Garlicky Grilled Tofu

Bland and weird. Definitely weird. Those were the words that came to my mind when I first tasted tofu. It reminded me of a type of white cheese from Puerto Rico aptly named “queso blanco.” Like the cheese, tofu is mostly sold in blocks suspended in water and other stabilizing agents. Tofu itself is really high in water. Think of it as a sponge of sorts. A protein, carb, and fat sponge – yum, haha. In retrospect, the very first tofu I tried was not properly or, at least lovingly, prepared in two respects: First, it was not drained from most of its water. Secondly, it was bland, very bland. Like meats, you can really tell when tofu is not marinated or seasoned with love, so: If you’re having tofu, season it!  Unless you like its “queso blanco” texture, sans the taste; I totally respect that. =)

I don’t eat tofu that much, or any high-protein meat substitute for that matter, but there are times when I just crave it. Like yesterday. Luckily, I had a some just-to-expire tofu in the fridge, so I went ahead and gave it some love before eating it today. Our relationship was woven in roasted garlic, fresh ginger, soy sauce, and pepper. Delicious as it was, we had to part, or rather the tofu did, as I grilled it this afternoon and served it with some pico de gallo. So sad, yet satisfying. Oh, and I had what was left of my amaretto ice cream. Now that was sad.

Yields: 4 servings of tofu

Tools and Equipment

Stove Or Grill

Grill pan

Tong

Plastic zipped bag, small

Ingredients

1 Pckg Tofu

3 cloves Roasted garlic

1 Tsp Minced ginger

1 Tbsp Soy sauce

Pepper to taste.

Nonstick spray or oil 

1. To squeeze-out some of the water in tofu, remove it from the package and wrap it with either a cloth or paper towel.
2. Place the wrapped tofu between two plates and add a weight over the top plate, until the wrapping looks damp. You can repeat this as many times as you like. I generally do it three times to remove as much of the water as possible. It takes around 45 minutes total. Don’t stand there, looking at it, of course ;-). You can set it up, and return every 15 minutes or so :-).
3. Place the strained tofu in the bag and add the rest of the ingredients. Refrigerate over night. You can cut it into as many servings as you want and marinate it, that way you’ll increase the flavor per serving. I like to marinate the block and spike the servings individually with the same ingredients just before grilling it. This allows the sugars and other yummy components to caramelize on the surface, creating a neat crust! =D
4. Heat the grill or grill pan and grease the surface. You can use nonstick spray. Once hot, place the tofu servings. Heat until desired char and grill marks appear. No rules here.