The KInd Life Community Forum

Debs said #2 Nov 15, 2011 at 8:39am

Two musts for new-to-tofu: 1) Drain and press it for at least 20 minutes (wrapped in a towel, between 2 plates w/ a heavy weight on top), it helps drain the water out so it can absorb flavours more. 2) Cut it in small cubes or strips, and use in stir-fry or soups (thai coconut, or hot and sour soup)

Mary L said #4 Nov 15, 2011 at 11:44am

Uh, I beg to differ. I never press tofu. If you want tofu with less water in it, buy the firm kind.

Here is a simple, Chinese dish that is garlicky, flavourful, and healthy:

Jade tofu w/ mushrooms and broccolli

Ingredients:

1 block of medium/soft tofu

1 bunch of broccoli, washed and cut into bit sized pieces

1 cup of shitake mushrooms, caps sliced and stems removed.

3/4 cup of vegetable stock

1 tbs cornstarch (+1 or 2 more if you want a thicker sauce)

cooking oil

2-3 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 tsp ginger powder/ juice from 1/2 tbs grated ginger

1 tsp salt

First, mix the cornstarch with the vegetable stock and whisk until no lumps remain.

In a pan, heat 1-2 tsp of cooking oil until hot but not smoking. Add the garlic and ginger. You want to extract the flavour of the garlic and ginger into the oil. Turn the heat down to medium before the garlic begins to brown.

Sprinkle the salt evenly at the bottom of the pan. Add the tofu, evenly distributing to cover the pan. Then add the sliced mushrooms and broccolli.

Turn the heat back to high, add the vegetable stock, and cover the pan with a lid, just leaving a little space for steam to escape. Cook until the broccolli turns bright and remove from heat.

Add a bit of soy sauce if you like and serve this over rice.

Hope this helps!

mary

http://www.marystestkitchen.com

Julie Hicks said #6 Dec 9, 2011 at 9:35pm

Thanks girls. I actually ordered it from a restaurant menu (thinking I try it from someone who knew how to cook it!) and it was...ok I suppose. It's not exciting me. Mary I've printed out yours and am going to give that a try, but I'm thinking it just maybe isn't something I'm gonna jump around about...

Starflower said #8 Dec 10, 2011 at 9:51am

I'm actually not the biggest fan of tofu. Some people just aren't, and that's ok :)

What I reccomend is marinating the heck out of it. I usually use a marinade including some oil, soy sauce, lemon juice, garlic and ginger (I just throw it together, no real recipe.). I let it marinade it all day if I can, for a couple of hours at least, turning frequently so it is evenly coated. Then we either grill it, bake it, cover it in flour and breadcrumbs and fry or bake it.... whatever you want. You can tweak the marinade, use whatever you want - sometimes I do more of a dijon mustard, herb, garlic mix; sometimes its more southwestern with a little hot sauce, cumin and lime.