Moo-Less Chocolate Pie
Recipe courtesy of Alton Brown
Show: Good Eats
Episode: Tofuworld
2 cups chocolate chips,
1/3 cup coffee liqueur
1 block silken tofu
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon honey
1 prepared chocolate wafer crust

Place a small metal bowl over a saucepan with simmering water. Melt the chocolate and coffee liqueur in the bowl. Stir in vanilla.

Combine the tofu, chocolate mixture, and honey in the blender jar. Liquefy until smooth.

Pour the filling into the crust and refrigerate for 2 hours, or until the filling is set.

Here's another dessert recipe for the World's Fastest Chocolate Mousse. Word of advice - don't use extra dark chocolate...I did when I made it last since it was all I had and it wasn't so good.

I just use it in any kind of stir-fry recipe, subbing it for meat. I especially like it pad thai-style, over rice noodles and maitake mushrooms, in a curry broth. I just kind of make it up as I go along.

Also, tofu scramble is very good. Use it with veggies to make a yummy frittata or a wrap, maybe with cheese. I like mushrooms and onions and spinach....SO good.

This is a tofu scramble recipe I just grabbed to give you a rough idea of what I mean. A great variation that everyone loves is cream cheese and spinach.

* 1/2 yellow onion, diced
* 1/2 green bell pepper, diced
* 1 block tofu, drained and pressed
* 2 tbsp oil or margarine
* 1 tsp garlic powder
* 1 tsp onion powder
* 1/2 tsp dried parsley

PREPARATION:
Slice the tofu into approximately one inch cubes. Then, using either your hands or a fork, crumble it slightly. Sautee onion, pepper and crumbled tofu in oil for 3-5 minutes, stirring often. Add remaining ingredients, reduce heat to medium and allow to cook 5-7 more minutes, stirring frequently and adding more oil if needed. Wrap in a warmed flour tortilla with a bit of salsa for a breakfast burrito or top with soy or dairy cheese.

yum, so far!

"drained and pressed" -- I get drained, but how do you go about 'pressing?'

Take a block of extra firm tofu and cut into 6 pieces, each about iPod sized. Wrap in paper towel and let set to get the extra water out. Set up three shallow bowls:
1. flour
2. 1 or 2 beaten eggs
3. a mix of 3/4 C cornmeal, a few T flour, salt, pepper, thyme, pinch of cayenne.

Set up a heavy skillet with a little oil.
Dredge the tofu in bowl 1, knocking off the excess, move to bowl 2 to get a light egg coating, then to bowl three. Pan cook until golden brown and delicious. Serve with a heaping side of greens or other vegetables.

To get the press, set the tofu on a tea towel on a plate, put another tea towel on top and then another plate or a cutting board. Put many cans of soup on top. Or put on a cast iron skillet. Or your change jar. Or a pitcher of water.

When I had my jaw wired shut, I'd use a stick blender to blend big chunks of soft tofu straight into cream soups (I liked Trader Joe's butternut squash and roasted red pepper soups the best for this) -- makes them thicker and more protein-y!

As mentioned, tofu chocolate pudding or pie is EASY and INCREDIBLE!! Also: Miso soup. VERY easy and GREAT for you.

I like it slightly warmed and served with either sour kimchi or a sauce made with soy sauce, sesame oil, crushed (Korean-style) red chile peppers, and chopped scallions. You can also eat it this way by slicing and pan-frying lightly, just until the outsides are golden. The point isn't to "cook" the tofu.

I also like it sauteed in a classic "dubu jjim." Sadly, I don't do exact measurements so I'll approximate it as much as I can:

1 block of firm tofu, sliced into not too thin and not too thick squares
1-2 small or medium potatoes (depends on how much you like potatoes)
1 small onion chopped
minced garlic
chopped scallions
soy sauce
a dash of sesame oil to taste
water
Korean-style crushed red chile pepper (I like it spicy so I usually add 1-2 tablespoons)

1. In a skillet start with a little vegetable oil just to quickly cook the potatoes, onions and garlic first. Just a couple of 5-6 minutes to get it started.

2. Add soy sauce, sesame oil, crushed red pepper, water, tofu and scallions. Cover and cook until the potatoes are done. The idea of making a jjim is about cooking until the liquid reduces a bit. So you want just enough water to create enough liquid to cook the potatoes or else it's too watery; add too much soy sauce and it'll be too salty. it's a balance thing and I guess one of these days I'm going to have to remember to measure it so I can pass this recipe on better. Usually when I eyeball it, the liquid doesn't cover all the ingredients, it's just enough to leave the top exposed...a little like poaching liquid level.

There's also Korean soups that use tofu. Examples: Kimchi jjigae, or dwaenjang (Korean-style miso) jjigae, being the most common. I can post recipes of sorts if you can't find some online. In fact, if you have a hard time finding some recipes, I'd be willing to translate some recipes from Korean since I doubt my "pinch of this, pinch of that" wording helps.

(Warning: Long post)

This is the BEST vegetarian/vegan sandwich in the world. It's soooo good.

Banh Mi Chay

I've tweaked the recipe a bit when I make it.

1) I make extra marinade for the tofu (roughly double the amount called for), and with a bit extra sri ra cha sauce.

