Eric's Kitchen in Jersey City: Marinated Tofu Stir Fry

I wasn't initially going to post this recipe because it's pretty simple and didn't think it would photograph too well but it tasted amazing (I have less pictures than normal). This was only my second time cooking tofu but it was so much better than the first. Initially I was just going to bread and saute the tofu but recalled the first time I made it, it was pretty dry and I wasn't a huge fan. I knew I needed some sort of sauce to go with my dish so I looked up some stir-fry sauce recipes and cobbled together things that I actually had in the kitchen and decided to marinate the tofu in the same sauce.

Ingredients: (serves 4 portions)
1 package of extra firm tofu (drained weight, 14 oz.)
1 cup (dry) of white rice
1/2 vidalia onion, sliced
1/2 red pepper, sliced
3 shiitake mushrooms
1 bunch of broccoli, chopped
1 small can of water chestnuts, drained & sliced
1 cup of chicken broth
1 cup panko crumbs
whole wheat flour
3 egg whites
sesame and vegetable oil

Sauce/Marinade: (most the measurements are guesstimates)
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 bunch of scallions
1 tbsp black sesame seeds
1 hot pepper, minced
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 -2 tbsp white wine (I used Kris's Pinot Grigio)
1-2 tbsp sesame oil

To start, I prepped all my veggies, then tried to dry out the tofu as much as possible so it would soak up as much marinade as possible. I put the tofu on top of a couple of pieces of paper towels and another on top, in between two sturdy paper plates and then stacked a few cans of Progresso's Soup on top to help drain it out over the course of an hour or so. I changed out the paper towels once or twice.

Then I sliced the tofu into 16 pieces and marinated 8 at a time for about an hour each (I had a lot of time yesterday). In the future I might add the chicken broth to the marinade so that I could marinate all the pieces at once. I then dredged the tofu in whole wheat flour and egg whites and coated them with the Panko crumbs. Panko crumbs are light and fluffy and therefore it takes a lot more volume to coat things than normal bread crumbs.

I started my rice and I got two pans nice and hot with some sesame and vegatable oils and started my broccoli in the large pan and some of the tofu in the other. The tofu, I turned often and had to add a little more oil pretty often to get them nicely browned on each side. I suppose you could deep fry them also but I don't have a fryer and don't want one as I would probably deep fry way too many things... The key with the tofu was nicely browning each side to seal in the moisture from the marinade.

After the broccoli had been in the pan for a few minutes I added my other veggies and some minced garlic and cracked black pepper along with enough oil to cook everything as the pan was pretty full! Once I was almost done with the tofu after a few rounds in the small pan, and the veggies were softened and cooked, I added my sauce/marinade and 1 cup of chicken broth and brought it to a boil, adding just a couple of pinches of whole wheat flour to give the sauce a little more thickness. I let this boil down for a few minutes while dealt with my rice and finished off the tofu.

I served the tofu over the rice and then topped it all off with the veggies and sauce. In the end the tofu was nice and moist and crunchy took on all the flavor of the marinade and the sauce made a fantastic topping with the rice and veggies as well.