Giving Tofu a Chance

Giving Tofu a Chance

I’m researching artisanal tofu, so we decided to do an all-tofu BBQ for July 4th. I realize that posting about my newfound fascination with tofu may be tantamount to having a “Kick Me” sign tattooed on my back, but though this 2,000 year old foodstuff is too often a punch line, it remains a major component of the Asian diet and, handled correctly, I believe it could be as versatile as chicken. Or at least cottage cheese.

To prepare for our cook-out, we bought some mass-produced organic tofu from Trader Joe’s as well as a block of artisanal, small-batch tofu from Tiny Greens (which charges $5/lb as opposed to under $2/lb for the mass-produced stuff – which for grilling is probably just fine, as texture seems to be a key advantage of higher quality tofu and the open fire is going to somewhat neutralize that distinction).

When cooking with tofu, draining is critical. We went through many paper towels pressing out the moisture. The more moisture out, the more marinade can get in. Reducing moisture also firms up the texture (and our preference is definitely for the firmer tofu varieties, which have a denser, ricotta-like texture).

We’d heard that freezing helped the marinade penetrate, but our experience indicates that the marinade is going to penetrate pretty well even without freezing, and freezing has the disadvantage of mushing up the texture…and being very lightly flavored, texture is one of the main things tofu has going for it.

We did the tofu with four different marinades (in picture below, from left to right)

1. Japanese: Toasted sesame oil, soy sauce, grated ginger, pressed garlic, sushi vinegar, wasabi.
2. Gary’s Rub: Mixed with olive oil and sugar. This rub was engineered for meat, and it was not surprisingly a little overwhelming for the tofu. However, because it was not a liquid marinade, the tofu kept its lightness, so a rule of thumb is that a light rub rather than a soaking marinade can help maintain the evanescent flavor and texture of tofu.
3. Chinese Five Spice: In addition to standard five spice combo, added bead molasses, Sriracha, garlic salt, red wine, sugar and canola oil (probably would be better with peanut oil, but we were out).
4. Italian: Balsamic vinegar, olive oil, some mixed/pre-made Italian spices (rosemary, black and red pepper, onion, sea salt and parsley, garlic, tomato), red wine, sugar. For this one, we used the Tiny Greens tofu; all the others were made with Trader Joe’s tofu.



We’re going to continue experimenting, and The Wife is game to try a Thai spice (with lemon grass and fish sauce). Next time, I’m going to refine my grilling technique to get the exterior more uniformly crisp, which may require longer cooking over a lower fire to get the sugars to caramelize without burning (the exterior of Italian version came out looking about right, and I don't think that was due to the artisanal qualities of the tofu).

Tofu doesn’t get a lot of respect in part because it’s abused in Tofurky and Soysage and other food vehicles that force the bean curd to emulate meat, which it should not be expected to do with any degree of success. Tofu has its own character; it’s perhaps too subtle for some tastes, but as with chitterlings, which it has taken me over 30 years to enjoy as much as I did last Friday, I have to believe it’s possible to make some really tasty stuff with tofu, and it’s encouraging that chefs like Ryan Poli at Perennial and Alex Cheswick at May Street Market are introducing tofu as a key ingredient in some of their recent dishes.

A noble project, Hammond! In the end, you'll of course Go All the Way, and make your own. Apparently there are wonderous heights to be achieved, as this New Yorker article describes.

Might I suggest that, for drying out/compressing your tofu, nothing beats wrapping or stacking using sushi mats, and weighting down with a car battery. You can thereby produce tofu with the thickness and the toughness of an huarache sole, which is sometimes useful.

Keep us posted on your travels...

Geo

In case you want to hunt for a bunch of different types of tofu:

The Super H Mart has a huge selection of tofu, including atisanal product.

In the produce area after you walk in go all the way to the back aisle. You'll find 40+ varieties of packaged products, from fermented to dried, to fried.

