Tofu Turducken

Hi,

Tofu Turducken was not my idea. I never really intended to do it myself, though I was willing to try a sample. This was a concept dreamed up by Rene G. He came close until he changed his mind.

There is a food writing class at Evanston Library, which Rene G, several other LTH'rs and I are participants. Rene G had bought a tofu turkey with visions of turducken, then lost interest. He gave me the tofu turkey to try out on my family. A while later, the class was challenged to bring strange food to class the following week. I immediately thought this would be an opportunity to rid myself of SOB stew in my freezer. Rene G suggested I bring the tofu turkey, which was already the next day's lunch in my grand plan. While unique, I didn't consider the tofu turkey strange enough to merit interest.

Driving home, I thought more about the tofu turkey and realized this could be an opportunity for the mythical tofu turducken. I was willing if the cost to execute this was less than $10 and I didn't spend excessive amounts of time accomplishing the task. I didn't want to go too hog wild for what was certainly more a joke than a serious culinary accomplishment.

The centerpiece for this project was the tofu turkey. From a friend's amusing stories of her vegan brother's "turkey." I was expecting tofu molded to suggest a turkey with wings and legs. I didn't expect an oblong, extruded product with brown rice stuffing in the middle. If you didn't clip the bands carefully, you could easily pierce the thin tofu skin barely concealing stuffing where it was bound.




H-Mart's vegetable department was the source of the vegetarian (tofu) chicken, which was another extruded product. No real effort to try to look like chicken, though the taste suggested chicken.




I did not find tofu duck at H-Mart, though Rene G has seen it elsewhere. Not willing to engage more time seeking duck, I settled on the five-spice flavored tofu. I felt it was an acceptable substitute since Chinese roast duck would likely be seasoned with five-spice powder. This visually reminded me of smoked gouda with a smokey taste from otherwise tasteless tofu.




Before I had studied the tofu turkey, I envisioned butterflying it, removing the stuffing, layering "duck," "chicken," re-install the stuffing, then fold together and tie with butcher string.

Plans changed when I realized the tofu turkey was an extruded product. I instead cut a v-groove into the tofu turkey, whittled out a little "turkey" for more room for the "duck" and "chicken" before topping with the "turkey" and tying it.




The tofu turkey's instructions have it roasting in a tightly sealed container with two quartered potatoes, two carrots cut into 2-inch sections and several quartered onions. The basting liquid was a mixture of olive oil, soy sauce and poultry seasoning, which provided a nice roast turkey color. Everything from sealed pan to added vegetables and basting liquid should not be ignored or you will dine on a very dry tofu turkey.




Cutting into the tofu turducken was surreal. This soy based mutant extracted and formed to suggest meat was rubbery. If there were not ambient noise, I would not be surprised if it squeaked with every stroke of my knife. I cut everyone a portion, which people nibbled and never finished. I was the only one who finished their tasting portion.

Probably the only refinement to this effort may be finding a better attempt to replicate fake tofu duck. Those who saw the fake duck said the skin was even dappled from pulled feathers. Maybe find the fake chicken served at Fabulous Noodles, which long ago tasted better and more real than the real chicken served there, too.

Thanks Rene G for the inspiration and the tofu turkey, it really tickled the imagination.

Regards,

I am both fascinated and horrified, which is par for the course around here. Bravo Madam, bravo.

Oh, the humanity, the horror!
what a good sport you are, Cathy...

kudos for the experiment Cathy.

and reaffirming my belief(not that I have any doubts) that synthetic veggie "meat" is crime against humanity.

Thanks Rene G for the inspiration

Heh-hmmm!

Subject: Turducken

Mike G wrote:This year, Whole Foods is offering Seifurkpehs. Seitan, stuffed in tempeh, stuffed in a Tofurkey.

Are we really talking of the same thing? Rene G's concept was tofu all the way!

Regards,

Subject: LTHForum.com's Weekly Chicago Food-Media Digest

ronnie_suburban wrote:Media Digest for the week of January 20, 2010

From the January 18 Trib Local Evanston on-line edition:
Tofu turduken, mutant coconut and crickets serve as food for thought...Bridget Doyle visits a food-focused writing course being offered at Evanston Public Library in which LTHers Catherine Lambrecht, Alan Lake and Peter Engler are students.
=====

An abomination, no doubt, but it seems like a good gravy (meatless, of course, but full of herbs, etc.), could be a very welcome addition to provide moisture and flavor and help lubricate the gullet to ease the stuff down.

David Hammond wrote:An abomination, no doubt, but it seems like a good gravy (meatless, of course, but full of herbs, etc.), could be a very welcome addition to provide moisture and flavor and help lubricate the gullet to ease the stuff down.

Agreed. This turducken needed all the help it could use to get it down anyone's gullet.

They did recommend and provide a recipe for gravy. If it was a sit down dinner with mashed potatoes, I would have had gravy. Transported to a library meeting room, it seemed likely to cause a mess.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:

David Hammond wrote:An abomination, no doubt, but it seems like a good gravy (meatless, of course, but full of herbs, etc.), could be a very welcome addition to provide moisture and flavor and help lubricate the gullet to ease the stuff down.

Agreed. This turducken needed all the help it could use to get it down anyone's gullet.

They did recommend and provide a recipe for gravy. If it was a sit down dinner with mashed potatoes, I would have had gravy.

Actually the complete Tofurky Feast comes with giblet & mushroom gravy (vegetarian of course). But if you're going to the trouble of preparing a vTurducken, I'd suggest making gravy from scratch. No better starting material than vegetarian barbecue sauce gizzard, available in the freezer section at Hong Kong Market (2425 S Wallace).



This store has a truly impressive selection of artificial meats, including sheets of vegetarian duck embossed with faux feather follicles for added authenticity. I'm not sure I want to know what vegetarian swallow balls are.

While looking up some Tofurky information I came across the Jones sodas for the 2009 holiday season. In 2003, Jones gained some notoriety for marketing a turkey and gravy soda. Last season they came out with a meatless version: 100% vegan Tofurky and gravy soda. You can't accuse Jones of not having a sense of humor.

Hi,

I was about to stay something stupid, "But, I didn't see gravy in there." I then checked your link:

Our feast contains:
One Tofurky® Roast (made with organic non-genetically engineered soybeans)
Eight Cranberry Apple Potato Dumplings
Tofurky® Giblet & Mushroom Gravy
Wild Rice, Whole Wheat Bread Crumb Stuffing
Tofurky® Jurky Wishstix
Each feast is 100% vegan, cooks in about an hour, serves four and tastes fabulous!

This is the vegan response to those prepackaged Thanksgiving dinners offered by grocery stores, restaurants and caterers. All you need to make is a few side dishes and pumpkin pie to round off the meal.

I might offer this to a family member who just about cried when she learned my Thanksgiving stuffing was contaminated with sausage and turkey liver.

Regards,

I have actually tasted that Jones turkey soda
OMG talk about weird flavors..
It would be the perfect accomplice for the vTurducken!