Monday, May 17, 2004
As requested by the Eat with BSN goddess-in-charge, here's my recipe for Tofu Salad, my new favorite recipe ever. It's adapted from Quick, Simple and Main-Course Vegetarian Pleasures, where it's called "Mock Chicken Salad," but I'm not down with that.
Tofu Salad
1 lb firm or extra-firm tofu packed in water
1 1/2 T canola oil
1 T plus 1 t. soy sauce
1 1/2 ribs celery
1 scallion
3-4 T Nayonaise
black pepper or paprika or something
small lemon wedge
Drain the water from the brick of tofu. Slice the brick in half depth-wise, so you have two flat slabs. Fold a kitchen towel in half and lay the slabs on it next to each other. Fold a second towel in half and place on top of the tofu. Put a big pile of cookbooks (or something) on top of the towel. Leave for 30 minutes.
In the meantime, rinse the vegetables. Cut the ends off the celery ribs and discard; dice the remainder very small. Cut the ends off the scallion, discard, and slice the remainder very thin (using both white and green parts). Heat the oil in a large skillet over very high heat.
When the half-hour is up, dice the tofu very small - 1/2 inch cubes if you can. Add to the very hot oil. Stir immediately to coat with oil. Cook over high heat, stirring often, until the tofu is uniformly golden. Watch very closely - you don't want the tofu to get crunchy all the way through or to brown on only one side, so keep stirring. It will probably take about ten minutes. Remove from heat.
Sprinkle 1 T of the soy sauce on the tofu and stir. Cool well - you can do it for an hour in the fridge, but I am impatient and more wont to stick the whole pan in the freezer. Do that if you have room.
Put the tofu in a bowl, stir again, and add the rest of the soy sauce. Add the veggies and Nayonaise; stir again. Add the black pepper or paprika and the lemon juice and stir again. Taste - if you want more soy sauce, lemon juice, or paprika/pepper, add it now. Chill in the fridge for a little while. Eat on bread or crackers, or straight from the bowl with a fork.
It would probably be good with walnuts if I could afford them, and feel free to add whatever you'd normally put in chicken salad - if you're the raisin or grape type, do that.