All the way in back near the fresh pork the entire corner is tofu manufacturing. You'll find liquid, organic, fresh, fried and dried back there, made in house.

Super H Mart
801 Civic Center Dr
Niles, IL 60714
(847) 581-1212

I'm a huge fan (maybe "huge" is a slight exaggeration) of fresh warm tofu with ginger syrup for dessert. You can generally buy this with the syrup at Chinese bakeries.
Have fun experimenting.

Jyoti

Excellent! I also draw the moisture out in a low temp oven. Just last week, I did a nice lemongrass tofu recipe based on the recipe from "Pleasure of the Vietnamese Table." and served it over rice. I'll have to try some of the other marinade ideas.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/ ... ofu-233844

gooseberry wrote:Excellent! I also draw the moisture out in a low temp oven. Just last week, I did a nice lemongrass tofu recipe based on the recipe from "Pleasure of the Vietnamese Table." and served it over rice. I'll have to try some of the other marinade ideas.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/ ... ofu-233844

The Japanese version was probably our favorite. I think with the others, we tended to treat the tofu more like meat, and we used marinades that were too complex, too full of flavors, too overwhelming for this delicate food. The relatively limited flavors in the Japanese version gave the tofu a chance to stand up a little to the spices.

Thanks for the Vietnamese version; will pass along to The Wife.

Nice - oddly, Sparky loves tofu, even though I had always hated it, so we try to work it into our diet, since it's healthy (at least, compared to some of the other stuff we eat.) Right now, our main use is the typical American one: I cut the eggs in egg salad with it, and find I prefer that version to the straight-up-egg version. You can either use extra firm, cubed, like egg whites, or soft, and cut back on the mayo. Both need to be rinsed very, very well - the packing brine is nasty.

Kenji is right; the tofus at H-Mart are terrific and there is a HUGE variation in quality, as well as a number of textures and preparations available. I've never even tried the house-made stuff, but there is a really great organic product that's available in smaller portions. We like it a lot.

I've also found that extra-firm tofu is pretty good on its own, seared well in a very hot, well-oiled cast-iron skillet. If you toss some ginger and garlic in first, that's even better.

David Hammond wrote:I think with the others, we tended to treat the tofu more like meat, and we used marinades that were too complex, too full of flavors, too overwhelming for this delicate food.

I was thinking exactly the same thing when I read your initial post. You weren't quite in Tofurky® territory but it seemed you were almost forcing the tofu to be meat.

The other day I had one of the most perfect meals in recent memory. After traipsing around the city for many hours on a hot, sticky afternoon I was thirsty and hungry but no food I could think of sounded appealing. I bought a block of tofu and ate it simply: chilled small bricks served with side dishes of slivered ginger, thinly sliced scallion and soy sauce. Some chilled sake alongside then cold melon afterwards and I felt restored.

I'd suggest trying your next tofu as simply as possible. The simpler preparations generally call for better quality tofu. When I was eating my dinner the other day, I actually found myself thinking about making my own tofu, something I hadn't seriously considered before.

David two thumbs up on the 4th of July Tofu. I really like the idea and what you have tried and I will have to try my own twist on this soon.
Southern style jalapeno smoked Tofu?

Cbot wrote:David two thumbs up on the 4th of July Tofu. I really like the idea and what you have tried and I will have to try my own twist on this soon.
Southern style jalapeno smoked Tofu?

Doing a smoked tofu is certainly an interesting possibility. I'm guessing a fruit wood (cherry, apple) would be appropriate; hickory or such like would be, I think, too heavy.

Rene G wrote:The other day I had one of the most perfect meals in recent memory. After traipsing around the city for many hours on a hot, sticky afternoon I was thirsty and hungry but no food I could think of sounded appealing. I bought a block of tofu and ate it simply: chilled small bricks served with side dishes of slivered ginger, thinly sliced scallion and soy sauce. Some chilled sake alongside then cold melon afterwards and I felt restored.

