Re: [CH] tofu
MachineGun (rael64@qwest.net)
Sun, 17 Nov 2002 21:03:15 -0700
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On Sunday, November 17, 2002, at 04:45 PM, madison wrote:
> Hello. I have purchased my first box of tofu. Extra firm silken style.
> Now
> what? I don't know how to use it. All suggestions appreciated. With
> peppers
> of course.
>
>
>
Contrary to those meat eatin' guys who will and have already replied
and are not going to hell (well...), but merely will end up as road
kill in a sense, arteries bloated, liquids oozing from orifices, as the
sun bakes their bodies sitting next to their grills, hunk of beast
flesh slowly grilling away to lumps o' coal...
< Rael, aka He Who Worships Sausages, laughs at his hypocrisy>
Actually, what you do with it all depends on what you want to do with
it. I know that how that sounds, but that really applies to any
ingredient, no? Not trying to be an ass, I swear.
If you want to make some sort of low fat dessert, of which, as we all
know, chiles can be added to *all* desserts, you can use it as a
one-to-one swap for fat; but this doesn't work for all desserts. I
have made chocolate chip cookies and swapped tofu for the required fat
exactly (by weight) and they cooked up fine. Different texture, more
cake-like, but tasty. Probably not the way you're looking to use Mr.
Tofu though. I've actually made a tofu chocolate "bavarian cream"
(not) and filled eclairs/puffs with it. Pretty damned nice, I thought.
You could actually make a very nice tofu chocolate fondue. No
sheeeet. Tofu and chocolate work really well together I think.
Anywho...main dish meat substitutes. I would recommend pressing the
tofu under weight on a sheet pan in an oven at about 200 degrees F
(approx 15 minutes) to rid it of excess moisture, but that is just me.
It is NOT required by any means and I'm sure others will say such.
Tofu contains a lot of water, though, and when stir frying it or the
like, to an ex saute dog, that makes a difference. It makes the pan
hard to clean and won't allow the tofu to brown up decently. Sheer
picky-ness and I don't even do this half the time, so there ya go.
If you do make a dessert w/tofu, though, you MUST drain/press it. Big
difference between just cooking it up and baking with it. Like, 1/4
cup of liquid per 12 ounces difference (that's huge, trust me).
So...slice it up and marinate it or dry rub it with your fav-o-rite
chile rub. Then cube and stir fry as you would meat, except no need
to "cook", just heat; throw it in towards the end of stir frying unless
you want to brown it in which case you'll need to heat up the wok/pan
on HIGH heat, add oil, wait until smokin' (use standard oil cookin'
cautions here), toss in cubed, dry tofu (yes, pat it dry), and hope to
hell it doesn't stick and come apart like it will if you don't press it
<g>. It's good "bbq'ed" (slice thick, cover with sauce, heat through
and eat). (Actually, tempeh is excellent bbq'ed. I digress.) It's
good fried (marinated or rubbed) and placed on a bun like a sammich.
Decent basic marinade is a bit of olive oil, tamari/soy, ginger. Add
chiles, o' course.
You're a tofu virgin though, so as a "main flavor" you may not enjoy
it. It subs well for cheese in dishes with cheese (lasagna, for
example of which I have...somewhere...a recipe for spinach lasagna),
but sub only about half the cheese for tofu 1-1 by weight. It does
nicely crumbled up into spaghetti sauce. Can slice/cube it up and add
to all sorts of soups or even puree it and use it to thicken (to a
point) soups if you don't like to chomp down on it. You're generally
limited only to your own imagination as tofu takes on flavors well,
will hold it's shape under many cooking techniques, yet will puree up
to a sauce if desired as well. Quite a flexible ingredient.
Personally, I like tempeh, but damned if you can find it (easily) in
Idunno. I hate to mail order stuff like that...
Peace, Hendrix, and Chiles.......
