Did you cringe? If you did, I am not surprised. I love it though. I hear people say it's flavorless and spongy, and that's true, that is part of the charm. You can use it I all kinds of stuff, and it just takes on the flavors whatever you cook it in.
One of my favorite dishes is Orange Peel Tofu from Pick Up Stix, a takeout chinese place. I was craving some the other day but I no longer live superclose to one and didn't feel like driving out of my way to get it, so I figured I could just make it.
Well you can't make Orange (style) tofu without tofu. Duh. Lucky for me, I keep tofu in the freezer for just such an occasion.
Oh yeah, I should tell you, tofu changes color when you freeze it It magically changes back when you thaw it. Appetizing, right? Yeah, I know. You can let it thaw in the fridge or do what I do and run it under hot water in the sink until it comes out of the packaging. Put your partially frozen tofu in a pot of simmering water or broth. I just chuck a boullion cube in the water. The nice thing about frozen tofu is that it absorbs more as it cooks than unfrozen.
After it's thawed and simmering away, you can cut it into cubes.
See? It's normal colored again.
While that's going on, you should make some rice. Because you are super busy (or lazy), use a rice cooker.
After some simmering in broth a while, your tofu can stop swimming. Heat up a skillet with some olive oil and sautee the suckers.
Yummy right? Now you can add some sauce. I used this recipe for Orange Style Tofu, mostly because I'm lazy and it was the easiest looking one I could find. It was pretty tasty though. I also threw in some water chestnuts because that's what they do at Pick Up Stix.
Wanna see?
I gotta say, I like it.
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4 comments:
So what is the texture of tofu like when you eat it? I've seen it, never tried it, but I imagine it's like a cream cheese texture. I'm sure I'm wrong, but I'm curious now.
Hm. Maybe like a cheesecake texture? A bit spongy and easy to bite into.
I didn't cringe at the thought of tofu! But there are a variety of textures and firmness of tofu. What degree of firmness you choose depends on your application. For the above mentioned orange peel tofu, extra firm would be best suited. Maybe I'll try your recipe in the near future pending completion of my new kitchen. Oh yeah. TWO ovens!!
Hey Connie :) Yeah, I didn't mention the whole firmness thing because I just assumed it was obvious. If you look at the pic of the package I posted you can kind of tell it's extra firm (or extra ferme, fancy Trader Joes multilingual tofu). You should start a blog so I can see your kitchen's progress and all the yummy things you make in it :)
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