After a sweaty morning in the garden, I ate half-a-block of cool Wild Woods Sproutofu (made with sprouted soy), with ginger and soy sauce and it felt just great: no cooking required, of course, light and yet packed with protein (which always seems to perk me up).

This afternoon, I bought a Tofurkey from Whole Foods and am planning to eat it with an open mind (it takes 3.5 hours to cook!).

Are you looking for any other ways to prepare tofu? I would highly recommend making a spicy stew in the Korean tradition.
Here's a really easy and tasty way to enjoy tofu...I'm really not sure what you would call it in English...maybe a tofu steam?

Line a shallow pot with slices of Korean Radish and place slices of tofu on top. In a bowl mix soy sauce, a little bit of water, Korean chili powder, a little bit of sesame oil, cut up some onions, and scallions and just pour it over the tofu. If you want it spicier add Korean chili paste. And then just heat it up until the radish is tender.

I like to eat this with rice. I practically consider tofu a kind of meat I eat it so much.

I'll give another endorsement to H-Mart's house-made tofu. Great stuff: sweeter and more flavor than most that I've had. Also quite firm. The texture is a little grainer than a lot of packaged tofu (especially the aseptic-packed stuff which is almost creamcheese-smooth).

I haven't tried grilling tofu, I'm still a fan of saucy preps: I think you could probably treat it like you would (cooked) gnocchi, as it will absorb a lot of flavor.

I've used the H-Mart stuff in place of paneer in makhani sauce or as muttar paneer, where it's browned first, then simmered in the sauce. That crisping might also be nice in Ma Po, although the silkiness is more typical.

I also use tofu in indian dishes- great paneer substitute, you can do a super healthy palak paneer with it.

Whole Foods does some nice things with tofu in their salad/hot food bar. It's sometimes hit or miss, but when I get a salad there I will try chunks of the various tofu preparations. The ginger/soy one is always good, the "egg" salad is awesome (I HATE egg salad because I hate hardboiled eggs, but I will eat this- it's got dill and mustard in it). The other day I had the most remarkable piece of tofu in some type of italian preparation- it was grilled with rosemary and garlic and I don't know what else. But it was really chewy and flavorful and satisfying.

The "tofu scramble" mix you find at some vegitarian stores is also yummy- lots of turmeric, but I like it.

emdub wrote:I also use tofu in indian dishes- great paneer substitute, you can do a super healthy palak paneer with it.

Whole Foods does some nice things with tofu in their salad/hot food bar. It's sometimes hit or miss, but when I get a salad there I will try chunks of the various tofu preparations. The ginger/soy one is always good, the "egg" salad is awesome (I HATE egg salad because I hate hardboiled eggs, but I will eat this- it's got dill and mustard in it). The other day I had the most remarkable piece of tofu in some type of italian preparation- it was grilled with rosemary and garlic and I don't know what else. But it was really chewy and flavorful and satisfying.

How do you think they accomplish that texture? I've tried pressing and freezing tofu but can't arrive at anything like that. It's almost like the fried (I think) tofu "cutlets" sold in small packages at Mitsuwa-- but those are too dense to absorb flavors in a dish and they would be crazy expensive to use in large quantities.

Love, love love H Mart tofu! I like to chill slices of it topped with chopped tomatoes and other salady stuff for a summer dish.

bibi rose wrote:

emdub wrote:I also use tofu in indian dishes- great paneer substitute, you can do a super healthy palak paneer with it.

Whole Foods does some nice things with tofu in their salad/hot food bar. It's sometimes hit or miss, but when I get a salad there I will try chunks of the various tofu preparations. The ginger/soy one is always good, the "egg" salad is awesome (I HATE egg salad because I hate hardboiled eggs, but I will eat this- it's got dill and mustard in it). The other day I had the most remarkable piece of tofu in some type of italian preparation- it was grilled with rosemary and garlic and I don't know what else. But it was really chewy and flavorful and satisfying.

