted butter over, and mix with rubber spatula until evenly moistened. Turn crumbs into springform pan and spread evenly in one layer. Use a flat bottomed glass or ramekin to press down and evenly flatten crumbs. Use a spoon around the edges if needed. Bake for about 15 minutes, pull out, and cool on wire rack while making the filling.

Filling:
4 eggs
.75 C. sugar
1.5 lbs Phil. Cream Cheese (3 large Packages)
9 tbl. (4.5 oz) half and half

Toss softened cream cheese into stand mixer and beat till even more soft and spread around the bowl. Toss in sugar and let run some more. Then toss in eggs. Then toss in half and half and mix on medium or medium high till everything comes together into a smooth batter. Pour mixture into springform pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Turn oven off. Cool cake in oven for 45 minutes. Pull cake out and cool for 30 minutes.

Topping:
1 pint sour cream
.75 C. sugar
1 tea. vanilla

Mix all together and pour on top of cake. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool.

Then chill in refrigerator for a few hours.

Recipe and permission to share it here thanks to Ken. Thanks!<–!>

I used salted butter and greased the sides of the pan with butter after baking the crust. This tip, from Joy of Cooking, lets the cooling cake pull away from the sides of the pan easily as it contracts in order to prevent cracking.