tofu gone wrong
Posted by ladydbs on Jan 03, 2009 · Member since Jan 2009 · 3 posts
Tonight was my first time cooking tofu. Most of it stuck to the well oiled pan, and after frying for well over 30 min it never did get golden color. Most stuck to the bottom of the pan, and what i got to eat was either really mushy or rubbery. What did I do wrong? or is that the way tofu is? I am trying to go vegan for health issues, so i guess I better learn how to cook tofu since there are alot of recipes calling for it.
Thanks for any help u can give me . I used firm tofu, not silken. drained it for about 20 mins on counter with heavy pan on top. if that helps someone figure out what I did wrong.
Cool, thanks LA. ;)b
Soooo... cast iron is best for dryish kinda frying as opposed to saucy things, risotto, stews, etc?
Cool, thanks LA. ;)b
Soooo... cast iron is best for dryish kinda frying as opposed to saucy things, risotto, stews, etc?
Black cast iron can be seasoned and will stop sticking when it is, but then you must not. put soap in it. Glazed castiron is a nightmare. I never did figure how to stop things sticking in them, oiled or not.
A very good thing to remember when frying in a pan is the sequence:
In a non-stick pan, always put the oil in the cold pan and heat them up together and never to high.
In a regular pan (including iron skillet), heat the pan first, then add the oil. I t has always worked for me.
Cool, thanks LA. ;)b
Soooo... cast iron is best for dryish kinda frying as opposed to saucy things, risotto, stews, etc?
Black cast iron can be seasoned and will stop sticking when it is, but then you must not. put soap in it. Glazed castiron is a nightmare. I never did figure how to stop things sticking in them, oiled or not.
Does glazed = enamelled? I've seen enamelled pans and casseroles/dutch ovens in pricey shops, and I was wondering how user-friendly they are. I can't afford them anyway, but I was curious. :)
I didn't have any trouble with my enameled cast iron (le crueset) until I started using an electric stove. They're a mess now. Most of them need replaced. Food sticks and burns constantly. My non-enameled cast iron (also le crueset) does fine on electric, but the painted exterior gets discolored.
Yeah, that's the brand I saw. One of the items - a large Dutch oven kinda dealie - was several hundreds of dollars. :o It'd have to be reeeeeally worth it for me to ever consider spending that much on kitchenware. :smirk:
I've only ever used electric stoves.
You have to be careful with some of the older glazed items.
They could contain lead.
Urk. :o
My mother has the HUGE le crueset (that she got for 80$$!!! waaaay back!)...she always cooked lots of things in (not veg), its enameled...but anything will work in there.
as far as the non enameled iron pans (the black ones)...you can cook anything really, esp once they are nonstick. JUST NOT TOMATO BASED THINGS...i also wouldnt do chinese/ heavily soy sauced things.
Remember, these pans have been around for generations, and cowboys used em for everything...beans, rice, soups, chowders, etc. Generally, if you cover the pot, like in a dutch oven, simmering/ long cooking is fine.
if you are doing somethingin a pan, stovetop...really, the cooking can be hotter and faster. So, searing off seitan, for example, is great.
Le crueset has always been recommended, but there are lots of other brands that have been judged to be just as good, and cheaper...Mario Batalli's line, for example is said to be just as good.
also recommended, is Tramontina enameled cast iron dutch oven, 40$ US for the 6.5 qt. size.
Check out AMerica's Test Kitchen, Cooks Illustrated website for TONS of info. You have to sign up to get full info, but it has *lots* of good advice for kitchen wares and ingredients.
Heres some info from them about dutch ovens:
A good Dutch oven (variously called a stockpot, round oven, French oven, or casserole) is a kitchen essential. They're heavier and thicker than stockpots, allowing them to retain and conduct heat more effectively, and deeper than a skillet, so they can handle large cuts of meat and cooking liquid. These qualities make Dutch ovens the best choice for braises, pot roasts, and stews, especially as they can go on the stovetop to sear foods and then into the oven to finish cooking. Their tall sides make them useful for deep-frying, and many cooks press Dutch ovens into service for jobs like boiling pasta.
For our most important test, we prepared a beef stew that starts on the stovetop and then moves to the oven. In each pan, we browned cubes of beef in batches, and as the meat seared, we observed whether the pan heated evenly and consistently without burning the drippings. After the long, slow cooking in the oven, we tasted the stew to see if the meat had become fork-tender and the broth had reduced to intense flavor. Of all the tests we did, this was the most important, because it focused on the unique abilities of Dutch ovens.
We noticed a few trends. Our favorite pots were wide enough (at least 8 inches) to brown 3 1/2 pounds of beef in three or four batches, something narrower pots couldn't do. And pots that were too light browned the meat unevenly.
For the next test, we put two quarts of canola oil in each pan, clipped on a deep-fry thermometer, and cooked a pound of frozen French fries to test heat transfer and retention. The best pans retained heat well enough to prevent the temperature of the oil from dropping too precipitously when food was added.
An unexpected issue emerged during this test. Fries cooked in one of our cast iron pans tasted rusty; evidently, the preseasoned surface had failed. Cast iron is a great choice for a Dutch oven, because it holds onto heat so well. But cast iron will also react with many foods. Some manufacturers coat their cast iron with a layer of brightly colored enamel. Other manufacturers preseason their pots—basically spraying them with oil and baking on the seasoning. But, as we discovered, it's possible to wash away the preseasoning. An enamel coating on the cast iron surface will last a lifetime and makes a Dutch oven much more versatile.
Oh, cool. Cast iron's meant to be a bonus for veg*ns, since you get a little iron in your food from it, right? Has anyone noticed the rusty flavour that was mentioned? Curious. :)
LucidAnne,
Respectfully disagree.
If you cook long and hard in your black Dutch Oven - you will reach a point of excellent seasoning. Beyond what most folks think of as seasoning and beyond Lodge's pre-seasoned DOs.
At that point you can do any tomato based recipe or sauerkraut based recipe as well. But it takes a bit of cooking to reach that degree of sesoning.
Mike
PS Dutch Oven tips - especially for over charcoal - Google key words: IDOS Dutch Oven. Great folks there. Manily carnivoires but fluid in the use of the black pot!
I am a big fan of "dry frying" which I found in a lost post somewhere. You freeze, thaw, slice and press your tofu. Then in a nonstick pan, with no oil, "fry" the slices on med heat while pressing the tofu with a spatula. It gets nice and crispy on the outsides this way. When they are browned nicely on both sides, you can add the tofu to a marinade and soak it before adding it to a stirfry or etc.. This is the ONLY way my family and I will eat tofu.
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