My love affair with tofu

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My love affair with tofu

 

I was lucky, the first time I had tofu it was prepared by a Chinese

colleague and it was delicious. He wrote the recipe in Chinese

characters and I still have it in my scrap notebook-cookbook, the

one that I used before computers. It calls for oil, Sichuan

peppercorn, bean paste and tofu. He used medium-soft tofu, not the

firm kind, and not the silken kind. Also, add minced scallions and

garlic somewhere in the middle and chopped cilantro at the end. It

takes all of fifteen minutes to make, including prep time.

 

This was almost 30 years ago when I was interested in vegetarianism

but in transition. Another part of it is was, I could not afford

meat. So finding tasty ways to eat tofu seemed like a good idea,

and like beans, a cheap source of protein. Little did I know then

that my cholesterol is genetically set on 'too high' and that tofu

has no cholesterol, an added blessing. Ditto with beans, grains and

nuts.

 

I wanted to share some of the ways I learned to use various kinds of

tofu, what tofu can I eat just by itself, and mistakes I have made.

I'll list the mistakes first.

 

MISTAKE #1 - Do not freeze any silken tofu

MISTAKE #2 - Do not let regular (non-silken) tofu sit in the fridge

too long and forget to freeze it.

MISTAKE #3 – If tofu is not obviously featured in the dish, it is

not necessary to mention to anyone that it is there.

 

I also want to say that I have never made tofu from scratch. I

would like to do it some day, but since I live near Asian

communities with food shops where you can get the soy milk still

warm, why do all the work?

 

TOFU types and how I use them:

 

SILKEN – in 10 oz blue or red boxes, one is firm the other soft.

They also have a green box with extra firm. It is called Mori-nu

(at least in the US) and they are aseptically packaged, so they have

a long shelf live without refrigeration.

 

I keep it in the pantry and have used it camping. IT DOES NOT

FREEZE WELL. So plan on using the whole thing once opened or within

a couple of days.

 

FIRM and EXTRA FIRM SILKEN

 

SOUPS: cube and add to miso soup. This is the ideal traditional

combo, but you get creative and use it other ways.

 

SALADS: Cube it and add it to salads along with a combination:

shredded cabbage, kale, peppers, sesame seeds, peanuts, sesame oil,

rice vinegar. Also, I have sued them nicely in Vietnamese salad

spring rolls, the ones that are made with rice wrappers and are not

fried.

 

EGGS: fake scrambled eggs. Use in your favorite scrambled tofu

recipe.

 

SANDWICHES when you are camping in non veggie friendly territory:

Slice tomatoes, avocadoes and tofu, add a little salt, and put

between the two best slices of bread you can find. It does not need

mayo, the avocado makes it creamy enough. This is surprisingly

delicious.

 

CHOCOLATE VEGAN TART: Melt vegan chocolate in double boiler (pure

unsweetened chocolate should be vegan, mine is). Blend tofu with

immersion blender, add the molten unsweetened chocolate and

sweetener to your taste (it does not matter what type, or if it is

liquid (malt is nice) or plain sugar). Pour on prepared graham

cracker crust, or vegan nut crust. Bake until firm (usually one

hour for 350C). Top with raspberry jam. You can also use the soft

kind of tofu here, and use silken tofu for other types of pie.

 

You can also use the silken in many tofu recipes; it should be

recipes that do not require freezing, frying, or grilling.

Sometimes it is not the ideal, or the tastiest, but if you always

keep some in your pantry it is a good way to produce an instant meal.

 

SOFT SILKEN TOFU:

 

SMOOTHIES: substitute for yogurt in fruit smoothies (for example,

banana, strawberries and sweetener, and add tofu (as much as you

like)

 

CREAMY SOUPS: This is one of my favorite uses, and what makes me

run out of my soft silken tofu in my pantry.

 

CREAM PIES: read above for chocolate pie. I recently used some on

an eggless key lime pie. Great texture after baking!

 

REGULAR, NON SILKEN TOFU:

 

These come in soft, medium firm and extra firm. They are perishable

and should be kept refrigerated. Once you open the package you

should change the water surrounding the tofu daily, and eat within

 

For medium and firm tofu (and extra firm):

 

FREEZE, FREEZE, FREEZE……OK, so you went to your favorite Asian

grocery store, they had different types of really good tofu, 18 oz

for $0.78 !!!! you could not resist and bought 6 packs of it. You

figured you were going to make all these great tofu dishes described

in the files, but life got too busy. Now you have the 6 packs of

tofu stacked very nicely against the two back corners of your

fridge. Or maybe you did buy only one 18 oz container, opened it,

used enough for a meal, but it is just you and 18 oz is a lot! So

you have some opened unused tofu. NO problem! Open the packages,

drain the water, and place in freezer bags. Forget about them until

you want: Meatless loaf, meatless chili, or barbeque. I also use

defrosted ground up previously frozen tofu on my stuffed mushrooms.

To thaw: Take out of the freezer and wait until it is soft. The

texture will turn into a sponge, squeeze all the water out (gently

if you want the slices to remain whole). The tofu now has a

yellowish tan color, instead of the pure white it used to be. After

all the water is squeezed out, grind it up (food processor or spice

grinder works, or do it by hand) to make chili, non meat loaf, or

anything that would sub for ground meat. If you want to BBQ, it is

the easiest! Slice the spongy tofu, make sure it does not break,

and after all the water is squeezed out, marinate in your favorite

BBQ sauce for at least 30 minutes. Grill and enjoy.

 

GRILL: you can marinate firm tofu (as is or previously frozen) and

grill it, basting with marinade of choice.

 

FRY: I cut firm tofu in slices and then make triangles. Fry in hot

peanut oil and serve with sweet and hot peanut sauce.

 

BLACKENED: One of my favorite fast foods. Cut in slices, rub with

½ Tony Chachareze and ½ lemon pepper careful not go get too much

rub. Heat griddle until it is smoking hot, put PAM on it and

blacken both sides. Open doors, windows, and de activate smoke

detectors. Makes a smoky mess but it is very good, and even people

that claim not to eat tofu will like it.

 

BROILED OR BAKED: this works very well with firm tofu, find a

marinade you like and YUM YUM…..It makes nice sandwiches later

too….I love that you can marinade in different things, you can make

asian flavors, or Mediterranean, Indian, Mexican, so many

possibilities!

 

SAUTEED or STIR fried: Many, many, recipes for this, look in the

files.

 

COLD TOFU: This is not a joke, they serve this in one of my

favorite sushi joints. It is a cold cubed tofu block, with shredded

scallions and ginger. You can add a little soy sauce. It is really

good. OK, now this will work only with very fresh tofu, I have had

it in other places and it is not the same. This is where home made

tofu would fit in very nicely.

 

cabrita @ los angeles