If it makes sense to make something rather than buy it, I usually opt for MAKE it.
Baked Tofu with house made Teriyaki Sauce.
A few months ago I ran into a friend who said she made her own baked tofu. I never eat baked tofu but then I tried hers. So I became a woman obsessed. One could go to the store and buy teriyaki sauce, that would be the simple thing to do right? No. It is costly often times has a bunch of shit stuff init that you probably shouldn’t be consuming anyway and well that takes more time than I want to devote to going to the store to buy yet another ingredient for another dish… Chances are if you like to cook and are a fan of many asian cuisines you already have these ingredients (if not they are common and easy to find) + it is fast. Faster than walking to your car and driving to the store… it is done before you even hit the asian foods aisle.
Baking the tofu takes a bit longer and some forethought, but it can be baked while you are making the rest of dinner as long as you are OK with multi-tasking (I am not but I still manage to do this).
For the Teriyaki
- 1/2 Cup Soy Sauce
- 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
- 1/4 CUP Mirin (sweet rice wine)
- a clove of whole peeled and lightly bruised garlic
- 1-2″ hunk of finely grated ginger (moe or less depending what kind of kick you want)
- black pepper to taste
Combine Soy Sauce, Brown Sugar, Mirin and garlic in a sauce pan, bring to just barely a boil, to dissolve the sugar and let the garlic infuse. Remove it from the heat, add the ginger and the black pepper and let cool. I leave the garlic in… I warm it first because I like a mellower garlic flavour.
While you are heating & cooling your sauce, prepare your tofu, I use extra firm. I find it holds up best. Slice it (I like 1″ by 2″ blocks) then press your tofu and squeeze out as much liquid as you can. This takes about 1/2 hr or so, wrap it in paper towel sandwich between a cutting board & the counter and add some weight (not too much you don’t want to crush it).
Marinate for as long as you can, because I did not use forethought I only did mine for an hour, but I have previously done it over night and both are good but longer is better.
Bake at 400f for 20 mins on one side and 10 mins on the other side. The first time I made this I baked it 20 mins on both sides…. way too long, the whole thing is baking through the whole time, so you basically need to give it a good crust on the second side.
Ta Da, you are done, now throw it on some rice, with a side of stir fried or fresh veg. I sautéed greens and as with everything drizzled with sriracha!
Enjoy.
Like to cook?
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A Kitschy Kitchen 