TO - no - FU

Since moving to Colorado, and since dating Dave (who used to be a vegetarian, *cough*), I have really started to eat and enjoy tofu. I am on a mission to make tofu in a variety of delectable ways that leave you saying, “woah, I love tofu, who knew?”

I plan on posting my tofu trials and tribulations so you don’t make the same mistakes and can discover tricks to preparing the spongy white block of food.

The Stir-Fry:

The only way I tried to cook tofu was to put it in a stir-fry. On the first attempt I put some peanut oil in the pan, cubed the tofu, dropped in the hot skillet and off it went, sizziling and spitting oil and water on my hand and arm. I threw in the veggies after 5-7 minutes. That was bland.

Next attempt, (blot the water out of the tofu) Salt and Pepper. Bland.

Third attempt, garlic powder, salt, and pepper, cooked until more golden brown.. now we are getting somewhere. I continued with this method realizing one key was to really let the tofu get golden brown before throwing in any of the stir-fry veggies. I settled on this method for a while without making any alterations.

At some point while I was on the phone with Dave (master of the stir-fry), back when I lived in Denver, he said something about butter and tofu, I thought he said it was the key to its success. Well I don’t know if he did say butter after all because my next attempt to make the stir-fry I pulled out the tub of whipped butter and Dave said, “butter?”… well regardless of what I heard and who said what, butter became the next miracle in stir-fried tofu.

The last key to a better stir-fried tofu is letting it really cook, longer than until it gets golden brown. I like it when you cook the cubes long enough so they have a nice crispness on the outside. Instead of cooking them with the veggies, tofu has been put in its own stir-fry pan up until the last step of saucing the meal. Since tofu is so absorbant I think that cooking it with the veggies prevented it from getting crisp, as it absorbed some of the water from the vegetables.

Whole Foods, Foolish Craigs, etc…

I went to two “blast” classes at the gym this past weekend. Afterwards Dave and I were on our way to Costco. I said, “I can’t wait to get a hotdog.” Dave, in keeping his promise to help me be healthier (including killing my abs at the gym so I couldn’t stand up straight for two days), took me to Whole Foods for lunch instead. (No more hotdogs for me, so sad). The Kung-Pao Tofu had such a nice meaty tofu, not as “silky” as mine. How do they do it?

This is my next adventure, to figure out how to make a meatier tofu. I don’t know if baking will do the trick but I will let you know how it goes…