How do you think they accomplish that texture? I've tried pressing and freezing tofu but can't arrive at anything like that. It's almost like the fried (I think) tofu "cutlets" sold in small packages at Mitsuwa-- but those are too dense to absorb flavors in a dish and they would be crazy expensive to use in large quantities.

Love, love love H Mart tofu! I like to chill slices of it topped with chopped tomatoes and other salady stuff for a summer dish.

I wonder if very dense tofu is not put under some kind of weighted press to expel all liquid.

David Hammond wrote:
I wonder if very dense tofu is not put under some kind of weighted press to expel all liquid.

I found this online a while back and have considered buying it, but for some reason haven't wanted to shell out the bucks. I usually use my cast iron pan with a couple of 28 oz cans of tomatoes to squeeze out the water. With a vegetarian husband and me being Korean-American, we eat a lot of tofu

http://www.tofuxpress.com/

“Sometimes, you go too far”
The Wife

I had a spectacular lunch at Café Spiaggia (beautiful sardines in tarragon sauce; gnocchi with boar’s meat; a pea shoot salad), so I felt I could take a long-postponed plunge for dinner. It was with barely concealed horror that my daughter Josanna came home from work to see what was for dinner. Yeah, it was Tofurky. She went out to eat.

I’m exploring tofu, and I figure you can’t examine this subject fully unless you’re ready to go all the way.

Twee marketing copy on the box was a warning sign. “In 1995, Cosmonaut Valeriy Polyakov returned to earth (sic) after spending a record 438 days in space. We here at Turtle Island believe Polyakov came back because he wanted to get a taste of the just-introduced Tofurky Roast.” It’s copy like this that ghettoizes tofu and keeps it a punch line. Well, maybe not only that.

I added some young onions and micro Nantes carrots from the garden, small potatoes, and the baste recommended on the box: olive oil, soy, and some fresh sage. These accoutrements, I’m thinking, have got to help.

As you can see from pic below, this “roast” is actually a type of sausage with softer tofu injected (I’m guessing) into a “natural” casing (probably another soy protein) and stuffed with brown rice and bread crumbs. You can get a Turtle Island “giblet gravy” to pour on top, but even I agree that one can sometimes go too far.



The covered casserole pan went into the oven at 350 for an hour and fifteen minutes (another warning sign: anyone who starts the oven on an infernal day like today should, for that reason alone, have his head examined).

This is a nutritious meal: one serving (a little over a quarter pound) is 250 calories, with 6g of fat and 34 grams of protein. But, of course, my interests were primarily gustatory.

So…how’d it taste?

Well, it tasted a lot like turkey. Even smelled like turkey (could have been the sage, but I think it was more than that). The texture was almost tough, much more meat-like than any other tofu I’ve had before, which I guess was the idea. What I did notice was that I wasn’t savoring every bite. With any meat, especially maybe a good steak, I find myself taking time with the chewing, enjoying every chomp, but with the Tofurkey, there was nothing that demanded time or thought. Not that it was bad, but it just wasn’t very involving.



To sell dinner to The Wife, I made a salad using some stuff from our garden, including nasturtiums, so that looked pretty.

Overall, a decent eating experience, though not cheap: $15.99 for a 1lb, 10oz Tofurkey roast.

David “Tonight. Probably never again.” Hammond

I am following this thread since I am trying to add more soybean products into my diet. Have you done any experimentation with tempeh? I am wondering if I can avoid pressing the tofu (for a bbq type of application) by buying tempeh and marinating it.

Hammond,

Before you completely tire of tofu, get out to Chinese Kitchen in Westmont for their Salt & Pepper tofu. I'm not much of a tofu lover, but this dish is one I gladly choose over meat whenever I visit this restaurant.

