Trail Tofu

[jesse_the_k]

Turns out I've been making this every other week all summer, and I've modified it with much better results. So if you think you'd like something that's not as sweet, keeps better, and not as salty, please visit my version 2.0 Trail Tofu at my journal.
http://jesse-the-k.dreamwidth.org/101414.html


My "trails" are urban not wilderness, but where ever you're going, this easy recipe makes a good portable food for traveling, where finding high-protein gluten-free can be tiresome. This recipe does include white & brown sugars (starred) but it's not baking. I'm not familiar with dry vegan sweeteners, but if they exist, they'd work.

There are three steps, with a lot of time in between:

Squeeze water out of tofu to make room for marinade: prep 0:10 wait 4:00 hr

Slice & Marinate: prep 0:10 wait overnight

Dehydrate: prep 0:10 cook 3:00 hrs
Press liquid from 1 pound (450g) firm tofu

Wrap in two dishcloths. Tofu is weak against side-to-side forces, so make sure your weights push directly down. Place cutting board in sink, then wrapped tofu, then another cutting board plus at least 7 pounds (3 kg) weights.
After four hours, carefully remove the top weights and inspect the tofu. Both dishcloths should be wringing wet. If not, get two more dishcloths and repeat for two more hours.
Unwrap tofu, dry off cutting board, and cut into 1/4 inch (12mm) slices. Cut slices in thirds or fourths to make 1/4" x 1/4" x 2" (12 x 12 x 50mm) strips. (I total somewhere between 20 and 35 strips depending on my knife skills that day.)
Prepare marinade
Locate flat container big enough for tofu strips. In it, mix up the following:
1/4 cup (100 ml) apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp (1.25 ml)dill seeds
1/4 tsp (1.25 ml) celery seeds
1/4 tsp (1.25 ml) powdered ginger
1/4 tsp (1.25 ml) powdered garlic
1/4 tsp (1.25 ml) powdered mustard
1/4 tsp (1.25 ml) black pepper
1/2 tsp (2.5 ml) crushed red pepper
2 tsp (10 ml) brown sugar*
2 tsp (10 ml) white sugar*
2 tsp (10 ml) cumin powder
2 tsp (10 ml) salt
Cover tightly and shake like a shaking thing.
Gently add the tofu strips and shake again. Refrigerate overnight.
Dehydrate strips in low oven
Get a cookie sheet or shallow casserole. One last shake of the marinade, then place the tofu strips singly on dish.
Set oven at 200°F (95° C)
Cook for 90 minutes. Inspect and turn over, cook 90 more minutes. Turn off oven and let them cool.

This recipes fills two small baggies; the half I carry with me I do not refrigerate. I probably don't need to refrigerate the other half, but I do.

Comments

[thingswithwings]

this looks great - I think I will try it! Thank you.

[azurelunatic]

For someone who doesn't like sweet in their savory, should one omit the sugar?

[jesse_the_k]

I don't know why you shouldn't. There's no chemical magic going on (like ceviche) and there's no baking magic going on, so it should be fine sugarless fine. (This recipe started out as "tofu jerky" with copious smoke-flavoring and heaping tablespoons of hot pepper. I modified it to my taste buds.)

[redsnake05]

This looks awesome. I love high protein snacks, and I love nearly all varieties of tofu, so I am excited about this.