January 23, 2012

tofu "cheese"


I read about this in Living Vegan for Dummies, which I'm slowly reading from cover to cover.  It's by Alexandra Jamieson, who was Morgan Spurlock's vegan girlfriend in the documentary "Supersize Me".  Anyway, she has lots of good advice, and quite a few recipes.  In her section about what to do if you miss cheese, she suggests ways to use nutritional yeast, mochi, nuts, and tofu to make "cheese analogues."

To make this tofu cheese:

  1. Drain & press a block of extra-firm tofu.  I also tried the freezing & thawing method, which makes tofu spongier, but the pressed type works better.
  2. Spread miso paste (fermented soybean paste) about 1/2 inch thick on a dinner plate.
  3. Put the tofu on top, and frost it like a cake with about 1/2 inch thick miso paste.  Cover all parts of the tofu.  
  4. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit refrigerated 8 hours, and up to 3 days, depending on how strong you want the flavor.
  5. Take out of the fridge and scrape off the miso.  Save the miso for another use.  Rinse the tofu gently in cool water, and slice as needed.
The first time I tried this dark "hikari miso", but next time I tried white miso.  There are many kinds of miso paste.  Read the labels, because some misos contain dashi (a powdered flavoring made partially from fish.)  Miso pastes take up half an aisle in a Japanese grocery store!  I can't always read the labels well, but do my best.  I hear it's easy to buy in the USA, too.

This was excellent sliced and eaten on crackers!  With a beer.

No comments:

Post a Comment