You’ll see this instruction again and again and over in tofu recipes: Press the block for no less than half-hour, ideally an hour, earlier than cooking. Editors at this very journal have written on the significance of urgent your tofu, sung the praises of a tofu-pressing gadget, and advised hacks to empty the water out. Now I’m one other editor telling you to do precisely the alternative.
I’ve eaten a whole lot of tofu over time, particularly after I was vegetarian. Crispy maple-soy tofu, orange tofu and broccoli, you identify it. Even now that I’ve reincorporated meat into my food plan, I’ve maintained a deep fondness for this spongy block of soy. However in all this time, I’ve not pressed a single block of tofu.
As a rule, I’m too hungry to trouble squishing tofu beneath a stack of cookbooks till it releases a cup of water by way of its pores. I want dinner, stat. A radical pat-down with a kitchen towel will suffice. And you recognize what? It at all times comes out nice. Sure, even after I’m making crispy tofu. So long as the surface is dry sufficient, the outside of the cubes nonetheless crisps up properly—particularly with a fast coat of flour or starch—and the inside stays moist.
Positive, there are some circumstances when urgent tofu is useful. Affiliate meals editor Kendra Vaculin presses tofu for frying or grilling, like in her recipe for Bulgogi Tofu Burgers (extra moisture may cause flame flare-ups on the grill). 5-spice doufu gan comes already pressed: This dense, chewy, and flavorful sort of tofu holds up significantly effectively to stir-frying.
However more often than not, you possibly can skip the urgent step and get away with it. My coworkers agree: “I eat tofu usually and at all times really feel like I don’t have the time to press,” says director of culinary manufacturing Kelly Janke, who not often presses her tofu. Employees author Ali Francis—who owns a tofu press—says she really makes use of it “perhaps 40% of the time, on month.” Meals editor Shilpa Uskokovic agrees there’s actually no must press: “I’ve at all times thought unpressed tofu cooks up simply as crisp and golden as pressed tofu,” she says. In her recipe for Tofu and Inexperienced Pea Curry, Shilpa merely calls so that you can blot the tofu dry earlier than searing.
And in my recipe for tofu nuggets, utilizing unpressed tofu is essential. Patting the tofu dry, moderately than totally wringing the block, retains the within of the nuggets moist. Then a coating of flour and cornstarch, plus a fast toss in oil, ensures they get crispy and golden. The entire dish is prepared within the time it’d have taken the tofu to press.
