When people hear that I make tofu at home about once a week they often say that they love to order tofu dishes when they go out but find home cooked tofu to be disgusting or mediocre at best. Several people have asked me to teach them to cook tofu after trying mine so here are some basic prep instructions and a few ideas for how to build a meal around it.
BASIC TOFU PREP
1. Start out by buying the right tofu. Extra or Super Firm is necessary for the dishes I'm about to talk about. I buy Naysoya brand but other name brands have worked for me. I have found that the Kroger brand tofu is not as good.
3. Let the tofu press for a minimum of three hours. Don't rush this part. Three hours will give you a slightly more mushy tofu than most would prefer. I've done overnight pressing in the fridge and found that to be a bit too long.
5 or 6 hours is probably just right but if you are working around your work or sleep schedule, it's flexible.
4. Marinate the tofu before adding it to any dish. If my tofu is going into a sauce I sometimes only marinate as long as my oven takes to preheat but if you are grilling it or otherwise letting it stand alone I would marinate overnight or at least three hours. I usually marinate in a zip bag with soy sauce, lime juice and garlic/ginger (powder if I'm low energy, fresh if I'm on it that day) but if I'm grilling I like BBQ sauce and a splash of soy sauce. Add just enough water so that most of the chunks or slab of tofu can be covered and flip it over occasionally to coat the pieces well. If you are marinating only while your oven preheats just brush with a fully concentrated mixture.
5. Now the tofu is ready to be cooked. Read on for ideas.
TOFU BASED RICE or NOODLES
1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Generously oil a cookie sheet and put it in preheated oven for several minutes.
3. Put marinated tofu chunks on sheet and bake 20 minutes or until tofu is brown and crisp on bottom. It varies a lot by how long you pressed the tofu when this will happen.
4. Flip and bake another 20 minutes or until the other side is browned and crisp.
5. You may want to flip and do an extra 10 minutes or so if you like very crisp, dry tofu like is often available at american-chinese places (ie deep fried).
While the tofu is baking prep whatever veggies you like or have on hand. Lightly steamed broccoli and carrots is a winter classic around here. We like to use asparagus from our garden or wild greens and green onion in the spring time. Mushrooms and carmelized onion are always very good. If I'm real short on energy/time I just use frozen green beans (like the dish above). Whatever you like is fine just make sure you don't over cook it.
6. When the tofu is as crispy and dried as you like it let it drip a bit on a towel you don't care about or paper towels to get the excess oil off and toss it in with your veggies.
7. You can put the rice or cooked rice noodles in your pan at this point with some oil and let it cook it all together or just toss the two in your bowl or just spoon the veggies and tofu on top.
8. We like to top or toss this dish with either peanut crumbs or a basic peanut sauce (hot water, peanut butter, soy sauce, lime, ginger, cayenne and garlic). The dish above is just seasoned with tamari soy sauce, lime juice, garlic, ginger and turmeric then topped with peanut crumbs. Black (fried) Sesame Seeds are an excellent addition as well.
You could also marinate in taco seasonings and then crumble the cubes for tacos or burritos
GRILLED or BAKED TOFU STEAK
1. Instead of cubing your tofu before marinating just leave it cut in half (for a large group you may want to do quarters but I find half a package is about as filling as a large hunk of meat) and do a long marinade in a sauce or mixture of your choosing. Like I said earlier bbq sauce is nice or soy sauce, lime, garlic and ginger.
2. Preheat oven to 375 and then put a generously oiled cookie sheet in oven to preheat as well. Usually takes several minutes to get hot. Or preheat your grill and spray or brush with oil just before placing tofu directly on grill.
3. Bake or grill the whole slabs until dry and crisp on one side and then flip. Cook time will vary quite a bit based on how long you pressed and marinated.
4. Serve with classic steak sides or if you wish use the slabs to make a fabulous grilled cheese (very, very yummy). Tofu made this way is ideal for packed lunches or quick meals. It'll keep in the fridge for up to a week and I think it's decent at room temperature.
MASSAMAN CURRY
This is a staple around here. It's delicious but a bit more of an ordeal than the above ideas. You will want to make this a day ahead of serving it or start very early in the morning because it requires steeping time.
1. Make tofu as described for the rice dish above.
2. Meanwhile peel and cube yellow potatoes into medium sized chunks. Two or three medium potatoes should be about right for one package of tofu. My potatoes were pretty small. I usually make a double batch because my daughter is a tofu fanatic.
3. Boil the potatoes. If you over cook them the dish will be yucky (starchy and mushy) so stand near by and check often. If you've ever made potato salad before this will help. Get the potatoes out just before they are as tender as you would like. They should not crumble or mash easily but should be firm yet edibly tender all the way through. You can taste to check on them or use a fork to pierce.
4. Drain the potatoes and then cool them in a cold water bath in the sink. I just plop the whole strainer down into a few inches of cool water.
5. Thickly slice some sweet onions (vidalia are nice). I use about one large onion per package of tofu. Onions are a vegetable in this dish not a seasoning.
6. Carmelize the onions by cooking on low heat for a long time. You want the biggest of the slices to be quite soft and nearly translucent.
7. Mix one can of coconut milk or coconut cream for each package of tofu into your onions. Do not use lite coconut milk and do not use coconut milk from a carton that is sold in the dairy section at the store (that's something totally different). I prefer thai kitchen brand but kroger brand does alright. Trader Joes has very inexpensive coconut cream but it's more watery than the other brands I've used.
8. Add curry paste. For the longest time we used thai kitchen brand because it's easy to find but it's worth a trip to the asian market because thai kitchen is actually way more expensive than the authentic stuff. If you are a strict vegetarian remember to check the label because many pastes have fish in them. Do not use the curry powder sold with the spices at regular grocery stores, it's a different product altogether. Mix well and start with a small amount. Add more carefully and taste after mixing in each lump until it's as spicy as you like. You may want to add sugar if you're used to thai-american restaurant flavor. I almost always find I want more salt and sour so I add soy sauce and lime or rice vinegar (I just use a bit of the tofu marinade). If you can't handle much heat then put in only a little paste and add garlic and ginger for more flavor. Make sure you have the sauce tasting just right before adding the chunks of potato and tofu because you will break up your chunks by trying to stir in the paste.
9. Once it's as spicy as you like it add the baked and dripped tofu and lightly cooked potatoes. Stir gently. Raise the heat and get it bubbling and then turn it off. If your potatoes are more firm than you would like or you have too much liquid then simmer very gently for a few minutes. Remember that the potatoes and tofu will absorb a lot of fluid as it steeps so don't get too upset about it being soupy. My preference is to let it cool and then refrigerate until dinner time the next day but you can just leave it on the stove for 4-6 hours if you got it going early enough. Don't rush the steeping- it'll be watery and weird if you serve it right away.
10. Serve on a bed of jasmine rice and top with fresh cut cilantro and crumbled peanuts.
If you aren't into a potato based curry I've done this exact same thing using chunks of eggplant roasted at a very high heat instead of lightly cooked potatoes. I like to throw cashews into the coconut milk for that one and let them get nice and soft in the curry gravy (don't try this with peanuts though! They are not good simmered in liquid.)
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