Tofu

There is definitely a textural issue. I pretty much only cook with the firm or super-firm stuff.

One thing you may find after you've followed a bunch of recipes is, one day you just don't have something. So you take whatever is nearest and you improvise (and, actually, Worcestershire for soy sauce isn't a horrible substitution). When you have some successes doing that, at least I found I wanted to do it more. Now, I have recipes in order to be inspired or for baking, where the chemical reactions require a lot more precision. But I pretty much never follow a recipe just to make dinner, not any more (no time during the week).

One idea is tofu on pizza. If you buy a premade pizza shell (Boboli or the like) or make the dough from scratch, the surface, of course, is yours to do with whatever you want. In this case, you'd want much smaller pieces, the idea is to simulate ground beef so grab a knife and smash away at the tofu. Fry lightly in oil with a little garlic. Add to pizza with tomato sauce and sliced mushrooms and bake per package instructions (or per recipe if you made the shell from scratch).

One thing -- umami -- can't recall if you know about this. Umami is essentially mouth appeal and richness. Kinda hard to explain but the concept is that there are some foods with a kind of built-in richness so they taste amazing. It's not salty, sweet, bitter or sour. It's a different taste. Beef has it. And, really, Worcestershire sauce has it. And so do mushrooms. So you can really up the umami quotient by adding mushrooms, particularly other than the white kind, you can mix a few different types together.

Here's some more info on umami.

Great thread, Sozobe. Making notes as I'm reading along - for my primarily vegetarian household.

M loves tofu in general, and tofu & potatoes cooked together specially. I generally cube into about 1" squares the extra-firm tofu. Chop some potatoes into a similar size. And shallow fry them until the tofu is crispy and the potatoes are browned & cooked through. (In her pea phases, I add some frozen peas.) Next I put some Indian spices (you can use whichever spices you like - I think anything works with tofu & potatoes) - dried cumin powder, touch of red chilli powder, and some dried mango powder. Little salt. Ready to go. The spices coat the tofu & potatoes nicely. It's actually a little spicy, but M loves it.

I used to make a very easy spicy baked tofu dish which involved first marinating it in a mixture of Hoisin sauce, some vegetable oil, soy sauce, grated ginger & something else. (?) Sorry, it's been a while & I've forgotten the other ingredients. I do remember really liking it. Crunchy on the outside. The trick was to get all the moisture out of the tofu before marinating it, by pressing a heavy plate on it for a bit. I'll see if I can track down the recipe if anyone's interested.

Will be back later. Tofu can be made instead of chicken in a pasta sauce, for starters.

msolga wrote:

I used to make a very easy spicy baked tofu dish which involved first marinating it in a mixture of Hoisin sauce, some vegetable oil, soy sauce, grated ginger & something else. (?) Sorry, it's been a while & I've forgotten the other ingredients. I do remember really liking it. Crunchy on the outside. The trick was to get all the moisture out of the tofu before marinating it, by pressing a heavy plate on it for a bit. I'll see if I can track down the recipe if anyone's interested.

I'm very interested. There was this one hole in the wall type fast food Chinese place I used to get lunch from. They had this incredible Spicy tofu dish a couple of times a week - can't find one like it - I no longer work near it. I have been craving this for quite a while. Like the crunchy on the outside - didn't know about the trick.

Linkat wrote:

msolga wrote:

I used to make a very easy spicy baked tofu dish which involved first marinating it in a mixture of Hoisin sauce, some vegetable oil, soy sauce, grated ginger & something else. (?) Sorry, it's been a while & I've forgotten the other ingredients. I do remember really liking it. Crunchy on the outside. The trick was to get all the moisture out of the tofu before marinating it, by pressing a heavy plate on it for a bit. I'll see if I can track down the recipe if anyone's interested.

I'm very interested. There was this one hole in the wall type fast food Chinese place I used to get lunch from. They had this incredible Spicy tofu dish a couple of times a week - can't find one like it - I no longer work near it. I have been craving this for quite a while. Like the crunchy on the outside - didn't know about the trick.

Still looking, Linkat!

No success so far, obviously.