Hey everyone, I've been trying to make a couple of vegetarian meals every week to cut down on the amount of meat that I consume. I tried making Tofu for the first time last night and it turned out pretty well. I chopped it into squares, squeezed out all the water (holy fucking shit there's a lot of water in tofu) and tossed it in some olive oil, soy sauce, garlic powder, ginger, and some corn starch. Baked it in the oven until it crisped up and it turned out pretty well I thought. Ate it with a simple vegetable stir fry.
Turns out there's a thing called a tofu press? That seems like it would expedite the entire process since most of the prep was in squeezing out the five gallons of water from the block of tofu. Anyone got any suggestions for a solid one to get?
Also if anyone wants to share some good vegetarian/vegan recipes with tofu it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Edit* God damn you motherfuckers love yourselves some tofu. Thanks for all the great tips everyone, this will definitely guide me in my tofu journey.
So we meet again RiffRaff. Hope you're practicing your leads.
That sounds good and a lot easier than what I was trying to make.
I think I may have been trying to use silken tofu for my meal, that would explain all the fucking water when I was pressing it I guess lol. I got firm tofu if that makes any difference.
I think I might have to specifically go to an Asian market for my tofu needs then. Just moved to a new area and the tofu/asian food pickings are slim at my local grocery store.
Never heard of Zha Cai before, but it sounds right up my alley. I love anything mustardy or pickled.
Nice! I'll check that video out. I did want to try frying up some soon since I've had that before but never made it myself. That's good they cover other vegetarian recipes too. It'll help with working some into my food rotation.
Even as a vegan I have never owned a tofu press. If I want to press it, I just wrap it in a clean dish towel, sandwich it between two plates, and then sit a heavy book or two on top.
My other favorite way of removing moisture is dry fry it by cutting it into strips or cubes and throw it in a dry non-stick pan until it starts to get slightly blonde (It never really browns without oil. ) Then once it's very dry and crispy you can add whatever sauce you want and it will soak in like a sponge and keep the a little bit of crunch on the outside.
Also basically any chinese recipe for Tofu is good. Lot's of sauces that mix sweet, sour, and umami. My favorites is to make it general tso's style: cut into cubes, toss into corn or potato starch, pan fry in a few tablespoons of oil and then add a homemade or storebought sweet and spicy sauce served with rice and steamed broccoli. Fuckin' delicious.
Now there's some fucking pro tips. Glad to know I was essentially pressing it correctly. I used cutting boards and a cast iron pan. I'll definitely try using a dish towel instead of paper towels next time, it killed me how wasteful that made it.
What temperature do you have the pan on when dry frying it? A medium or high heat? Am I at risk of burning it doing that?
I usually do a medium heat, but honestly tofu is one of those weird things that is pretty hard to burn. It barely gets golden as you dry fry. Especially at first while it's moist you can have it pretty hot without too much risk if you're in a hurry. Of course, I use an electric stove, so it's not quite like the heat you can get with a wok burner or hot gas stove.
Gotcha. So treat it kind of like mushrooms where you want high heat to cook out all of the water effectively.
Even as a vegan I have never owned a tofu press.
Even as an Asian person I have never heard of a tofu press or known anyone who uses one.
Tofu protip: Leave it to marinate in a sauce to give it even more flavor. My fav thing to do is buy an artificially flavored beef or chicken flavored powder, mix it with a lil water, soy sauce, any other Asian sauces (fish, hoison, rice vinegar, teriyaki, chili garlic, sriracha, chili oil, etc), garlic, onion, ginger, onion and garlic powder, fresh chillis, and let it sit a couple hours/overnight. Follow the rest of the things you did before, add a ton of veggies and make a banging meal.
I can't recommend getting an artificially flavored beef or chicken flavored powder enough. It makes all my veggie recipes still hit and not miss the taste of meat.
Nice. It seems like getting an intimate knowledge of sauces is invaluable when working with tofu, haha. I'll have to look into those powders, I may or may not like them though, artificial meat flavorings have been pretty miss for me in the past.
Hopefully you can find one you rock with. I heard McKay's is good but besides Amazon, I can't find it. I have some that I found at my local Asian market, which is dope.
But yes, cooking is all about throwing shit in that belongs from the general culture group and hoping it works. Know what spices is popping with what culture and you can create something good off the fly. It's always dope doing a recipe but throwing stuff together and keeping tendencies in mind can create some fun stuff. Explore and don't be afraid to pick up a spice for one recipe. It might come in handy later!
You can thick slice and pour hot water on it, helps to release excess moisture, look up technique for more info.
If you get extra firm tofu you don't even have to bother.
I like to make a lot of breakfast burritos and use tofu as the "eggs".
I used to do a whole lot of stuff but I've simplified the recipe to
oil crumble the tofu on pan salt and pepper Tumeric for coloring stir Let it cook make a little sauce of fat+water(hot to help dissolve fat) Examples, Hummus, Vegan Mayo, Vegan Butter Add black salt to the sauce, it smells like sulfur its good. When you have the tofu cooked to the amount you like(there's a big range here) Pour the sauce and stir in, take off the heat quickly. G2G(Good 2 go, got2go is old news).
You can blend the softer tofus(or firmer ones to less effective emulsion) into sauces to create a thicker+protein packed sauce.
Baked tofu is great to eat in sandwiches. Plenty of online recipes.
That’s pretty understandable though, tofu is pretty bland by itself.
lol. No problem with either of those recipes here. I wanted to try some sort of General Tso's tofu, so it's good to have a recipe that is vouched for.
Sounds fucking delicious. I just have to watch out on the spice level of dishes I make since it messes with my stomach. Might be blasphemous, but that seems like it would be good mixing in some gochujang instead of peppers since I'm a garlic fiend.
That sounds really good too. Kind of looks like some pressed fish cakes that I have gotten from a Korean market before (I will literally eat five pounds of them if I could, they are so good). If that tastes anything like those I will be in love.
Freezing it first changes the texture and makes it easier to press, if you want something a little different too!
from my understanding tofu comes in different firmness, the softest type is silken tofu and it has the most water, the firmest ones have the least water content.
Silken tofu is almost totally different, and less common to find outside of asian markets or health food stores. It's super smooth instead of porous and spongey. I don't think you could remove any moisture from it. I think in China it's usually eaten in raw dishes or added to soups at the end of cooking, while cotton tofu is what is more common in the US, and what is used in most stir fries etc. Silken is good if you are into baking with it, or scrambling for breakfast.
Yea I like to put a paper towel underneath to suck out the water and then put something heavy on top. Never tried a tofu press but I can’t imagine it’s better enough to justify buying one.
That's what I did. Just lined it with paper towels between two cutting boards and put my cast iron pan on top. Just seemed wasteful going through so many paper towels. I guess I could try with a normal dish cloth next time.
I’ll have to experiment with that sometime. I feel like it’d be tough to find something that takes in water as readily as paper towel though
Also try tossing it in cornstarch and pan frying it! That makes it super crispy which is always nice
That's what I had done, just in a baking sheet in the oven instead of the pan. (I guess it technically wasn't frying though, just baking). I'll try it in the pan next time since it seemed to stick to the baking sheet pretty badly.
after abstaining from meat for long enough tofu becomes unimaginably delicious. I eat it straight now.
If you’re aiming for tofu recipes to replace meat and have a firmer meatier texture, i recommend this method
I'm all for some ezpz weeknight meals. A+ on the nutritional yeast. Shit is amazing as someone who can't have any dairy anymore.
Piggybacking here. Besides miso soup and desserts (I am low carb) what are some good things to make with the “extra firm” SILKEN tofu I accidentally bought?
