Ginger baked tofu

November 25, 2012 at 4:16 pm (Baked tofu, East and SE Asia, Peter Berley, Quick weeknight recipe, Tofu, unrated)

I needed to use up some tofu before I went out of town a few weeks ago, and I wanted to make something I could use to make sandwiches.  I decided to try marinating the tofu in an Asian, gingery marinade, then baking it in the oven.  I started off with the recipe for sweet ginger tofu in Peter Berley’s cookbook Modern Vegetarian Kitchen, but then I modified it a bit.  

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbs. soy sauce
• 6 Tbs. mirin
• 6 Tbs.  cider vinegar
• 3 Tbs. lemon juice
• 40g minced ginger (I think this was about 1/3 cup of minced ginger?)
• 2 Tbs. olive oil
• 2 tsp. toasted sesame oil
• 2 Tbs. honey (I used 42g)
• 12g minced garlic, about 3 large cloves (about 1.5 tsp. minced?)
• 1.5 pounds tofu, sliced 1/2-inch thick (I used 27 ounces, so just a bit more)
• 1 Rapunzel low-salt bouillon cube (optional)

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Lay the tofu slices in a very large baking dish in a single, snug layer.  Mix the marinade ingredients together and pour them over the tofu.  (Alternatively, save a bowl and mix everything in the baking dish, then lay the tofu in afterwards.)
3. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the tofu is nearly dry and slightly browned.

My notes:

Compared to the original recipe, I added lemon juice and a vegetable bouillon cube, used significantly more ginger, halved the soy sauce, replaced rice vinegar with cider (since I was out of rice vinegar), and used a bit of toasted sesame oil instead of some of the neutral oil the recipe calls for.

I was worried that the tofu would be too gingery, but it wasn’t.  Both Derek and I enjoyed the strong ginger flavor.  The tofu got eaten up surprisingly quickly.  I didn’t even have any left to use in sandwiches on our trip!