Soy hates my intestines, gluten as well, but I saw some new meat alternatives at a fancy grocery store so I am once again attempting to wean down from animals.
I found some pumpkin seed tofu and some fava bean tofu at the fancy grocery store. Cooking experiment, procedure done with both kinds of tofu:
Tofus were frozen, but I thawed them in the fridge for a day before cooking. Cut them into bite sized cubes
Put pan on stove with spices and oil. Turn burner on to mid heat. When hot, put tofu in. Wait a while. Take tongs and use them to flip the tofu cubes…
The pumpkin tofu cooked fine. Stayed intact, got to a food safe internal temp. In contrast, the fava bean tofu kept sticking to the pan and leaving a layer behind when I flipped it, and that layer burned. Meanwhile, it never reached 165 degrees F. I think it was wetter as the pumpkin tofu was prepressed
Eventually in frustration I just macerated the fava bean tofu into crumbles, left it on high and covered for a bit to make sure it hit the food safe temp, called it done and scraped what wasn’t ash out of the pan. I’ve been adding the crumbs to daal to make them palatable/tolerable. Based on this experience I think I should stick with pumpkin, but I need as much variety as I can get in my already limited diet so I’d like to make the fava bean tofu work too. It also did not seem to really take the spices I put in as well and was overall more bland.
This has to just be a skill issue. What did I do wrong? I was basically trying to cook these as if they were meat; was that conceptually the wrong approach? Seems to have been because they’re more delicate.
Neither of these tofus have tried to claw their way out from inside my body, so at least if I can figure out how to cook them they could be viable.
The absolute simplest way I make it is tonkatsu (? Not sure if I spelled that correctly) style. Just a light dusting of cornstarch and shallow fry, served with a spicy ketchup mayo.
I was basically trying to cook these as if they were meat; was that conceptually the wrong approach?
Wrong approach, I’d say. Meat is made of fiber bundles that keep it together. Tofu is basically compressed particles. And meat has fat. I agree with @microfiche@hexbear.net that if you want fried tofu, dredging with corn starch (and a vegan egg replacement?) is the way to go. In the past, I’ve basically copied the frying instructions for general tso/orange chicken, and it worked great.
Also, soy tofu is really good when it’s just diced and blanched in salty water. then you add those cubes to something soupy or saucy.
Thank you for the conceptual bit about their differing structures.
Do you need to reach that internal temp? Can’t you eat the tofu raw?
Idk, the package told me to hit 165 deg F
Medium/medium-high heat. Let pan get hot, add oil, let oil come to temp, then add tofu. Then let it sit and develop some color. Don’t fiddle w it till it wants to come loose. It’ll come apart less easily this way.
Have you tried dredging your tofu in corn starch then pan frying? Starch gives a great crust and helps prevent some sticking. I’m not
but that last bit applies to most moist/wet cookable items.As an after thought, have you tried something like a fish turner spatula for fragile stuff like your tofu? They’re really great for fragile shit.
I’ve tried none of these, I’ll give them a shot, thank you!
For something like chickpea tofu you would normally cook it by simmering in a sauce.
Does soup / ramen count as sauce? LIke I can just cube it, drop it in boiling water for a bit, and eat?
Yeah absolutely, although depending on what it’s made of it might disintergrate if boiled too long or vigorously.
edit: https://thewoksoflife.com/chickpea-tofu/ here is an example of how to make and cook a tofu of chickpeas.
Whoah. Well there’s just going to be an inevitable amount of trial and error, it’s not like I got good at cooking meat the first time around either.
you probably need more oil than you think
What type of pan are you using? I use Teflon pans for tofu and find that tofu has sticking problems with other types of pan. If you don’t have Teflon you could try other types of non-stick but they aren’t as non-stick as Teflon unfortunately.
Also why are you cooking to a certain temperature? Tofu can be eaten raw. When you fry it it’s just to heat it up and get it crispy, not to kill bacteria.
I was basically trying to cook these as if they were meat; was that conceptually the wrong approach?
Yes, tofu is not meat.
Maybe try following a recipe for tofu? You can try salt and pepper tofu, mapo tofu, scrambled tofu perhaps?
Stainless steel pan. I don’t have Teflon anything because I used to have a bird and might adopt one again someday, in which case I’d have to throw out the Teflon.
Package said “cook to 165 degrees Fahrenheit” so I tried to
Stainless steel should work fine too. I’d say disregard that package instruction. Cooking is an art not a science. Try just frying till brown and crispy. Or try something that’s not frying e.g. mapo tofu is quite wet so shouldn’t stick at all.
Air fry if you have an air fryer could be another approach.
I don’t have an air fryer but I do have a toaster oven. Same concept?
Not completely. The air fryer simply has a fan added for circulation. This rapidly dehydrates the surface of the food and gets it to brown on all sides. But the key to browning anything is fat of some kind, because it is able to reach temperatures above boiling. That’s why chicken breast needs oil, butter, or tallow to get browning on it.
Browning, or caramelization is key for developing flavors. You can probably do in your toaster oven, but you’re going to have to actively watch it and turn it before it burns.
Coating tofu in a bit of corn starch takes out some of the moisture and helps it fry. When adding crispy tofu to a sauce or to a larger dish, I’ll usually bake corn starch coated tofu instead.
Try to squeeze out moisture by pressing your tofu first (but not so hard that it crumbles).
Instead of using tongs, use a wooden spoon or spatula to separate the bottom of the tofu from the pan to prevent tearing.
Tearing it into chunks instead of cutting it into cubes helps it absorb sauces and flavor better.
Maybe it’s your frying pan. The key to non stick cooking, without problematic teflon, is using a well seasoned pan. A well seasoned pan means one that has naturally been coated with a patina layer.
You might be confused here. With oil seasoned pans it’s not a patina per se, although often the pans are coated in a different oxide layer (iron 2+ oxide vs iron 3+ oxide iirc) but a polymerised oil layer. Unsaturated oils can polymerise (e.g. linseed oil “dries” into a plasticky gunk and is used to protect wood), heat accelerates this. It’s that layer that you form/maintain which protects the metal and is much less sticky than a rough oxide layer.
