tofu recipes and/or cookbooks

[princessofgeeks]

I am an avid reader of the comm but I don't think I've posted yet! I intermittently love to cook, but am certainly no gourmet.

I have printed off two of the three recipes listed under the tofu tag and would love to see more, or recs for tofu cookbooks.

I'm very interested in using it more.

*cheers*

Comments

[feuervogel]

I need to post the tofu in peanut sauce recipe here. I haven't made it in ages, but it's really good. (Somewhat time consuming, but it can be started somewhat in advance. My non-veg, non-foodie in-laws liked it.)

Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home has a fair number of tofu recipes (more than the original Moosewood cookbook), and many of the recipes are fairly easy. They're scaled back a bit from the original cookbook (which I highly recommend for vegetarian cooking, but many of the recipes take a lot of work.)

I haven't tried any of these, but they look nice, and here's an about page.

If you're looking for non-meat protein sources, have you tried tempeh? It cooks very similarly to meat: cut it into strips or cubes and saute until warm. You can use it in curry, as a chicken substitute on a salad, or however you want. (My husband doesn't like it as much as I do, so I don't cook with it often. He prefers tofu, oddly enough.)

[princessofgeeks]

thank you so much! will investigate.

I do not know about tempeh; thanks for the heads up.

much appreciated.

Tangential, but might be of interest

[rydra_wong]

If you can get hold of it, I recommend trying freeze-dried (originally, "snow-dried") tofu.

The freeze-drying gives it a completely different texture when it's rehydrated (more chewy and resilient), and because it's spongy it absorbs flavours all the way through in a way that regular tofu won't. It's good in winter vegetable soups, for example.

(It also lasts forever in the cupboard, and is handy for feeding to people like me who often don't get on with the texture of regular tofu.)

Re: Tangential, but might be of interest

[princessofgeeks]

thank you!

[rydra_wong]

There is a recipe from one of my favourite Japanese restaurants that I would love to try to duplicate, as it's pretty much the only time I like plain tofu.

It's got thin slices of tofu, then paper-thin slices (I presume a mandoline is required) of raw vegetables -- carrots, daikon, something that may be turnips -- with a wonderful dressing (I suspect sesame oil, vinegar, maybe mirin, and some other things I haven't managed to identify).

[princessofgeeks]

sounds totally yummy. i love all those sesame and peanut based dressings in Asian food.

THANK YOU

[rydra_wong]

Toasted sesame oil is a wonderful thing to have on hand.

long comment is lonnnngggg

[arboretum]

as a lazy chinese person who doesn't like preparing meat in the kitchen b/c i am always terrified of it going bad and also mostly just hate having to handle it...

I often go to my nearest asian supermarket and buy blocks of baked tofu -- it's most often in like brown 2" square chunks and firm to the touch, packaged in plastic maybe four to a package? firm b/c it's been baked, brown b/c mostly it's been baked w/ a soy sauce coating

I just chop that shit up and throw it in anywhere I might otherwise put meat in my stir-fries, and it works out great.

idk if you like/hate the taste of tofu, often I find people who haven't grown up eating it hate it, BUTTTT one thing I love to do with it is just open up a package of silken tofu (has to be silken!), cube it, and then eat it just like that with a few garnishes! there is a more chinese version also but it involves thousand-year-egg which most people who are not chinese think is horrifying *g*, but the japanese version is hiyayakko, and it is pretty simple and delicious :)

I almost never use firm tofu in my cooking, but did once for vegetarian spaghetti sauce, and it turned out pretty well. I think if you are using tofu for texture rather than for taste, it's important to prepare it somehow before it goes in the dish -- in the case of my spaghetti sauce, I crumbled it and stir fried it with some canola oil and garlic and onions before I used it; this gave it an onionygarlicky flavor so it did not have a tofu-y taste when we ate it in the sauce :D

Re: long comment is lonnnngggg

[arboretum]

also i just realized that the link i gave you for hiyayakko doesn't make it the way i like it which is with -- instead of plain soy sauce -- basically the sauce she recommends for agedashi-dofu.... just sayin'! that stuff is tastyyyyy

Re: long comment is lonnnngggg

[princessofgeeks]

this is so helpful, thank you!

i have not ever tried the silken kind. very good ideas about typical everyday uses; thank you!