Is this tofu craze here to stay?

Over the last few months, a lot of tofu has been cooked - marinated in a variety of sauces, sauteed with a plethora of spices, baked into crispy bars ... and pretty much every single option has been extremely palatable. I'd love to think I had something to do with it, but the truth is that tofu is the ultimate sponge! It absorbs spices so easily and then adds its own tinge - every mouthful ends up with this mishmash of flavours.

Hey, speaking of Mishmash - Shn just celebrated a year of blogging, if you haven't had a chance to check out her fabulous cakes and cooking, run there right now :)

Ok, back to tofu love ... I wanted to try something new, something different with the tofu - not the usual chunks. I started off thinking that I wanted to make some kind of fresh vegetable rolls - shredded and grated vegetables in a cabbage wrap, maybe? Hmm ... no cabbage! How about kale? Or chard? Nope! Low on greens :( Wait, there is spinach - would that work? Well, even somewhat large spinach leaves don't really make for decent rolls. Not even with toothpicks stuck into them! *sigh*


So, I had to bail on the whole rolls fantasy. Oh well! Instead, I just settled for the shredded tofu salad served over a bed of wilted spiced spinach. Guess those cabbage wraps will have to wait for another day!

Shredded Tofu Salad
Served on a bed of wilted spinach

Servings: 2

80 gms extra-firm tofu (about 1/5 of a regular block of tofu)
1 small head of broccoli
1/2 red onion
1/2 red bell pepper
1 T grated ginger
1 t sambal oelek
1 T soy sauce
1 t sesame oil or oil spray
salt

1 T vinegar
1 t cayenne pepper
10-12 fresh spinach leaves - washed and dried

Grate the tofu using a medium sized grater and set aside.
Finely dice the onion and bell pepper.
Shred the broccoli into small pieces.
Heat the oil in a wok and saute the onions and ginger till browned.
Add the broccoli and bell pepper and saute for 2-3 minutes.
Stir in the tofu along with salt to taste.
Add the sambal oelek and soy sauce and saute for about 4-5 minutes till the tofu starts to brown.

In the meantime, pour the vinegar into a saucepan and heat on low.
Stir in the cayenne pepper.
Add the spinach leaves and cook covered, on low for a couple of minutes till the spinach is partly wilted.

Serve the tofu salad on a bed of wilted spinach leaves.




Good?

This is my absolute favourite way to eat tofu! Once shredded, it totally sucked in all the flavours and was super moist and juicy. The spinach actually ended up being a great touch - the vinegary leaves were a perfect foil for the salad.

Tofu heaven!

My current favorite veggie cookbook is New Vegetarian by Celia Brooks Brown - I think she, along with Rose Elliott are among the best authors of vegetarian cookbooks. Total aside: Celia's book has one of the best gazpacho recipes I've ever seen, too bad I'll have to wait till warm weather comes around again before I try it out! :)

Sometimes, a noodle dish bursting with flavor and topped with marinated tofu just does the trick. And the New Vegetarian has what seemed like the perfect recipe - egg noodles with glazed green vegetables, topped with teriyaki tofu steaks. I decided to go with a few changes - just soba noodles instead of egg noodles seemed like a good option, 400 calories per serving (that's egg noodles for you!) sounded too heavy for dinner today. Besides, PCC carries some awesome soba noodles that pick up teriyaki flavors really well, we decided it was time to try those again. We ended up cutting the tofu into smaller chunks instead of the giant steak-like slabs since it makes for easier eating with chopsticks :) Also, we had to settle for regular bok choy instead of baby bok choy, and scallions instead of leeks. All close enough to make for a fabulous dish!

The ingredients look marginally exotic, but this was really straightforward and quick to make and a treat to eat :)

Roasted teriyaki tofu chunks with glazed greens and soba noodles

Servings: 2 giant servings

3/4 lb firm tofu cut into 2" long pieces
3-4 shiitake mushrooms
4 pieces of chanterelle mushrooms
8 oz soba noodles

Teriyaki marinade
----------------------------
1/3 cup dark soy sauce
1/3 cup of japanese plum wine
1/2 cup of sake
1 T sugar

Green veggies
---------------------------
1 t safflower oil
3 garlic cloves - sliced
1.5 cups broccoli florets
4 scallions - chopped
3 leaves of bok choy - chopped
2 T fresh fennel
1 t coconut powder (we used this instead of cornstarch for thickening)

Garnish
-----------------
1 T sesame seeds - toasted golden brown
a few snipped chives

Mix all the marinade ingredients in a saucepan and heat till the sugar is dissolved. Add the tofu and mushrooms and simmer for about 15 minutes, turning the tofu every few minutes. Move the tofu into a greased baking pan along with some of the sauce and bake at 425 F for 10-15 minutes. Remove the mushrooms from the sauce and slice them. Reserve the sauce for later.

Cook the noodles according to instructions - usually 7-9 minutes.

In the meantime, heat the safflower oil in a wok and throw in all the veggies (garlic, broccoli, scallions, bok choy, mushrooms). Saute for a few minutes before adding the fresh fennel. Now toss the reserved sauce and 1/4 cup of water. Simmer covered for a few more minutes. Finally, move the veggies to the side of the wok and add the coconut powder into the sauce and stir quickly before it begins clumping.

Place a nest of noodles on a warm plate, add a bunch of the veggies and sauce, finally top with the tofu pieces (shiny side up :)) and garnish with the toasted sesame seeds'n'chives. Yum!


Ooo ... this might just have to be my entry for Presto Pasta Nights!