How Do You Prepare Tofu?

Ditto SH

There are 4 essential types of tofu

- Silken
- Soft
- Firm
- Extra Firm

They're all cooked in different ways...and they can all be eaten 'raw'. I would serve it cubed or crumbled raw, to begin with.

Firm and extra firm work best for slicing/cubing, soft for crumbling, and silken is durn near like greek yogurt in consistency...gets used for a lot of desserts or as a DELICIOUS steamed thing (like 'palace tofu' -steamed silken tofu with shrimp on top- that you'd find in a dimsum restaurant .

You can marinade the firm or extra firm (quite literally in anything...from pineapple ginger soy...to bbq sauce...to curry...to pesto...to chicken noodle soup) and then grill/broil/fry/saute it. You can eat it as is at that point, or make a sandwich/salad/stirfry it with whatever (noodles, veggies, meats, anything)/ or even toss it in soup...although it's kind of pointless to cook it before tossing it in soup in my opinion...why not just toss it in the soup to begin with? After you cook it seal it in a ziplock with all the air pushed out and store in your fridge. Then just heat it up or eat cold as you like.

Ahem...in the soup issue...It goes in LAST, right before you're going to serve it...unless you want tofu specked soup.

One of my son's favorite things is Miso Soup (sans wakame -the seaweed- ...which is super easy and cheap to make at home.

Ingredients:
- Dashi
- Miso Paste (we like Awase...a mixture of red and whit tofu...but you can use any color)
- Cubed soft tofu
- Wakame (dried thin seaweed) ... we omit this part for my son, so I'll omit it herte

Dashi is a dry soup base made from bonito (a kind of smoked fish). You can buy little jars of it in the Asian section or in Asian supermarkets. Costs about 3 bucks...makes 40-50 bowls of soup. ((You can also buy bonito flakes. Which are okay. I know kids who eat them like potato chips...but Dashi is powdered bonito))

Miso Paste keeps for ages in the fridge as long as it's covered. We buy a sqaure plastic boxy container kind.

- Boil 2 cups of water per teaspoon of Dashi.
* Add cups of water, add tsps of dashi, turn burner on high
- As soon as (or in awhile when you come downstairs and remember) it comes to a roiling boil...pull the pot off the burner and add a tablespoon or two of miso paste.
- Stir until paste has disolved
- Slide in the tofu
- Serve, or allow to cool
- Stir to make cloudy occasionally as you sip it

Have fun :)

Another resource:

www.foodtv.com then search Tofu

Here is my recipe for tofu.
Buy firm tofu
Drain liquid from the package
Cut in cube strips, place in a oven safe baker dish
In a bowl, marinate
1/2 of an freshly squeezed orange
2-3 Tbsp. of sesame oil
1/4 cup of soy sauce, you can add more if you'd like
1-2 garlic cloves, pressed
Mix marinade and pour over tofu in baker dish. Make sure the each tofu piece has marinade over it.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Bake at 400 in oven for 20 minutes. Check on it in 15 minutes to make sure the marinade does not dry out.
*I serve mine with brown rice and stir-fried veggies with bean sprouts.
Enjoy!

i just add it to things i know my kids already like. for instance scrambled eggs, soups, lasagna (i add it with the cheese). I have found tofu doesn't work so well for our family as a meat substitute but if i incorporate it in a recipe as a cottage cheese type texture it goes over better. they don't seem to mind it in steamed veggies or rice if it is diced very small after i press some of the water out and marinate it in something mild.
good luck it is a fun ingredient to experiment with.

I love to saute it in olive oil with a little bit of seasoning. If you don't want to use oil, you can use water. Don't boil the whole thing though, use just enough water to cover the pan so it doesn't stick. (unless you are making it in soup) Tofu will take on the flavor of whatever you cook it with so add your favorite seasoning and it's really good. Sometimes I use veggie boullion cubes and water. I've also cooked in on the George Foreman grill and in the winter I bake it in the oven with a little bit of soy sauce. I also add frozen veggies or rice with it. Both my kiddos LOVE it no matter which way it is prepared!

Tofu, usually comes in some water, in the box.
After opening, store any leftovers in a container with some fresh water covering it.... otherwise it will spoil. And KEEP leftovers refrigerated. This is what Japanese/Asians do.

For eating it, you can just eat it as is straight out of the box, chilled or room temp.
Just cube slice it up. But some people don't like it plain.

Or, as Asians do & at Japanese restaurants, drizzle with soy sauce and some sesame oil.... or add cubed tofu in miso soup.

Here in my State, there are MANY Asian foods/restaurants... and this is the way they eat/serve it.

DO NOT BOIL IT..... IT IS NOT LIKE POTATOES. BUT, yes, it can be added into soups.... at the last few minutes so that it heats through. Just cut it into cubes. As you know, Tofu is "fragile" and and it can break up.
Some people also slice it thickly, and they pan fry it in some olive oil... sorta like a vegetarian "steak."
You can also eat it with any type of Asian salad dressings, its very good this way and with/in salads.

Tofu, is already "cooked" and ready to eat, as is. It is not "raw" if that is what you mean.

All the best,
Susan

http://www.sanjeevkapoor.com/Recipe.aspx?RecipeId=1184&am...

Hi S.,

Above is the link for a recipe by Sanjeev Kapoor.He's a very popular chef in India, has a lot of TV shows and the recipes are delish!
I've tried a couple of them and they always work out perfect!

Happy Cooking!

Sorry, I just read you were looking for a recipe ...I didnt realize you wanted it for your baby.
Well, I have a 2 year old and I just saute it with salt and a bit of red pepper.She loves it!