As we all know, everything is made better by frying, especially vegetables. Well, now I’ve discovered that it works on tofu, too. I just went into the kitchen hungry, and thought I’d try another Kind Diet recipe: Crispy Tofu Slices with Orange Dipping Sauce.
It’s delicious! Basically you dredge slices of marinated tofu in a mixture of flours, and then you fry them up. There’s a dipping sauce included, which I need to figure out how to thicken. It’s just orange juice and maple syrup, and it doesn’t cling to the tofu as well as I’d like, but then of course in my ideal magical world sugar just clings to everything in an inch-thick crust, without making our arteries hard or giving us diabetes. What a world!
Here’s what the tofu looks like when you take it out of the package. It comes marinated (I’d never noticed marinated tofu before, but it’s there – at least at PCC in Seattle it’s there):
About as appealing as raw meat, wouldn’t you say? But you slice it up, dredge it in a mix of flours, and then fry it in a pan of oil (the recipe calls for safflower but I used canola):
Then you lay it out on some paper towels to soak up the excess oil (there isn’t much at all), whip up the dipping juice, and viola! Tofu that isn’t that offensive! In fact it’s actually quite nice!
I was still hesitant to eat it. It’s TOFU after all. I got fooled a few weeks ago when we all hopped in the car to go get a Christmas tree, and I ordered “tofu wraps” at a Pho place. DISASTER. It tasted like soft, mushy, soapy shoe leather. This was after just a few days of being vegetarian, and let me tell you, I was rethinking my options. Greg ventured a bite and said, “Oh it’s not that bad,” and then went back to his delicious-smelling beef broth and noodles. And then I threw food at him.
In this recipe, I’m sure that it helped a lot having the tofu both marinated and fried. I can’t eat a lot of fried foods due to my lipid levels, but this fine to eat once in awhile (certainly much healthier than my usual curly fries), and I’m guessing I could even get this past the kids if I called it chicken. If I call it tofu I might as well call it snails and make Jason speak French all through dinner.
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To thicken the sauce, try a little arrowroot powder.
Weird. I’m the meat eater, and I love tofu. The more chunks of white squidgy tofu hanging out in my miso soup, the happier I am. Do NOT like the cold, tofu-wrapped crap you get at sushi joints. (Inari? I think?) And tofutti? Just lock me in the freezer with a truckload and a spoon, and I’m totally good. Oh, and the tofu-based cream cheese I got a while back was quite tasty.
And again, I theoretically have a horrible diet, but with a few notable exceptions, I don’t like food fried in oil. (Exceptions being latkes, and a few pastries like Swedish rosettes and donuts.) And I really, really don’t like batter-dipped fried things, again with the notable exception of *good* onion blossoms/sticks/rings/strings/loaves/you name it. :)
Have you ever been to the Bamboo Garden? I know some people dislike it or say it’s lowbrow cuisine or whatever, but I love their food, and it’s all vegetarian. Last time I was there it was actually all vegan except their fortune cookies. *hahah* Gotta have those fortune cookies! :) And it’s worth it just once to be able to order “Buddha’s Basket with Precious Nuts”. *HAHAHA*
See, so now that you’ve discovered tasty fried tofu, you can get vegetarian pho (at least at Than Brothers.) Vegetarian broth, yummy yummy fried tofu. It’s good dipped in plum sauce.
(Heck, at my local Asian food market I can get pre-fried tofu. Heat and eat. Mmm. Unfortunately, I don’t get to do much soy these days, but I do loves me some tofu. Fried or not.)
That food looks pretty good, although I’m generally not a fan of orange sauce. Have you tried Teapot vegetarian restaurant on Capitol Hill? They have gone downhill in the past few years, but they still have some great offerings. I love how they do TVP.
And you still need to try tofu for dessert:
Mexican Chocolate Tofu Pudding
By MARK BITTMAN (my hero)
Time: 10 minutes, plus 30 minutes’ chilling
3/4 cup sugar
1 pound silken tofu
8 ounces high-quality bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon chili powder, or more to taste
Chocolate shavings (optional).
1. In a small pot, combine sugar with 3/4 cup water; bring to a boil and cook until sugar is dissolved, stirring occasionally. Cool slightly.
2. Put all ingredients except for chocolate shavings in a blender and purée until completely smooth, stopping machine to scrape down its sides if necessary. Divide among 4 to 6 ramekins and chill for at least 30 minutes. If you like, garnish with chocolate shavings before serving.
Yield: 4 to 6 servings.
Imho, the two problems with tofu are texture and taste. I find pressing and marinating fixes those problems. The recipe I’ve started making (and would have made this week if QFC hadn’t been out of tofu) is this ginger-garlic baked tofu recipe. So very, very good. (I have never managed to make it without marinating it for a couple of days. I have a limited pay-attention-to-recipes-span in a given day.
I got the Quick Fix vegetarian cookbook for Xmas. Turns out it’s actually vegan (which I’m not, but, whatever). Haven’t tried it yet, though.
or corn starch dissolved in a little cool water added to thicken