Monday, November 7, 2011

Is it made from toes?

Several weeks ago we decided to try and cut down the amount of meat we were eating. That's right; we decided to beat the meat. Specifically we wanted to limit the amount of beef and birds purchased in the grocery store. This is the same time we switched off cows milk being in the house, and for the same reason. We're trying to cut down on the crazy amount of chemicals, hormones, antibiotics, etc that are in those products. I'm sure you're thinking "Cool story, bro" ... I promise there is a point here. The point is, our first trip to the store after making this decision we did the typical "I'm not going to eat meat" thing and bought some tofu.

Neither of us know anything about tofu. Neither of have ever really cooked with tofu. Neither of us has eaten much in the way of tofu. It taunts from the bottom of fridge ... I imagine it goes something like: "Ha. You're like a 12-year old with a hooker. You don't have any idea what to do with me. Way to waste your money. Hope you don't have some fad job like social media ... oh wait..." Seriously the taunting had become too much. I thought back to the glory days when we could eat in restaurants, and remembered deep fried tofu from Taste of Thai in Harrisonburg.

I started heating some oil, pulled the tofu from the fridge and commenced to cutting. As this was the first experiment with this, I decided to only use half the package. Once cut this was about 16 pieces. Half I coated in corn starch (based on a very cursory internet search), and the second half I decided to try something different with. I combined the left over corn starch with some white rice flour, Turmeric, Cumin, salt and pepper. I also put together an egg wash. Egg, flour mix, hot oil - it really doesn't matter whats inside, that's a pretty good recipe for tasty. The second batch had more flavor (I know big surprise right) but the first batch came out crispier and closer to the ones from Taste of Thai. The Thai ones had a pretty spectacular texture to them, with nearly all of the tofu from the middle being air. I really don't know how else to describe it. Next time we'll likely try a tempura style batter, let the oil get a bit hotter, and possibly leave the tofu in there slightly longer. One try, and we are actually pretty close on this.

All in all not a bad outing. We were pretty happy with the outcome. Our littles both tried it - and the youngest actually had a second piece. So there Tofu. I beat you.

Also - if you have any good (and easy) tofu recipes we would love your help in not wasting our money any further.

Syd: "Why do they call it Tofu? Is it made from toes?"
Me: "No. It's not from Foo's either."
Syd:"What?"

5 comments:

  1. Did you use firm or soft tofu? I find the firm tofu is better for stir fry, grilling etc. The soft has lots of applications too (like chocolate mousse- No dairy!)

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  2. We used firm tofu. Our knowledge of cooking with tofu didn't go much past - firm tofu is easier to cook with.

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  3. You can do a quick easy stirfry with it, and it is pretty good. Just some stirfy vegetables of your choice, soy sauce (I know there are some gluten free), terriyaki (there is a really great garlic terriyaki but I don't remember the brand), some ground ginger, really whatever you like. Throw it in a wok and go to town.

    Also, I would look up the recipe for Chicken Masala. You can sub out the chicken for the tofu and um, YUM-MY.

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  4. Hats off to you Kitchens. The fact that you got it anywhere close to T.O.T. is quite the accomplishment. Why? Because their's is precooked, frozen, ready to flash fry and serve. You can find the same product in higher end international stores or online. That being said... *exploding high-five*

    Anytime I use tofu I press it. It removes most of the water and allows the 'fu to take marinades and not splatter as much when it hits oil. I'm sure this process will help get your tofu even closer to that delicious app in H'burg. Oh, how I miss it...

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  5. Hats off to you Kitchens. The fact that you got it anywhere close to T.O.T. is quite the accomplishment. Why? Because their's is precooked, frozen, ready to flash fry and serve. You can find the same product in higher end international stores or online. That being said... *exploding high-five*

    Anytime I use tofu I press it. It removes most of the water and allows the 'fu to take marinades and not splatter as much when it hits oil. I'm sure this process will help get your tofu even closer to that delicious app in H'burg. Oh, how I miss it...

    ReplyDelete