Mustard-Rosemary Tofu Thing

So, tofu. Alone, it is nothing more than a wibbly whitish glob of former beans. Consuming it provides more the experience of a consistency than that of a flavor. However, with careful application of stuff that actually tastes itself, even tofu can begin to taste like that other stuff!

I picked up another new cookbook-slash-kitchen-basics-for-the-TV-dinner-generation: Cook Food (a remarkably apropos title for someone using this blog), by Lisa Jarvis. The book is designed to help with ideas for eating local, healthy (and vegan, coincidentally) food in simple, easy ways that also make you want to continue eating local, healthy foods. While tofu is not local, the garlic I used in making the marinade for this recipe was, and so were the broccoli and kale I ate on the side.

Materials:
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 heaping teaspoon of dried rosemary
• 4 Tbsp dijon mustard
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 block of tofu, pressed or drained, and cut into 1/2-inch slabs
• An amount of broccoli and spinach that I wanted to eat with my lunch

Methods:
In a shallow vessel of some sort (I used a Pyrex baking dish), crush the rosemary with your fingers. Add in the other ingredients and mix with a spoon. Then take the drained tofu and dip both sides in the marinade. Let the tofu slabs sit in the marinade at least 20 minutes - I let mine sit for about 3 hours, in the fridge. Even longer is even better, of course.

Heat a skillet over high heat on the range. When it's warm, throw the tofu slabs on. Give the broccoli a roll through the leftover marinade and then throw it in the skillet in whatever spaces are left between the tofu slabs. Let it all cook for about five minutes, and then check to see if the bottoms of the tofu are browning. If they are - or whenever they finally get around to it - flip them over and brown the other sides. Once you've flipped them, you can give the spinach a little marinade mini-bath too, add it to the skillet, and then move it right away to the tops of the slabs for it to finish cooking.

The tofu sucks up the flavors fantastically, and the mustard marinade gets all nice and brown and crispy on the outsides. The cooking time is just right to make sure the broccoli is softened a little, but still very firm and crisp. Would eat again, and probably will.

The Bottom Line: mah tofu, it haz a flav0r!