Cooking Lesson: Baked Tofu

It seems the blog has focused on cooking lately.  I don’t think of it as a cooking blog, but it’s a safe topic for me to write about in my present situation (no real job to speak of, bills looming, dark days coming up, blah, blah, blah, whine, whine, whine!).  So,  we talk about cooking instead (beats the weather, doesn’t it?). Today, it’s all about baked tofu. 

I grew up on tofu – sautéed, fried, or steamed. It was featured in the rijsttafel my mother would prepare when family and friends from the “old country” came to stay (I think she made fried tofu to appease her very picky daughter who wouldn’t eat gado gado). Thanks to Mark Bittman, I have learned how to bake it, and this has become my new favorite way to prepare tofu.  Usually I drain extra firm tofu, slice it, arrange it in a baking dish and pour low-sodium soy sauce over it.  Then bake it for an hour in a preheated oven (350 degrees).  I’ll sometimes do this the night before and use the refrigerated tofu in wraps, salads, and sandwiches.  It’s delicious in sushi as well.

Unfortunately – or rather fortunately –  today I realized too late that I didn’t have enough soy sauce.  Mark Bittman to the rescue!  From How to Cook Anything Vegetarian, he suggests diluting miso with some water and slathering it over the tofu before baking. So taking my inspiration from him, here is a new recipe for you, dear reader, to try:

Crafty Aoife’s Miso Baked Tofu with Sesame Seed Crust

1 heaping Tablespoon of organic Sweet White Miso Paste* (this is what I had on hand – it’s a very mild low-salt miso, but there are so many varieties.  Experiment!)

Several Tablespoons of hulled organic sesame seeds

1 package of extra firm organic tofu

Some warm water

Preheat oven 350 degrees.  Drain and slice the tofu, then arrange in a glass baking dish.  In a small bowl dissolve the miso with enough warm water to create a paste the consistency of thick yogurt.  Slather miso on one side of tofu, flip over and do the same to the second side.  Sprinkle sesame seeds on top and bake in oven for 1 hour.  Remove and let sit for 5 minutes. Then serve (we are having it with steamed broccoli and rice garnished with a drizzle of dark sesame oil).

Before and After