Baking Through the Tofu Fear

As a vegetarian and then as a vegan, trust me, I know all the stereotypes about tofu. In fact, it has only been this year that I have a) begun to like it and b) started cooking it at home. I was daunted by its tabula rasa lack of flavor. But actually, that bland lack of flavor that everyone complains about, is *precisely* why tofu rocks. Or jiggles. Or sometimes squelches when you squeeze it... but I digress.

Once I figured out- with the help of the internet, some veg friends, and some cookbooks- how to set in action the chain of events that leads to fabulous tofu cookery, I fell in love. Much like meat, you can make it taste like whatever you want with a good marinade and solid prep. What follows are a series of washed out flash pictures because there was 0 natural light in my kitchen. So, try to ignore that part. Please. And thank you. And we're off!



To make standard main course tofu, I used a 1 lb package of extra firm organic non-GMO tofu. The extra firm part is crucial, the rest is preference. Drain out the water, squeeze it gently in your hands, and then place a cloth napkin on a small plate. We don't use paper towels/rags/sponges, you can sub paper towels if that's the way you roll (that was an awful joke, I'm sorry). Put your tofu on top of the cloth...



top with another cloth, and then top with a weight. It should be heavy enough to press the tofu, but not so heavy that it splits it. Here, I've recruited my thrift store canister, which is currently housing my brown sugar. As a side note, I've actually seen tofu presses for sale. Seriously, all they do is just press on your little tofu block the exact same way my canister friend is doing so helpfully here. I'm all about avoiding the gadgets, so, avoid that gadget.



When it comes to the marinade, use whatever favorite standby you might otherwise use on chicken or pork. I tend to just throw things together, and since I was making Thai food tonight, I combined some sesame Thai ginger dressing, soy sauce, maple syrup, the juice of one lime, and then I added in some ginger and brown sugar. I whisked this all together in a baking pan- the size depends on how much tofu you're making, I only planned to use half.



Another element of tofu that googles people out is the sponginess of it. It can be disconcerting. I found the best way to avoid this weird texture problem is to slice the tofu very thinly. If this was going into say, a miso soup, I'd cube it and the softness would be fine. But for a meat-type substitute, I like mine chewier and a bit crispy. I sliced up about half of the tofu, six thin pieces in all. Because I'm using the rest tomorrow, I simply put it back on the plate and covered it with a moist napkin. If you were waiting longer, put it in a container with water to cover, basically recreating the package it came in.



Then just put your slices in the pan. The marinade would ideally juuuuuuust cover the top, but I got mine a bit too deep. Poke holes gently with a fork to let the marinade soak in, then flip and poke again. I usually like to marinate for at least 8 hours, so this step often happens in the morning.

For the baking, I like "Veganomicon's" method of baking tofu the best. Preheat oven to 425. Cook for about 45 minutes, flipping every 15 minutes or so. As the heat dries out the tofu, it sucks up the marinade, and then it's all cooked in- towards the end you may have just a very thin layer of marinade left sizzling in the pan. Once again, the strange properties of tofu are totally a plus when you work with it. If you think about it, chicken and pork and beef would be pretty unappetizing if all you did was grill them with absolutely no spices or marinades. This is the same for tofu. Because it is so water dense, it just needs a good dose of flavors, and it needs to be cooked correctly. I cook mine until it's crispy on the edges, and firm. If I try to lift it out and it flops over and threatens to break in half, it goes back in the oven.

There you have it. If you try this method and still hate tofu, I'm sorry I led you astray :)