How to cook a meaty tofu

And the question was asked: "My skills are totally lacking in the tofu dept. I've only used soft stuff in miso soup. What do you recommend for a more 'meaty' tofu?"

Good question! First, you're going to need to get yourself some firm tofu. You can buy it for $4 at a white person grocery store. I buy it a case at a time for a dollar a pack at the Asian grocery store. You can also buy "Extra Firm" tofu, which I am convinced is a marketing gag.

Once you've got the right kind of tofu, you need to "press" it to remove excess water. If you hate trees you can wrap it in paper towels and then put a cutting board on top of it to remove the extra water. The longer it presses the better. I usually wait about 30 minutes. Since I don't hate trees I have a couple of cloths that I use for the purpose.

Now your tofu is pressed. Cut it up into pieces, in whatever shape you want it in. If you end up dry frying it (see below) you'll want it thin. Vanessa thinks it's cute when I cut it into triangles.

Now, the cooking. You have a many options, but I'm going to suggest three: Baking, Oil Fry, and Dry Fry.

Baking is the easiest. Get yerself a marinade. I like to throw soy sauce, cooking wine, vinegar, garlic, etc. into a baking dish. Let the tofu hang out in there. Who knows, you could get crazy and add a lime. Stick it in the oven to bake. The longer it bakes, the better it tastes, but the lower the temperature needs to be. Stick it in for 375 for 30 minutes, and subtract 25 degrees for every extra 30 minutes you can leave it in there. I'm not a scientist or anything, but I think 250 degrees is about the lowest you should go. Check it every 30 minutes. Throw it in anything you want.

Frying takes a bit more attention, but is way quicker than baking. Rice takes 35 minutes and I can usually start the rice and be done with the stir-fry before the rice is done.

First, you need a cooking pot. I use a fairly fancy wok, but that's because I'm a huge snob. The most important thing is that whatever you use has to be nonstick. Tofu sticks and it is no fun.

Dry frying is healthy, easy, and fully discussed here.

Most of the time I fry the tofu in oil. Get your pot out, coat the bottom in oil. Vegetable oil fries the best, but I like olive because I like the taste. Plus it lets me claim all of my dishes are Greek-Chinese fusion. The oil should be hottttt, just hot enough to not splatter all over you when you drop the tofu in. Flip the tofu around fairly frequently until it's a golden brown. Then drop in whatever spices you want. Most recipes will tell you to take the tofu out at this point and add it to your stir-fry later, but I'm lazy and just throw the next group of ingredients in at this point.

If you want to be super-fancy you can bread your tofu (after you press and cut it) in a mix of corn starch and spices. Then fry it as above. The first time you try this you'll screw it up because either it'll stick together or you'll get too much corn starch in the oil and the whole thing'll turn to mush. But once you get the hang of it you'll amaze the neighbors.

I've also got a deep fryer that I use from time to time, and my world renowned tofu scrambles, but those are stories for a different day.