Miso-Glazed Tofu

In China, there are entire aisles in the chilled sections of supermarkets dedicated to tofu.  The variety must be fascinating to a foreigner where they are used to just tofus categorized into soft and firm.  Some specialist shops have overpriced fusion tofus studded with olives and sun dried tomatoes, which are surprisingly good actually, but the choice is still limiting.  Tofu comes in different textures, formats and flavors - they come in sheets, they come in tubes, they come dried and they come marinated.  Maybe tofu would not be so off-putting to so many people if they were exposed to it in all its forms.

But anyway, today I shall talk about the standard firm tofu block with a Japanese-inspired recipe.

Tofu is a sponge. Marinade it with lots of flavors.  I can understand why people don't like tofu.  I relate it to the time in university when I was young and stupid and I purchased a pack of soya mince which I then prepared by just sauteeing it in a bit of oil and I was so put off by that resulting mush that I spat it out.

I LOVE this recipe from the New York Times.  Look at the ingredients, I mean this marinade would work well on anything, use it on a meat or just whisk it up as a sauce for your veg.  Just imprint this marinade into your brain.  This is about me trying to make you like tofu but if you're a stubborn tofu-hater, then use it to marinade a pork chop.


Recipe adapted from New York Times
For one big block of tofu 
Ingredients
400g tofu, sliced in 1cm slices 
2 tbsp miso
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp honey
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 garlic clove, minced
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp mirin

Method
Pat the tofu pieces dry with paper towels.

Whisk the other ingredients together and pour into a baking dish that can fit in all the tofu slices.  Put the tofu slices in to marinate for half an hour, turning every now and then.

Preheat oven to 180C

Bake for about 20 minutes until the edges of the tofu begin to color and the marinade sets on the surface