TOFU

Ever eaten tofu? Better question would be "have you eaten tofu more than once"?

I'll bet the answer is a strong "no", unless you were unfortunate enough to be on the absolute brink of starvation.

I know this about tofu because our child-in-law is a pescatarian (look it up). She is a real sweetheart, in spite of this one oddity which makes it difficult to feed her. Going out to eat, or the alternative, a bowl of Cheerios, gets tiresome. Therefore, I decided to learn how to prepare an acceptable meal that she and everyone else could enjoy.

I could write for an hour on all I've learned about tofu in the past three days, but I'll try not to.

Tofu is derived from the innocent little soy bean. This product of nature is then deformed in such a way that when you combine a whole bunch of them, you end up with a big soft, very wet, brick of modeling clay.

This brick is soaked in water, packaged in a plastic container with lots of attractive healthy looking decorations, and sold to unsuspecting consumers. I, on the other hand was an informed consumer, who had researched the product intensely, and was convinced I could turn this into an attractive and tasty meal, the whole family could enjoy.

I had read where the "trick" to preparing tofu was to freeze it before cooking. This would give the stuff a chewy texture, much like meat. So, I purchased a package of extra-firm tofu. Then I followed the recipe directions to the letter.

The first step is to squeeze as much of the water out of the block of tofu as you possibly can. Let me explain here that a 4" by 4" by 2" block of tofu contains enough water to sustain a family of 4 for 2 weeks in the Sahara. Once you give up on getting the water out, you freeze it overnight to give it texture. Then the next day you slice it, marinade it, and let it soak overnight in the refrigerator. The next day you cook it. I had decided to prepare a stir-fry. Simple enough, celery, green and red peppers, snow peas, water chestnuts, onions, mushrooms and the marinated tofu.

This is where I made my second mistake, the first was beginning this project.

I found an electric wok in a cabinet in the laundry room. It had never been used, and I believe it was a wedding gift we received in 1975. Never having used a wok before, I did some more research, and discovered I didn't have the proper cooking utensils to become an accomplished wok chef. So I bought some.

I also read up on wok technique. Seemed simple enough, put a little oil in the wok, when its hot, add some veggies, cook them a while then "push them up the side" of the wok while you add different veggies to cook, then "push them up the side". Repeat this until all veggies and the tofu have been cooked, place servings on plates and everybody ohs and ahs about the delicious meal.

There is one problem here. My wok is not equipped with an anti-gravity feature. When I "push something up the side" it doesn't stay there. It slides back down to the bottom of the wok. Eventually, all ingredients are in a big unmanageable pile at the bottom of the wok.

The entire experience is something I do not intend to repeat.

Oh, one last thing, the tofu is not as chewy as anything I consider to be meat.

I forgot to mention that while that tofu was marinating, I also made a tofu pineapple cheesecake. Which actually was quite chewy. Maybe the baking has something to do with the chewiness. Or more likely, if you want it to be chewy, it won't be. But if you want it to be smoothe and creamy, you get chewy. We did eat one half of one slice of the cheesecake.


Need a set of bamboo wok tools? Wok thrown in at no extra charge.

I'll end this post with a comment from my son Pat, "There's a reason tofu ends in fu".