Recipe: Balsamic Baked Tofu 20 March 2007 3:30 pm
Posted by Tracy in : Morning Glory, baking, cooking, eating, recipes, salad, vegan, vegetarian , trackbackI am supposed to be writing my final paper for my sustainable agriculture class today, so in an effort to avoid too much TracyFood-related procrastination I’m posting another cut-and-paste from back in my day at Everything2, again slightly updated for TracyFood purposes. I used Jack Bishop’s pan-glazing method to make a version of this tofu for lunch at Morning Glory yesterday because there was half a pound of raw soybean-curd-liciousness left over after I made the vegan Caesar salad dressing. Then I put it and some diced organic tomatoes on a bed of spinach and had way more food than I could eat, and took the leftover glazed tofu home, where it’s been serving me quite well for lunch today. Yum.
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Say what you will about tofu but in its plain, once-cooked, straight out of the package form, it’s kinda bland. Fortunately, it’s also ripe for absorbing lots of tasty sauces and marinades, and cooking it can change the texture in all kinds of interesting ways. I once spent a week experimenting with different ways of frying tofu, but that’s a story for another time. You’re here to read about Balsamic Baked Tofu, and read about it you shall.
I’ve been experimenting with/obsessing about baked tofu on and off for a few months now, since discovering the recipes for it in Moosewood Restaurant New Classics, still my favorite cookbook of all time. This recipe is adapted from one of their “Lemony Baked Tofu” recipes (see below for full citation). Before I get to the recipe itself, a few notes on why baked tofu rocks my world: it makes amazing sandwiches, even sammiches. Although it can be eaten warm, with rice or pasta and/or vegetables, or hot or cold on salad, I really like it best as a sandwich filling. After cooling in the fridge, it’s especially chewy and satisfying. But enough about me. On to the recipe. If you like this stuff, you can find your own delicious uses for it (let me know!)
Ingredients
- 1 cake firm tofu (16 ounces)
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce (shoyu or tamari), vegetable stock or water (a splash)
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon dried herbs (I often use generic Italian seasoning, which is usually a mix of stuff like rosemary, oregano, and thyme). If you have them fresh, feel free to substitute 1 tablespoon of the same herbs, minced.
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper.
- salt (to taste or optional if you used soy sauce or very salty stock)
- at least 1 large clove garlic, crushed or pressed (you want it releasing all its pungenty oils for all it’s worth)
Equipment
- knife and cutting board
- plates and weights for squeezing tofu (optional)
- a small nonreactive baking dish (i.e. stainless steel, Pyrex, ceramic, anything but aluminum; small means 8×8 inches, 7×9 inches, or even a 9 or 10 inch diameter pie pan)
- measuring cups and spoons
- a bowl and whisk for preparing the marinade
- an oven and potholders or whatever tools you prefer for handling hot things
Directions (What You Do)
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
- Cut the cake of tofu into four slices of equal thickness and set aside to drain on paper towels (if you want, you can press it between two plates under books or other heavy weights to remove excess water, but it doesn’t make too much of a difference with this recipe).
- Whisk together all the remaining ingredients until smooth. Pour half of the marinade into the baking dish, and arrange the tofu slices in a single layer. Pour the rest of the marinade over the tofu.
- Bake for 45 to 60 minutes, turning the slices of tofu once after 30 minutes (the edges should be very brown and beginning to curl up). The longer you bake the tofu, the chewier the final product will be. WARNING! Be careful opening the oven; you will be greeted by a blast of hot vaporized vinegar fumes. Approach with caution, at your own risk (seriously, it can sting your eyes and nose something awful, so wait a few seconds for the air around the oven to clear). When the baking is done, remove the pan of tofu from the oven and transfer the slices to a different container so they won’t get stuck to the pan as they cool. ANOTHER WARNING! The pan will be an utter bitch to clean. I am not exaggerating. Soak it in hot water for a good long time and don’t try to wash off all the baked-on marinade at once. If you have any cleaning tips for me, I’d love to hear them.
Makes 4 servings (in particular, each of the slices, sliced once more to halve its thinnest dimension to around 1/3 inch thickness, will make a great sandwich).
The Jack Bishop-inspired variation on these instructions is to skip the oven, leave the oil out of the marinade and instead pan-fry the slices of tofu in oil till they’re browned on both sides, then pour in the marinade and cook until it reduces into a beautiful balsamic glaze. The cleanup would probably suck considerably less if you used a nonstick pan, too.
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Inspired by/adapted from/derivative of: “Lemony Baked Tofu”, Moosewood Restaurant New Classics(New York: Clarkson Potter Publishers, 2001.), p. 223.
Comments»
Very delicious recipe.The marinade was perfect I had my doupts on the flavoring since it has vinaigrette. And I hardly like the flavoring of vineger in my food but it was delicious.The way I clean my pans so I wouldn’t have alot of truble cleaning them. Is by using cake pans and covering them with aluminum foil.That way cleaning is easy just throw away the messy foil.
I’m glad you liked the recipe, N.G. — I’m curious about your aluminum foil trick because the original recipe this is based on was very adamant about baking the tofu in a non-reactive pan, like nonstick or glass. Of course, it used lemon juice instead of balsamic vinegar, which might make a difference… but you can bet I’m going to geek out and read all about the ways aluminum can react with acidic foods (I think it’s mostly a taste issue but I’m also mostly making that up).