I guess I’ll have to get a grill pan if I ever want to reproduce Heidi’s beautiful grill marks on her Cumin-Spiked Tofu. No worries, it still tastes delicious.
I’ve blogged about grilled tofu in the past, but I’d thought I’d embellish on my grilling “technique”, which involves neither a grill nor a grill pan. Instead, I use the oven. Mine has a “grill” setting, which is I think equivalent to what a broiler does on US stoves. I love cooking tofu this way because it’s fast, easy and totally no mess.
Here’s how I do it:
- Marinate the tofu – Need some ideas? Then check out the grilled tofu recipes in my last post.
- Put a pan in the broiler/oven – I use a pan with a grill grate. If I’m feeling extra smart, I put a bit of foil under the grate so I have nothing to clean up when I’m done.
- Preheat the broiler/oven on low
- Place the marinated tofu on the hot pan
- Cook for 5-10 minutes, until the top is golden and starting to turn black – Keep an eye on things, you wouldn’t want this to burn!
- Flip the tofu and repeat step 5
- Remove from oven, eat and enjoy!
As I said, you don’t get the pretty grill marks, but you also don’t have to heat up a bunch of coals or dirty any pans.
Diary for Saturday, February 14, 2009
Swim
The pool is weird on Monday mornings. There’s a class there using two of the lanes which makes the rest of the pool much more crowded. I usually get a lane to myself but on Monday I shared a lane with three other people. It felt more like a “gym experience” than a “pool experience”, but I tried to put that out of my mind and enjoy my swim. At least in a pool I’m not surrounded by TVs or loud music. In the end I enjoyed my 30-minute dip. It definitely woke me up!
Breakfast
Bircher muesli with bananas and yogurt
I don’t usually make a fuss of my Bircher muesli accoutrements, but it’s worth a mention. These days I’m topping my muesli with Yeo Valley‘s Organic Natural Yogurt. It’s damn good stuff and is currently making it impossible for me to pursue the whole 100% vegan at home thing.
Veganism. I still struggle with this one. I mean, Yeo Valley says their cows are “happy cows”, but how do I know? They’ve won quite a few awards in recent years, including “Best Food Company” in BBC’s Food and Farming Awards, as well as the Queen’s Award, “acknowledging the contribution it has made to the encouragement of sustainable farming”. This gives me some comfort, but it’s not like I’ve been to the farm and have seen those happy cows personally.
But enough about that – animal welfare is a little heavy for Monday morning.
In addition to yogurt, I’ve also been enjoying a bit of coffee with my muesli (not on the muesli, mind you, but on the side, in a mug). My current blend is a Decaf Indonesian Sumatra, roasted and sold by Monmouth Coffee. Here is another company who claims to be all about doing the right thing. One of the things they do is make really good decaf coffee, using beans that have be decaffeinated via the “Swiss Water Process”:
The Swiss Water Process is a decaffeination method which processes the beans solely by water, using no chemicals or solvents. This method permits the mildest possible treatment of the coffee beans and leaves neither a flavour taint nor trace of chemical solvent.
My coffee tasting palate is sophisticated enough to detect the “full fruit flavours” and “smooth body”, but I can acknowledge that it’s delicious coffee and a pleasure to drink with a little milk and honey.
Snack
Orange
Lunch
Tofu scramble with toast, chard and avocado
Snack
Leftover tofu scramble
No picture, but it was the same stuff as pictured above.
Dinner
Grilled Tofu and Veggies with Salad and Brown Rice
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