2) I omit the cilantro (cilantro-loving bunnies, ATTACK!! But it's mostly because I hate paying $2.50 for a bunch of cilantro and only using half of it...)

3) I omit the daikon (see comment on cilantro, plus daikons are harder to obtain) and just use pre-shredded carrots. The dressing goes into a little container, and a handful of carrots follows it in, shake vigorously. Add carrots as you run out.

4) I make it as a wrap instead. Whole-wheat tortillas (I make my own but I'm insane) and about a quarter-cup of (cooked) brown rice go in before the rest gets piled on top.

5) As I'm constructing the sandwich, I spread the vegenaise on the tortilla, pat the brown rice into a little pile down the middle, and scoop some of the spare marinade onto the brown rice (maybe 1-2T?). Then add the tofu and spinach and carrots and bundle it up.

Oh, man, it's delicious. I might make it for dinner tonight.

General tofu tips: for stir-frying, I like to use extra-firm or even Trader Joe's High Protein tofu, since it holds up better.

If you get tired of plain tofu, try hitting up Super 88 (or equivalent pan-Asian grocery) for substitute meats. They will often have vegetarian "chicken" or "duck" that has a very different texture and flavor from tofu but which is really just tofu with some seasoning. I like to use these in chicken recipes.

A dead quick'n'easy dinner is pasta with some tofu cut into small (3/8 inch) cubes. Boil the pasta, drop some pasta sauce and tofu in a pan, heat until the sauce bubbles and the tofu is warmed through, then dump the noodles in, stir, top with cheese, eat.

Another favorite is tofu with noodles and a soy-ginger dressing. This can be hot or cold.

Soy-Ginger Dressing
4T soy sauce
2T lemon juice
2T rice vinegar
2t sugar
2T grated fresh ginger
2T sesame seeds or 1T sesame oil (or both, I guess)

Boil up some udon noodles, chop up some tofu, heat the tofu in the dressing or just toss everything together cold. A chopped red bell pepper or some shelled edamame also go well in this.

Oh, and I forgot to add that extra-firm or high-protein tofu also makes a decent substitute for paneer in Indian recipes.

How I cook up cubed tofu quickly . . either start with hot olive oil then add tofu, then soy sauce and either orange juice or lemon juice (just a bit) and sautee, and then finish with raw scallions, in enough just to get them warm.

Or add some miso to the tofu, along with kirin or white wine.

For barbeque, tofu dengaku

Ooh! I whole-heartedly agree with the Indian food suggestion. I haven't tried it personally, but now I'm drooling thinking about saag paneer made with tofu.

Y'all are making me actually hungry for tofu. I'm excited to cook some tonight, now. And I already have scallions and cilantro and shredded carrots, soy and sesame oil...so many options!

My favorite is tempeh, which is soy, but very different from tofu. If you haven't had it it's great in stir-fry. It's got a nice nutty flavor.

For tofu, I like a nice baked tofu for use in sandwiches.

Take firm tofu, slice into iPod sized blocks. Put into a pyrex, put another pyrex on top so that they're nested and place several books in top pyrex to press excess moisture out of the tofu. Press for an hour.

Make a marinade of soy sauce, sesame oil, hot pepper, scallions, garlic, black pepper and perhaps a touch of honey.

Drain tofu and place back in pyrex, pour marinade over tofu and place in 350 oven for an hour. Bake until marinade coats your tofu with savory goodness. Eat straight or use as meat substitute on sandwiches and crackers.

Mmmm.

I love the way "iPod-size" has become a universally understood cooking instruction.

Regular iPod or nano?

Alright... the last two comments just made me laugh to myself. :)

There's also shuffle-size, which is even smaller....

SO I happened to have all the ingredients for kkokkodalk's jjim, which is what I made tonight. And it was delish! I don't know if I made it right, mind you, but I loved how it turned out. At first, the combination of potatoes and tofu sounded a bit weird, but actually the potatoes softened nicely and created an excellent creamy-yet-potatoey comfort food when combined with the tofu and tangy flavorings. A+++ will cook again!

Looking forward to trying the other suggestions, too.

1 block of tofu, extra firm. Press out a fair amount of the water with your hands, but not all of it. Crumble the whole thing with your fingers until it's all in little crumbly pieces. (Crumbly is a good word.)
Take Worchestershire Sauce, HP Sauce, fresh ground black pepper, salt, oregano, savory, thyme, bay leaf - basically a lot of 'earthy' spices. Mix them all up with the tofu (the left-over moisture will be absorbed into the dried spices), and let sit for a few hours.
Fry it all up on a fairly high heat until it starts to get browned - at this point, it'll start looking a lot like ground beef. I always find it likes to stick a lot, so move it around often. Add the tofu to a tomato sauce and there ya go.
One block of tofu and a can of tomatoes (796mL/28oz) and onions, garlic and whatever will make a lot of sauce and it'll be really filling. Freeze some for later.

HP sauce? Is this a Canadianski thing?

HP Sauce? It's a British thing. Have you not had it, or just wondering why in general? The reason behind it is that it'll add depth to the tofu, and help mask a lot of the tofu taste, as the point it for it to be very savory, like a spiced ground beef thing.