Drew and I have a good friend who has a love affair with cilantro. Seriously. He’s decided the way he will know his future wife is when she is swept off her feet by the bouquet of cilantro he gives her. So glad romance isn’t dead.
I think he has said several times something to the effect of, “If it’s got cilantro, it’s got to be good.” Or maybe it was, “Cilantro makes everything better!” At any rate, we found the one exception. At least for him. Cilantro tofu.
Since Drew is all about gags, he decided spending $3.99 on this stuff would be worth it to see Brian’s reaction. I think his initial reaction was, “Wow.” (Not a good wow.) When asked if he would try it, I believe his reaction was, “Hell no.”
So we stuffed it back into the Publix bag, planning on taking it back to the store, since Drew had gotten his laugh in. We took it home, and put it in the fridge, with the receipt nearby. But last night, when I was home alone for dinner, I was searching the fridge for something different. And my eyes fell on the tofu.
I can hear my dad now. “TO-FU? Ew!” Tofu is one of those weird foods he loves to make fun of. But for a world traveler who has munched on fried grasshopper and even tried a few bites of guinea pig (tastes like chicken), tofu doesn’t faze me a bit. In fact, I’ve had it before, and kind of liked it. I just had no idea how to cook it. Google to the rescue!
I found a few different websites, and learned a few interesting tid bits on this protein packed product. Don’t eat it raw. It contains bacteria that will not be kind to you later. At the very least, you must steam tofu to kill all those nasty suckers. Many of the cooking methods involved marinating for an hour. I’m sure that would be tasty, and I knew from experience that tofu takes on the flavor of whatever you cook it with, but frankly, I didn’t have that kind of time. And since it was CILANTRO tofu, I didn’t want to pull in too many other flavors. I wanted to see how much of the cilantro I could taste.
So I simply decided to pan fry it, and try it atop some rice with some fresh steamed asparagus.
Yum
I opened the package and drained it, gently squeezing it to remove all excess water. Apparently you’re supposed to put something heavy on it and let it sit for an hour so the water can slowly ooze out, but yet again, I didn’t have that kind of time.
Looks like moldy cheese...
I then cut it into triangles.
I put the pieces in between a kitchen towel and squeezed gently yet again to get more water out. Then I placed them in the pan.
Cook over medium heat.
After a minute or so, the pieces slowly began to sizzle, as more water drained out of the spongy bits and hit the hot pan. I took a spatula and gently pressed against each piece, again to drain more water.
*squish*
I found that some pieces got a little sticky.
I flipped them in the pan, and after each side was a nice golden brown, they were done. I think.
With my brown rice and steamed asparagus, I had dinner.
How's my plating technique? I tried to artistically place the asparagus, but they just flopped wherever...
With a little olive oil and raspberry vinegar, I made a little dressing for a spinach and sprout side salad.
Voila!
What were my thoughts on the tofu? Not bad. Like I said, I’d tried it before and liked it. It’s definitely got a weird texture. Kind of like munching on my bathroom sponge… But I dunno. It’s different. Kind of fun, I guess. I was disappointed that I couldn’t taste the cilantro so much. The flavor was all tofu, and since tofu doesn’t have much of a flavor, it was a bit bland. Probably would be better with a marinade.
Next time…
