How to Prepare Tofu for Recipes

For those of you who don’t know what tofu is, tofu is a type of food that’s made from soybeans. Tofu is considered to be a good meat substitute as it is rich in protein, however, tofu has no flavor of its own. This is a good thing in that tofu can easily pick up almost any flavor you add to it. Since tofu has the consistency of gelatin, you may want to use the following cooking technique to make your tofu crunchy. This procedure is easy to do, and when you are finished with the steps involved, you will have delicious tofu you can use to create tasty dishes such as General Tso’s tofu, Szechuan tofu, or Ginger tofu with.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A plate
• A cutting board
• A knife
• Extra firm tofu
• 1 cup of cornstarch
• 1 cup of vegetable oil

1. Drain tofu of all moisture.

2. Place tofu on cutting board and cut tofu into ¾ inch cubes.

3. Pour cup of cornstarch onto plate and shake plate until cornstarch is evenly distributed.

4. Take a few cubes of tofu and put them in the cornstarch, turning them so that all sides of each cube are covered in cornstarch.

5. Pour vegetable oil into frying pan and heat oil on a low to medium flame.

6. When oil is hot, shake excess cornstarch off of each tofu cube and place each cube in the hot oil.

7. Turn the tofu cubes over when lightly browned, and brown the other side.

8. Brown all sides of each tofu cube until all of the tofu is fried, crunchy, and ready to use in your favorite recipe.

Tips & Warnings

• Do not overcook the tofu cubes. If you do, the crisp outer layer will be too hard to chew.

[bakerthebrand]

on 10/5/2009 Great post. This probably would taste very good.

[MotherDove]

on 12/11/2008 Thank you! We can all use more tofu in our diets, even if we mix up a few cubes with chicken or shrimp. This is a good way to make your tofu tasty.