Chinese Kitchen Salt & Pepper Tofu
GWiv Photo


Chinese Kitchen
6551 South Cass
Westmont, IL 60559
(630) 968-3828

David,

Make this recipe and you'll never look at tofu the same way again:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alto ... index.html

Best,
Michael

Re texture: I use cans to weight the tofu, too. I have a feeling Whole Foods does something involving a lot of oil as well as pressing (or whatever). Like they may fry it twice or something. I would love to be told different, but after eating one of their chewier preparations of tofu I always feel like I've eaten a lot of fat.

I quite enjoy tempeh, but it doesn't seem like a good alternative to tofu for the dishes I have in mind. It's too hard and crumbly. As for seitan-- what is with that stuff? Have I bought bad batches or does it always have that weird spongy texture? I made some Thai curry with it and had to throw it away.

I tried a lot of the fake meats after joining Weight Watchers and wholeheartly agree with the sentiment that, while no offensive, they don't give you much to think about or engage with. I'll pick of a pack of stuff from Whole Foods or Trader Joe's for a quick lunch at work; it's satisfying for very few calories but you just eat it and forget it.

The closest I've come to the Whole Foods texture is to press the tofu and then bake it at a medium oven for about an hour, with an occasional baste. You can find "baked" tofu in the tofu section as well, although I don't like the texture of several that I've tried, so you have to experiment a bit.

I've had the tofurkey and consider it more of a novelty item-sort of like marzipan made to look like fruit. I like it occasionally, but think that other tofu preparations are better. The version that you did looks lovely though.

I'll third, or fourth the love of H-mart tofu. I like it simmered (which is another way to get a firmer texture), drained and then topped with a few teaspoons of their scallion/pepper soy sauce. Yum.

On the tempeh tangent:

You can make sausage crumbles. In a small saucepan, boil the tempeh in enough water to cover until it puffs up and absorbs most of the water. Then fry in a tablespoon or so of oil with sausage-style spices. There is a more specific recipe in the Post-punk Kitchen cookbook. This is similar to Mark Bitman's recipe, but I think the water helps the texture quite a bit.

Otherwise, I like it pan fried with a sauce (peanut, etc). I like the fermented taste, but on your first few outings, you may want something pretty spicy or flavorful to offset it.

Just had a cold Tofurkey sandwich for lunch with just bread and mayo (I pulled the stuffing out before slicing thin). I will say this in its favor: it was not abhorrent.

A couple other thoughts on cooking tofu, David:

I use tofu in the kitchen for dinners with some regularity. I basically break down the ways I prepare it into two different methods:

1) Marinated and grilled or fried: A lot of ways you can go here and it all depends on the marinade (this seems like the main method you're using in your original post). I usually use firm, pressed tofu here and I generally don't do it very often because it takes planning for pressing & marinating, and if I'm planning a dinner ahead of time, I'm rarely choosing tofu.

2) Unmarinated and simmered soft tofu (drained and unpressed) in an assertive sauce, served over rice (or, the "ma po method"). This essentially involves cooking a strong sauce like a curry or a hot chili sauce, with some sort of vegetable addition (frozen peas, often) and adding the tofu at the end just to heat it through and make sure it's well-coated in the sauce. You get nice contrasting flavors from the clean tofu and the assertive sauce.

I heavily favor method two because it's mainly a pantry-item dinner and requires little pre-planning. You can use almost any combination of liquid, aromatics, and spices to make a sauce. If you want to take it a step into Sandra Lee territory, there are a number of decent jarred "simmer sauces" on the shelves of ethnic markets and Trader Joes.

Best,
M

eatchicago wrote:David,

Make this recipe and you'll never look at tofu the same way again:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alto ... index.html

Best,
Michael

But... that just seems silly! It's not "moo-less" if it's got 2 cups of milk-product-laden chocolate chips in it, now is it? Ok, I get it, there is less dairy product, and he never said lactose-free, and it's probably tons healthier, but what's the point of substituting tofu for the purpose of eliminating dairy if you're not going all the way?

