The V Word

As a dedicated omnivore, I get a little confused by the frequent ideological conflicts between vegetarians and carnivores. In fact, I am an equal opportunity gourmand and find vegetarian cooking a fun challenge. We have a number of vegetarian friends, and while it would be easy to say "let them eat salad", I feel the need to offer them a meal that can go "unto the breach" alongside any meat dish without the diner felling "disenfranchised". One of my earlier posts, Meet the Tagine, is an example of a main course that is a complete meal and yet is not just vegetarian, but actually qualifies as vegan (no animal based products of any kind).

Eliminating meat from a dish is actually not that hard, but getting rid of dairy and eggs as well can make things a little difficult. Tofu seems to be the go to meat substitute for many veggie-folk, and it certainly works well in that regard. I'm catering a wedding in June for a group that includes a number of vegetarians, so I wanted to come up with a tofu dish that was tasty, elegant and would fit into the theme of a Mediterranean summer party.





I've tried grilling tofu in the past, but found it difficult to keep it from sticking to the grill. It can be done, but would require too much attention when I have to also get out beef tenderloin and herb roasted chicken for a hundred people simultaneously. I wanted to come up with a method that would let me grill the tofu with little or no chance of it sticking. I also wanted to infuse it with a lot of flavor. Many recipes call for pressing the tofu between paper towels to get out the excess water, which I tried, but even with the extra firm variety, I found the tofu to be wet and crumbly. It also takes a lot of time and you have to keep changing the paper towels to wick away the moisture. I needed to come up with a way to really dry the tofu out so that I could oil it and get it to caramelize quickly and not stick to the grill. I settled on baking the tofu first to dry it out and get a little crust on the outside which helped it hold together.

As for the flavoring, I experimented with brining, marinades and dry rubs and ultimately came up with a hybrid method. Traditionally we think of marinating things before cooking them, but there are also dishes that involve immersing foods in a flavorful liquid after cooking them so that the seasoning is absorbed easily into the open cell walls of the hot meat or veggies (think of Thai beef salad, Spanish Escabeche and Argentinian BBQ in which hot meat just off the grill is immersed in a mixture of herbs, olive oil and lime juice.) For my dish, I started with a well seasoned mushroom broth and soaked the previously baked tofu in it overnight. Finally, I drained it well, dusted with a dry rub and then then grilled it.

OK, enough with the history lesson. Let's get down to the recipe.

Ingredients:




Extra firm tofu
Broth (I used mushroom but any kind would work)
Dried Herbs/Spices (I went with smoked Paprika and Herbes de Provence)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil





Start by slicing the tofu horizontally into three relatively even "steaks".

Technical note: Use a long thin bladed knife and a gentle sawing motion or the tofu will tear and fall apart.



Place them on an oiled wire rack over a baking sheet and bake in a 400 degree oven for one hour, flipping the slices after the first 30 minutes. I know 400 sounds very hot, but these things hold a lot of moisture and you need to drive that out to firm it up and allow the seasoning to be absorbed.

While it's cooking prepare the seasoning liquid (it's technically not a marinade because I didn't add any acid and it's not a brine because it doesn't have that much salt). Pour the cold broth into an appropriately sized food storage container and season to taste. It should be well spiced, but be careful not to make it too salty. If you're using commercially prepared broth it has tons of salt and remember that we will be adding a spice rub and also a sauce at the end. It will get plenty of salt, you just want a liquid that will carry your herbs and spices to the center of the tofu.



After the tofu has baked for an hour, drop the hot pieces directly into your cold seasoning liquid, cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.



Next contemplate a sauce or glaze. You could brush them with bbq sauce which helps with the grill marks and gives a nice spicy sweet crunch, but in my case I went with Persillade, a mixture of parsley, garlic and olive oil which is often served with grilled meat in the south of France. Put some fresh parley leaves, a clove of garlic and a little sea salt into a mortar and bash it up with the pestle.



Add some olive oil and keep beating the heck out of it till you formed a smooth green paste, adding more olive oil as needed till you get a "brushable" consistency.

When you are ready to cook the tofu, preheat the grill on high, remove the "steaks" from the seasoning liquid and pat dry with a paper towel.






Sprinkle each side with the dry rub of your choosing (I simply used more smoked paprika, finely ground Herbes de Provence and a little salt). Generously oil both sides with olive oil and take them to the grill.






To get the pretty cross hatches, start with the tofu slices rotated 45 degrees to the grill grate and cook for about three minutes or until you have nice caramelized grill marks.





Then, rotate the slices 90 degrees without flipping them and cook for another three to four minutes.






Flip to the other side and repeat till you have a nice crispy grilled tofu "steak".






Remove to a plate, brush with a generous amount of the Persillade and serve.



In this case I served it alongside some braised broccoli rabe and tabbouleh filled cucumber cups.