What to do with Extra-Firm Tofu?

Slather miso paste on it and grill it. Cut it up into cubes and use in stir fry noodles.

I’m giving this a “great question” because I really don’t like hard tofu.

I’ve tried. I’ve marinated, stir fried, grilled, steamed and boiled in tasty broth.

It’s still a cube of non-tasty, bleh-textured curd that doesn’t take on any other delicious flavor. It’s a black hole of yummy.

I question the existence of this “food”.

Yuch. Can anyone make tofu taste like something I’d want to eat?

blueroses: cube it, air dry a bit then fry. Sprinkle over noodles or fried rice. Not sure how hard is your tofu but my mother would pour dark soya sauce over cold tofu, let it sit for a bit and dig in. It is an ingredient that takes on the flavour of its surrounding ingredients. Can also sprinkle mash century eggs and salted eggs and friend onions over it…. drool…

@Velvetinenut I’d love to see some of your mother’s recipes.

I’m betting the century eggs, salted eggs and onions would be equally delicious without the tofu. Still not convinced the tofu is necessary.

The friendly owners of a Peranakan eatery I was at recommended the century egg, salted egg and fried onion dish when I had sore throat. It was good! Cold tofu when having a painful sore throat helps.

How about stuffing the tofu with what you’d like to eat, using the tofu as a bun thingey.

I love the hard stuff. Just fry it up and add it to whatever. I don’t cube it, though – the texture is nicer if I tear it into small chunks. It has always struck me as odd to eat food with perfectly smooth edges.

Mash it with a fork and treat it like hard boiled eggs to make faux egg salad with. Add mayo salt pepper and whatever else you usually put info egg salad. You could even add some curry powder like some do with regular egg salad.

Or, if that’s too severe, use actual hard boiled eggs for half the volume and you’ll likely hardly be able to tell since the tofu will take on the egg flavor.

Hot chilli tofu burger with the tofu slab marinated in hot Thai sauces yum

Extra firm is the best for stir-fry because it doesn’t fall apart.
But it’s also great scrambled as mentioned in a few of the tasty ideas above already.
In either case what you cook it with and spices will make all the difference.
Soy (or Braggs) as a marinade is very good, add some garlic. Cook with celery or onions or curry powder or…. yummy !

I marinated it in soy sauce, garlic, honey, whatever spices I had handy and then threw it all in with thai noodles and made a stir fry. It was excellent.

Stick the whole package in the freezer.
Defrost in the fridge the day you want to use it, or you can defrost it in the microwave in spurts of about 4 minutes, draining the water off each time.
In either case, after defrosting, cut it into rectangular slabs and press them between paper towels or clean cloths in order to remove the remaining water.

Freezing it makes it even firmer… and good to
DEEP FRY!
It will be crispy, golden, and soak up whatever sauce you cook it with.

@Blueroses : If you had my japanese curry with deep-fried tofu, you would question all your preconceptions about extra firm tofu ;)

Extra-firm tofu has a chewy, satisfying texture. The simplest preparation is:

—Press-out any excess liquid. Cut the tofu into bite-sized cubes or triangles. Put an absorbant dish towel (not terrycloth) on a plate, add the tofu pieces, put another towel on top, and cover with something weighted (a heavy, wooden cutting board works well). Leave the tofu until the towels are saturated, maybe about 10–15 minutes.

—Cut the tofu into bite-sized cubes, and marinate it in teryaki sauce. Marinate for at least ½ hour, preferably longer.

—Dry pan fry (nonstick pan), bake, or grill the tofu. Don’t use oil; use a dry cooking method; as the tofu cooks, you’ll see moisture seeping out and sizzling.

—When the tofu’s almost completely browned, add more teryaki sauce.

Here’s a similar baked extra-firm tofu with ginger and sesame seeds. The tofu is cut in thin slabs and is a delicious crispy/chewy finger food.

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/tofurecipes/r/sesametofu.htm

@bookish1 Good point. Freezing gives tofu a firmer ‘bite’. That’s one of the steps to making my favorite faux-chicken salad (celery, curry, ...).

^^^ How do you differentiate between faux chicken salad and faux egg salad, if you use tofu as the base?

@gailcalled You’re right, basically it’s a tofu salad with a particular palate of spicing and minor ingredients that are typical of the X in faux-X salad.
Most folks wouldn’t put curry in an egg salad (might not put that in a chicken salad either, come to think of it but a pinch in the tofu salad adds a good color and a twist to the flavor).
The faux-egg salad would have paprika in it no doubt.

^^^I used tarragon in chicken salad when I used to make it, dill in tuna salad and curry often in both egg and chicken salad.

@gailcalled Sounds delicious! And exactly the tack I’d take making a faux-X salad.
My wife makes a tofu salad that has a lot of dill in it, plenty scrumptious.
What recipe works with the usual base can often work with a frozen-tofu base. Sometimes with a bit of extra olive oil or something to make up for the fat that’s not in the tofu but is in the original base.

^^^So; diced frozen tofu, diced celery and the usual mayo and vinaigrette dressing?

For a tofu salad I’d freeze it, thaw it, crumble it.
I haven’t diced it for a salad but that certainly works for a stir-fry.
In many cases it helps to bump up the spicing a bit and bump up the fat (e.g. mayo) a little to compensate that the tofu has less of its own flavors and fat than most any meat it is replacing in a recipe.

The frozen one is a bit tougher, has a little more ‘bite’ and is relatively spongy and responds well to marinade before a stir fry. So maybe dice of the frozen kind could stand up in a salad.

An extra-firm tofu worth that grade should do well, diced in a stir-fry.
In a salad I suppose you’d just make sure not to stir it much and do it delicately so the dice don’t get squished.