Tofu Xpress

Entering into the world of vegetarian eating has opened up new avenues of cooking and ingredients.  I've done a lot of cooking in my days, and I've used a lot of different ingredients, but one thing I've never cooked with before was tofu.

Tofu... the name brings up images of a tasteless, white blob.  Pretty much accurate, except that tofu is very versatile and can be used almost everywhere meat is. I'll admit to a certain amount of apprehension when I first used tofu.  When the results were, to put it lightly, less than edible, I was ready to give up on cooking with tofu.  But, I did a little research and picked up a few tips.

The big thing I found was draining/pressing the tofu.  Pressing removes the water from tofu, allowing it to absorb more flavor from the ingredients it cooked with.  So I had a block of extra-firm tofu  wrapped in paper towels on a cutting board, and a 10" cast-iron skillet sitting on top of it to push the water out.  It worked, to a point.  There weren't enough towels to absorb the water so it ended up running all over the counter, but the tofu was reduced to about 3/4 the thickness.  I sliced it into portions and fried it, and it came out good, better than prior attempts, but it still wasn't quite there.

Back to the interwebbernets for more research.  That's when I stumbled on the Tofu Xpress.  I looked at it, and looked at it, and finally, after months of waffling, went for it.  Holy cow!  I should have ordered this months ago!

It's pretty simple in concept, the developer talks about how she came up with it on the website.  A container for the tofu and a lid that locks down and puts constant, steady pressure on the block.  The first time I used the Tofu Xpress I was amazed at how much water came out of one block of extra-firm tofu after one hour in the fridge - more than I got out using the cast-iron press on the counter.  And bonus, you can marinate the tofu in the same container after you're doing pressing it, it comes with a lid as well.  You can also use it for pressing the water out of thawed frozen spinach or eggplant slices.

The tofu dishes I've made since I got this have been great, the texture is very dense and meaty - very similar to the tofu I'm used to from Thai and Chinese restaurants.  

I'll be making this this week:

Spicy Orange/Garlic Tofu

1 block extra-firm tofu, well pressed and diced into cubes

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp soy sauce

1/2 cup orange juice

Sriracha sauce, to taste.

2 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar

1/2 tsp fresh ginger, minced

1 1/2 tsp cornstarch dissolved in 3 tbsp water

Sauté tofu and garlic in olive oil for 3-4 minutes, until tofu is just lightly browned. In a seperate bowl, wisk soy sauce, orange juice, rice vinegar, Sriracha, and ginger.  Pour over tofu and stir to coat  Heat for 3-4 minutes, then add cornstarch and water, stir andrbing to a boil and cook until thick.

Serve over brown rice

Check out the Tofu Xpress website, it has a lot of good info and demos.  It's a worthwhile investment, buy yours here!