As per the gracious request placed on me of finding out how to make nice and flavorful tofu, I ventured into the world of tofu recipes in the internet. The first link that popped up was on how to dry-fry tofu. I quickly learned that by dry-frying tofu it will take in flavors more readily. This is definitely something I should try out! (1)
Tofu is quite boring without any flavors, so I decided to make a marinade for it, as also recommended at the dry-frying site. I found one that sounded good (there are plenty out there!), which I then modified according to the ingredients I had at home. (2)
As I am a big fan of all kinds of vegetables, I wanted to mix the tofu with red bell pepper, kale, cabbage and carrot. Before putting all these in the pan, I used the extra marinade to make a sauce by heating it and thickening it with some potato starch. I added some water as well and let the veggies simmer for a while to soften them. In the end I added the marinated tofu and mixed it with the veggies.
To accompany my stir fry tofu, I boiled some buckwheat (soba) noodles that I had bought from an Asian market. I spiced the boiled noodles with vinegar, oil and salt to add some extra flavor.
And the result? Not bad! Interestingly, I thought that my dish was a little bit salty, but the rest of the family almost wanted to add more salt! The real success of the dish was to find out that dry-frying really works: the tofu had gotten a lot of flavor from the marinade, more than what I’d get without dry-frying it. I recommend!
Not only is tofu a cheap and easy product to use, but it also has many nice health benefits to it. The benefits include lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease and it also contains a lot of essential micronutrients. (3) It is also a good substitute for meat protein when enjoyed with whole grains as it contains 8 grams of protein per 100 g.
100g (3.5 oz.) of product contains 80 kcal, 8.3 g protein, 4.2 g fat of which 0.5g is saturated,
2.3 g carbohydrates, 0.6 g fiber, 180 mg Calcium, 1.30 mg Iron, 23mg Sodium. (4)
Sources
1. my guide to dry-frying : http://melissaraydavis.hubpages.com/hub/How_to_Cook_Tofu_Like_the_Pros
2 .the marinade I used: http://chinesefood.about.com/od/tofurecipes/r/Tofu-Marinade.htm,
3. more information about tofu: http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=111
4. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/
Nice pictures! :P
ReplyDelete