Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Baked Tofu

Inspired by Wendolonia's post 2 years ago, I decided to make baked tofu a couple of days ago. The basics turned out so well that I decided to make a *lot* of baked tofu last night, with a variety of marinades.

I followed her plan, pre-marinades. I dried the tofu on paper towels, but used legal books to press out the liquid since we have a lot of those lying around not doing anyone any good. Then I sliced the tofu and baked it in the oven for 10 minutes per side at 200 degrees, to get it nice and dry before we added flavor.

We tried a lot of different flavors, which will be posted here. I'll edit this entry to add reviews of each, but honestly, after marinating this nonsense for hours in the middle of the night (why did I decide to start marinating at 10 pm?), I don't want to eat the tofu or even be near it right now.

1) Basic: soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds, and a few slices of green onion. I did lots of this because I knew it was going to come out ok.



This turned out great, like it always does. Still my favorite, even after all these variations.

2) Lime: lime juice, soy sauce, sesame oil and sesame seeds. It may be evident that someone in this apartment really likes sesame...



This was ok, not super different from the original, just a little more tart. TBH... I like it w/o lime more (because I like salt?)

3) Orange: orange juice, soy sauce, and sesame oil. I tried to use fresh squeezed OJ, but I guess I picked a bad orange because it came out really bland. We had to supplement from the OJ in the fridge. (I think these might also have ended up with sesame seeds on them as well; how could that have happened?)



This turned out super bland. Probably my fault b/c of the OJ but yah, totally blah tofu-flavored tofu.

4) Lemon: lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, salt, and Italian seasoning. Should be lighter and flavorful (hopefully!)



I really enjoyed this one. Steve thought it was ok as well, though he didn't like it as much as I did. I probably won't make it in large quantities in the future, though I will try it again. However, baking it for longer was a huge mistake; it got hard, as did #6. 20 minutes seems to be a good cap. I did this one closer to 40 and it did not go well.

5) Teriyaki. We just used some store bought teriyaki sauce, although I think it's going to come out pretty similar to the soy.



This wasn't vastly different than the soy sauce, but it's pretty good. I enjoyed it enough that we've made more since this batch, especially since it's as easy as tofu + sauce from bottle = done, no mixology required.

6) Steven's creation: Italian dressing, tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper, Italian seasoning, lemon... and anything else he could find in the kitchen. Looking back now, his definitely looks the prettiest but I think we're both a bit nervous about how it's going to taste.



I didn't particularly enjoy this one. To tell the truth, with all the stuff involved, I thought it would have... *more* flavor than it did. Pretty bland given how much nonsense was involved.

Here they are all laid out on the counter, marinating away.



Here they are on the cookie sheet, ready for 10 minutes per side at 350 degrees.



Finally, here they are after baking both sides.



One of the pieces of garlic on Steven's recipe turned this weird green color. Not sure what's up with that; not sure I'm going to tell him about it, either.



Steve's recipe and my lemon and olive oil didn't look baked enough, so I did them another 15 minutes or so. And while waiting for them to cool... I fell asleep on the couch.



That's all the tofu for now. Results tomorrow, I promise!

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