The Tofu Virgin

Today I did something I have wanted to do for a long time. While I wish I could say that involved me learning how to open the book start studying for a test earlier than the day before the exam, it didn’t. I was feeling ambitious but I wasn’t feeling crazy! I cooked tofu! For the first time ever!

I’m honestly surprised I haven’t tried to make it before today. I LOVE tofu! But the thought of cooking it has always seemed daunting to me.

Wouldn’t you be daunted by this? Without clear and easy-to-follow directions I would be at a total loss for what to do with this big spongy block. Enter Mama Pea. She recently posted a tofu dipper recipe on her blog I thought would be perfect for my first venture into tofu making! It seemed really simple to make, and once I got the prep work out of the way, a meal that would be ready in minutes!

I started prepping last night before bed by cutting the firm tofu into blocks and laying them out on a cutting board with a clean towel laid over it.

I then covered the tofu with another towel and set another cutting board on top of it. I then put some heavy books on top (Is that where my leadership book got to?) and transported it to the fridge. It stayed there overnight to dry out.

I woke up early this morning to finish prepping the tofu and get cracking on my leadership studying. I got a lot done the night before but was still feeling like I really needed to drill the power points.

I woke up to find the tofu like this. I read on a blog somewhere in passing that the ideal texture for tofu after its dried is like an old sponge. While it doesn’t sound appetizing that is exactly what it looked like.

Mama Pea’s tofu marinade called for an interesting mix of ingredients. While I had no idea what it was going to taste like I trusted it would be good. Some variations from her recipe included me using actual mustard instead of mustard powder (I forgot we had some in the cabinet.), real lemon concentrate instead of fresh lemon juice, and I left out liquid smoke simply because I didn’t have it. While its best to go by the original recipe the tofu still turned out amazing this way so I’m happy continuing to make it like this in the future.

After mixing the marinade I added the tofu making to sure to get every piece coated. I placed this dish in the refrigerator around 8:30 am, and didn’t touch it until about 5:45 when I started to make dinner. After getting the tofu all set for the day I made a breakfast burrito and did some leadership studying until my 11 am economics class.

After econ I headed over to Starbucks to use the hour and a half before leadership to do a last minute cram session. I decided I could use all the caffeine I could get and got a grande white chocolate mocha with skim milk and no whip. It was wonderful. I got through a lot of material and while still nervous about my test (I’ve had this professor before, his tests are all essays) I was feeling a lot more prepared. I read over the powerpoints a lot of times and copied all the pertinent information from the chapters down into my notebook and read over that. Writing the information myself can really help the material set in my brain. After finishing up studying I decided to head home to pick up a banana to snack on while I wrote my essays and found this really big box waiting for me in the kitchen.

Check back on Friday for an awesome giveaway (its my first!!) involving what’s inside this box! Any guesses? ;p

After grabbing a banana I was back out the door to take my leadership test. I was really nervous by that point and felt so relieved when the test was handed out and I realized I knew all the material! While I won’t know my grade until Monday I feel really confident I did well! By the time all my classes were done for the day I came home and was starving. I was craving tofu.

This is what it looked like after marinating all day.

I set the broiler to low and laid out all the tofu on a greased baking pan. 

This was my first time broiling something by myself and I was surprised when Diane told me to open the oven door so they cook right. As someone who was always told to stop peaking on the cookies/cakes/brownies while they baked because I was letting out all the hot air, learning that when you broil you leave the door open fascinated me.

I cooked them for five minutes on one side, then flipped them and cooked them for another four minutes. During this time I also ate two pieces of cheese and enough pesto and coco pop I was worried I was going to ruin my appetite. I shouldn’t have worried. ;p

The tofu came out amazing. I immediately started popping some of them into my mouth and found them to be perfectly seasoned. The marinade is incredible!

I decided to stop eating the tofu straight off the baking sheet before I had no more left for a real dinner and decided to put them atop a bed of lettuce and scoops of the Sabra artichoke and spinach hummus I got yesterday. It was perfect! And gone within minutes. Along with 3/4 of the entire block of tofu. I resisted eating all of it because I have an awesome idea for the leftovers for lunch tomorrow. I already know I’m going to be cooking with tofu a lot from now on! It is so simple to make and not scary at all!

Time to do some baking! I’m experimenting with a recipe I’ll be sharing with you guys next week! I hope you all have a great night!

Question of the Day: What is something you were worried about recently that turned out to not be that big of a deal?