Wednesday, May 30, 2007

The Tofu Challenge

or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Soybean

These days, I'm tofu's bitch. I drain, I press, I cook separately, I use extra firm (we're talking curry and stir-fry material here,) but no dice. It's gloppy at worse, squidgy at best. All I want is to be able say with confidence, "Why yes! I can cook tofu!"

Not that I'm cutting meat -- never that. Tofu is simply another ingredient to add to my repertoire. Plus, many omnivores such as myself don't know how to treat the stuff. It's a point of culinary pride.

Plus, a huge percent of the dating pool I'm swimming in leans veggie. There. I said it.

Anyway, I'm having a fuck of a time with this curdmass problem of mine. Any tips from y'all?

Also: frozen edamame has sustained me for a week now. Soybeans, fun fact to know and share, are acceptably spelled both "soy bean" and "soybean."

This post brought to you by the National Beef Council.

3 comments:

Devon said...

I've always found that frying the tofu before you stick it in a stirfry helps a whole bunch. Maybe you've already tried this.

I'll totally get in touch when we're in Oregon. (Are you in Portland or Eugene? I don't remember.)

M. said...

The magic trick I learned for making tofu tasty (apart from the drain-n-freeze, which an old roommate swore by) is to cut it into strips and fry it, dry, in a nonstick pan. Then you get the nice toasty yellow outside and pillowy inside. Magic!

Anonymous said...

Make sure you're not using silken tofu -- that's essential. Silken, despite it's name, can be found ranging from soft to extra firm but they're not at all good for stir frys or keeping together in dubes/strips for any sort of dish. Get the non-silken stuff (often not water packed, or lightly so).