MincyBits wrote:

eatchicago wrote:David,

Make this recipe and you'll never look at tofu the same way again:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alto ... index.html

Best,
Michael

But... that just seems silly! It's not "moo-less" if it's got 2 cups of milk-product-laden chocolate chips in it, now is it? Ok, I get it, there is less dairy product, and he never said lactose-free, and it's probably tons healthier, but what's the point of substituting tofu for the purpose of eliminating dairy if you're not going all the way?

Yeah, his name for it is inaccurate. Call it whatever you want. I just call it "chocolate tofu pie". I don't make it for any purpose other than the fact that it's super easy and very tasty.

I have made it with vegan chocolate for a friend with a severe lactose allergy. He proclaimed it one of the best desserts he remembers having and I think he ate 3/4ths of the pie that night.

eatchicago wrote:Yeah, his name for it is inaccurate. Call it whatever you want. I just call it "chocolate tofu pie". I don't make it for any purpose other than the fact that it's super easy and very tasty.

I have made it with vegan chocolate for a friend with a severe lactose allergy. He proclaimed it one of the best desserts he remembers having and I think he ate 3/4ths of the pie that night.

Ok, then -- super easy and very tasty I can get behind.

David Hammond wrote:After a sweaty morning in the garden, I ate half-a-block of cool Wild Woods Sproutofu (made with sprouted soy), with ginger and soy sauce and it felt just great: no cooking required, of course, light and yet packed with protein (which always seems to perk me up).

I haven't tried sprouted soy tofu. Is it much different from regular tofu? Have you come across any non-soy tofus? In Los Angeles earlier this year we went to Yoma, a very good Burmese restaurant. The owner served us a sample of her yellow bean tofu, made in house.



Wonderful stuff, with a distinct beany flavor and custard-like texture. If I ever try making my own tofu (don't bet on it) I'd like to play around with alternative beans. Black bean tofu, anyone?

That got me wondering about different types of tofu so I pulled out my 1975 copy of The Book of Tofu by Shurtleff and Aoyagi. No recipe for black beans but they cover sesame, peanut and green soybean tofus. To my mind these aren't true tofus as they are thickened with kuzu (similar to arrowroot) instead of simply being coagulated bean protein. The Book of Tofu is really an impressive book. Have you looked through it yet?

David Hammond wrote:As you can see from pic below, this “roast” is actually a type of sausage with softer tofu injected (I’m guessing) into a “natural” casing (probably another soy protein) and stuffed with brown rice and bread crumbs.

I'm no food technologist but I would think the Tofurky® is created by a double extrusion process, the way commercial tamales (such as Tom Tom) are made. The outer layer is a tofu-seitan mix and the inner core is rice stuffing. The "roast" is extruded directly into a casing whereas tamales are wrapped later. My Tofurky® from a few years ago had a plastic casing while yours seems to be "natural." I bet it's cellulose, the casing used for many sausages.

Rene G wrote:I don't know what I expected but was a little surprised when I opened the box. Nobody warned me I'd have to skin the thing.

David Hammond wrote:Well, it tasted a lot like turkey. Even smelled like turkey (could have been the sage, but I think it was more than that). The texture was almost tough, much more meat-like than any other tofu I’ve had before, which I guess was the idea. What I did notice was that I wasn’t savoring every bite. With any meat, especially maybe a good steak, I find myself taking time with the chewing, enjoying every chomp, but with the Tofurkey, there was nothing that demanded time or thought. Not that it was bad, but it just wasn’t very involving.

Yeah, clearly a lot of work went into making it turkey-like but it still wouldn't fool many people. I think a big part of the boredom is due to texture (much more like seitan than tofu). The Tofurky® is just too uniform, with each bite the same as the last. Without the stuffing for textural contrast, it would be even worse.

There's been a recent breakthrough in fake poultry technology. A food scientist at U of Missouri has figured out a way to mimic the texture of chicken breast, the "holy grail" for soymeat researchers. Here's an interesting article from Poultrysite.com and a video of the high-moisture extrusion process that creates the stuff. One day in the not too distant future, we may see a new breed of Tofurky®.