Rael64
Monk of the TCS
Master of Twister
Mystic Order of Casicum Rogues, no. 14
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<smaller>
On Sunday, November 17, 2002, at 04:45 PM, madison wrote:
<excerpt>Hello. I have purchased my first box of tofu. Extra firm
silken style. Now
what? I don't know how to use it. All suggestions appreciated. With
peppers
of course.
</excerpt>Contrary to those meat eatin' guys who will and have already
replied and are not going to hell (well...), but merely will end up as
road kill in a sense, arteries bloated, liquids oozing from orifices,
as the sun bakes their bodies sitting next to their grills, hunk of
beast flesh slowly grilling away to lumps o' coal...
<< Rael, aka He Who Worships Sausages, laughs at his hypocrisy>
Actually, what you do with it all depends on what you want to do with
it. I know that how that sounds, but that really applies to any
ingredient, no? Not trying to be an ass, I swear.
If you want to make some sort of low fat dessert, of which, as we all
know, chiles can be added to *all* desserts, you can use it as a
one-to-one swap for fat; but this doesn't work for all desserts. I
have made chocolate chip cookies and swapped tofu for the required fat
exactly (by weight) and they cooked up fine. Different texture, more
cake-like, but tasty. Probably not the way you're looking to use Mr.
Tofu though. I've actually made a tofu chocolate "bavarian cream"
(not) and filled eclairs/puffs with it. Pretty damned nice, I
thought. You could actually make a very nice tofu chocolate fondue.
No sheeeet. Tofu and chocolate work really well together I think.
Anywho...main dish meat substitutes. I would recommend pressing the
tofu under weight on a sheet pan in an oven at about 200 degrees F
(approx 15 minutes) to rid it of excess moisture, but that is just me.
It is NOT required by any means and I'm sure others will say such.
Tofu contains a lot of water, though, and when stir frying it or the
like, to an ex saute dog, that makes a difference. It makes the pan
hard to clean and won't allow the tofu to brown up decently. Sheer
picky-ness and I don't even do this half the time, so there ya go.
If you do make a dessert w/tofu, though, you MUST drain/press it. Big
difference between just cooking it up and baking with it. Like, 1/4
cup of liquid per 12 ounces difference (that's huge, trust me).
So...slice it up and marinate it or dry rub it with your fav-o-rite
chile rub. Then cube and stir fry as you would meat, except no need
to "cook", just heat; throw it in towards the end of stir frying
unless you want to brown it in which case you'll need to heat up the
wok/pan on HIGH heat, add oil, wait until smokin' (use standard oil
cookin' cautions here), toss in cubed, dry tofu (yes, pat it dry), and
hope to hell it doesn't stick and come apart like it will if you don't
press it <<g>. It's good "bbq'ed" (slice thick, cover with sauce,
heat through and eat). (Actually, tempeh is excellent bbq'ed. I
digress.) It's good fried (marinated or rubbed) and placed on a bun
like a sammich. Decent basic marinade is a bit of olive oil,
tamari/soy, ginger. Add chiles, o' course.
You're a tofu virgin though, so as a "main flavor" you may not enjoy
it. It subs well for cheese in dishes with cheese (lasagna, for
example of which I have...somewhere...a recipe for spinach lasagna),
but sub only about half the cheese for tofu 1-1 by weight. It does
nicely crumbled up into spaghetti sauce. Can slice/cube it up and add
to all sorts of soups or even puree it and use it to thicken (to a
point) soups if you don't like to chomp down on it. You're generally
limited only to your own imagination as tofu takes on flavors well,
will hold it's shape under many cooking techniques, yet will puree up
to a sauce if desired as well. Quite a flexible ingredient.
Personally, I like tempeh, but damned if you can find it (easily) in
Idunno. I hate to mail order stuff like that...
Peace, Hendrix, and Chiles.......
Rael64
Monk of the TCS
Master of Twister
Mystic Order of Casicum Rogues, no. 14</smaller>
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