Marinated tofu - deconstructed stir-fry

Tofu is okay…if it’s not prepare well it can be nasty. But steep it in vibrantly seasoned marinade and pan fry it until the edges are crisp…then you have a tasty pile of flavor. I’m a Top Chef watcher and when goofy-hair-guy rendered some beef fat and then marinated the tofu in it, I thought it was genius…of course I probably would have gone with pork fat…whatever.

This meal is a deconstructed stir-fry. I’m a fan of this method because it allows each component’s flavor to shine brightly. Also it plates much prettier than a jumbled stir-fry, and sometimes that’s important too.

Here’s a simple guide on how to create the marinated tofu and the deconstructed stir-fry:

1. In a blender jar add 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup rice vinegar, 1 teaspoon chili oil, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, 1/2 a shallot, 3 cloves garlic, 2″ x 2″ knob of fresh ginger (cut into pieces). Let this rip on medium speed until the ginger, shallot, and garlic are emulsified. Pour 1/3 of it into a dish. Slice a firm-style block of tofu into 12 pieces and arrange the tofu on top of it, pour the remaining marinade over the tops of the tofu.

2. Prep the remaining components. In my case I sliced 2 huge white mushrooms and 2 green onions. I diced 3 cloves of garlic and another 2″ x 2″ knob of ginger.

3. Chop and wash/spin the bok choy. Preheat the oven to 150°.

4. Heat a skillet up over a medium flame and once it’s hot add two or three tablespoons of neutral oil, like canola. Once that comes up to heat carefully transfer the tofu into the hot skillet, piece by piece, being careful to watch out for the spattering oil.

5. Now this is the hard part…don’t do a thing. Don’t try to flip them, don’t try to pry them up and look at them…just let them cook for about 5 to 7 minutes and then you can look…chances are they’ll need another 5 minutes or so. Then using a spatula, gently flip each one and let the other side brown. I think my batch probably took 15 - 18 minutes total, this is the most time-consuming part of this dish. While the tofu cooked I unloaded the dishwasher and cleaned up the kitchen.

6. Once the tofu is deep, beautiful brown, remove it from the skillet. Take the skillet over to the sink and douse it with water and clean it up…it’ll clean easy while it’s hot, but once it cools down it’s a bitch.

7. Put the skillet back on the burner with high heat this time. Let it heat up for 5 minutes or so. In the meantime, put the tofu in the oven to stay warm.

8. Now that the skillet is hot add 1 tablespoon of oil and the diced garlic and ginger. Then add the mushrooms and salt them. At this point you might think you need more oil but actually add some water. The pan should be so hot that it should vaporize immediately and it acts as a tool to move the mushrooms around the pan. This should portion should take about one minute to cook.

9. Remove the mushrooms, garlic, and ginger. Add the bok choy to the pan (still on high heat). Shake or stir the pan to keep the bok choy moving and salt it. Again, you can add some water to create some non-stick action with it’s vapors. This portion should take about 1 minute.

10. Slide the bok choy to the coolest part of the skillet and add the green onions. Toss a little canola (1 teaspoon) on them if you like and salt them. Shake or stir and remove from the heat.

11. I plated this meal by making a mound of bok choy, encircled with the mushrooms, I arranged the tofu on top and garnished it with a bok choy leaf. Then I tangled the onions over the whole thing. It was awesome! The garlic and the ginger really perked up the bland mushrooms, the bok choy was delicate and sweetly tasted of spring and the onions are always addicting. Low calorie, low carb and delicious.

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6 May 2008 | Asian, Local, Wisconsin, food, gratins, stews, and stir-frys, low carb, low cal, mushroom, quick and easy, recipe, spicy, vegetable, vermont Valley CSA | Comments