At the beginning of the year, I sought change and routine and wellness and perhaps a little meaning in the form of a personal challenge: I would cook three meals a day every day for one month. Dry January for restaurants, if you will.
I looked for wiggle room almost immediately. A friend invites me over for a home-cooked meal? That counts. A meal composed entirely of home-cooked leftovers? Counts. And I’d get three “passes” for meals eaten out or ordered in.
After the first week, it was clear: In order to succeed, I would need to always have tofu on hand. Quick-cooking and adaptable, tofu began creeping its way into my breakfasts, lunches and dinners. I’m now picking up a block each of firm and extra-firm tofu during my weekly shop, at least. And a block of silken when I’m feeling fun.
Dense yet soft, firm tofu is perhaps the most versatile of the packaged blocks available at the grocery store. It’s amenable to a number of techniques and cooking methods, and it excels at absorbing marinades and sauces.
For those reasons, it is in heavy rotation via Ali Slagle’s 20-minute breakfast tofu scramble, which I’ve batch-cooked in a precoffee morning haze before heading into the office. With textures and flavors reminiscent of breakfast sausage, it’s great in tortillas with eggs or vegetables on the weekdays and alongside pancakes on the weekends.
Breakfast Tofu Scramble
Firm tofu has no trouble absorbing the citrusy sauce in Kay Chun’s ponzu tofu and mushroom rice bowls. (As Kay mentions in the recipe note, some brands of ponzu can contain bonito seasoning, so check the ingredients if you’re looking for a fish-free version.) The tofu is first browned and then tossed in the pan with the ponzu sauce until it soaks everything up.
But crisped firm tofu can be sauced off heat, too, as Kristina Felix does in her recipe for roasted brussels sprouts and tofu with chile lime dressing. After roasting on a sheet pan, the vegetables and tofu are dressed with a nước-chấm-inspired concoction. (You’ll want to swap the two tablespoons of fish sauce out for a vegan alternative, or use tamari or soy sauce to taste instead.)
Extra-firm tofu is ideal when you want the tofu to best retain its shape: Think braises, stews and saucy stir-fries, deep-frying or any recipes where the curds get thrown around a bit.
Extra-firm slabs hold up especially well in Hetty Lui McKinnon’s tomato and ginger braised tofu. “Pan-frying the tofu first makes the slices sturdier and locks in moisture,” she writes, “creating the perfect texture to carry and soak up the braising sauce.” And in Hetty’s new recipe for sheet-pan coconut curry with squash and tofu, cubes of extra-firm tofu endure under intense heat in a shallow pool of coconut curry.
Extra-firm is also ideal in Hetty’s recipe for crispy coconut rice. You’ll still end up with noticeable, chewy hunks of tofu despite first crumbling it; then mixing it with rice, curry paste, soy sauce, coconut, sesame oil, scallions and makrut lime leaves; and finally pressing everything together firmly in a hot pan for a crunchy finish. Wow, that sounds good. Thank god I have tofu at home.
Tomato and Ginger Braised Tofu
One More Thing!
The Year of the Snake is soon upon us! The Lunar New Year begins on Wednesday, Jan. 29, and festivities can last for two weeks — with food often symbolizing or inviting a better year ahead. I’ll cook to that, maybe with nutty and chewy tang yuan, sweet sesame dumplings; or crunchy keo lac vung, peanut and sesame candy; or these subtly coconutty nian gao, baked sweet-potato sticky-rice cakes.
