New to tofu

August 25, 2015 11:04 AM

How do I marinate tofu so it ends up with a chocolatey flavor? End goal: put the tofu in a soup.

I tried marinating the tofu overnight in coconut milk + cocoa + maple syrup. It totally didn't work. I'm new to tofu and this recipe needs to be vegan and it also needs to have cocoa in it, and the best place for the cocoa is in the tofu or something else where it can remain a distinct flavor from the soup. The soup is a coconut curry.

I'm not tied to the coconut milk or the maple syrup. It just needs to be chocolatey and work ok with the soup. How do I get the cocoa into the tofu?

posted by aniola to Food & Drink (18 answers total)

You need to cook the tofu before you put it in the soup. I don't ever really bother with marinating tofu, so much, because the cooking part is really the key to the whole flavoring operation. Press the tofu for a half hour or so, mix up your marinade, and bake the tofu in it at 350 for an hour (or less - depending on how much liquid you have, it may all absorb before then). You can also pan-fry tofu using the marinade as sort of a basting sauce, but given the sugar content of that particular concoction I think it would just caramelize and potentially burn.
posted by something something at 11:08 AM on August 25, 2015

It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I like to freeze my tofu and then defrost it before marinating. It gives it a more spongy texture that holds marinades better.
posted by Poldo at 11:20 AM on August 25, 2015 [3 favorites]

Longtime vegan, complete fanatic when it comes to tofu in all forms but will admit to being utterly confounded by the prospect of a sweet chocolate flavor in a coconut curry.

This is what I'd do:
• Slice it into pieces about 1/4" thick, get some of the water out by squeezing the slices flat between your palms, then cut the pieces into smallish (like 1") squares or rectangles.
• Or cut it into cubes like so.
• Sprinkle the tofu liberally with kosher salt and cocoa, let it sit for 30-60 minutes -- the salt will help draw the water out of the tofu but the remaining moisture will give a kickstart to the cocoa absorption.
• Mix cocoa with a bit of brown sugar (and/or some other stuff), some olive oil, and a splash of soy sauce so you have a thick paste.
• Coat the tofu with the paste and set it aside while you eat up some oil in a frying pan over medium heat or preheat the oven.
• Fry the tofu for ~5 minutes per side or bake it at 350F for 20-40 minutes, flipping every 10 minutes and adding some more marinade when you do.
• Plunk the freshly-crisped cocoa tofu into your soup.
posted by divined by radio at 11:47 AM on August 25, 2015 [3 favorites]

I don't use tofu in this manner but as an alternative, how about using cacao nibs? You could chop or grind them roughly and sprinkle them on the soup for some intense cocoa-y flavor without the sweetness.
posted by acidic at 11:54 AM on August 25, 2015

Response by poster: I'm not married to the sweetness aspect of the cocoa tofu.
posted by aniola at 12:04 PM on August 25, 2015

I wonder if you could do something like this: it's not actually tofu, it's... — well, soy-milk Jell-O, more or less — but it ends up reminiscent of extra-light silken tofu. You can add whatever extra flavors you want to it while you're mixing it up. You couldn't use it in hot soup, because the gelatin would un-gel again, but in cold soup it would probably work.
posted by nebulawindphone at 12:34 PM on August 25, 2015

I would marinate the tofu overnight in coconut, maybe lemongrass, ginger, and soy. Remove from marinade, pat dry, roll in cocoa. Then either pan-fry or roast the tofu and add to the soup at the last minute.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 12:36 PM on August 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

(I could provide more useful advice if you linked or wrote out the entire recipe)

Another thing that may be useful is if you have a vacuum sealer. Compressing tofu with liquid makes it suck up the liquid.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 12:37 PM on August 25, 2015

You couldn't use it in hot soup, because the gelatin would un-gel again, but in cold soup it would probably work.

Use agar or gellan instead of gelatine and it'll hold up under heat.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 12:38 PM on August 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

"Slice it into pieces about 1/4" thick, get some of the water out by squeezing the slices flat between your palms, then cut the pieces into smallish (like 1") squares or rectangles."

You get much better results if you put it between cutting boards and weight it with books or something; pressing it for a couple hours gets out more water. Just doing your hands is fine if you want it to hold onto that slightly nutty tofu taste.

I've done cocoa tofu for desserts. I've also done a lot of marinades (lifelong vegetarian).

The frozen tofu becomes more porous (because the ice crystals expand, leaving the texture more spongy), but whether that texture is right for your curry is up to you — most Thai curries leave the tofu fairly soft; I don't know enough about cooking Japanese curries to tell you what they do. With coconut, it sounds like you're going for Thai.

One big thing that might be affecting your results is the difference between "cocoa powder" (sometimes also called natural or regular) and "Dutch cocoa powder," which is alkalized, increasing the pH. Since tofu is mostly soy protein, acid is needed to bind the proteins together, which should help retain more of the flavor and prevent it from being washed out.

So, what I would try is a variation on this technique: cocoa jerk tacos. It's a marinade at a moderate heat; you'll probably get better results by having more than just cocoa in your tofu for flavor.

The other option, if you're really set on bursts of cocoa flavor and not as married to the tofu, is to basically make cocoa tapioca pearls (like boba tea) and use those in your soup.
posted by klangklangston at 12:51 PM on August 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

"I wonder if you could do something like this: it's not actually tofu, it's... — well, soy-milk Jell-O, more or less — but it ends up reminiscent of extra-light silken tofu. You can add whatever extra flavors you want to it while you're mixing it up. You couldn't use it in hot soup, because the gelatin would un-gel again, but in cold soup it would probably work."

Gelatin also doesn't work with the whole "needs to be vegan" thing.
posted by klangklangston at 12:55 PM on August 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

And depending on how crazy you wanted to get, you could also use soy milk, Dutch chocolate (to decrease acid) and gellan gum to make blocks of cocoa soy flavor that you could heat at stew temps.
posted by klangklangston at 1:04 PM on August 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

Consider cooking it however you want to cook it, and dust with cocoa powder after. Not what you're after, I know, but it's an option to bear in mind. It's a lot easier to coat tofu than to marinate it.
posted by Quisp Lover at 1:13 PM on August 25, 2015

Marinating tofu is one of the easiest things you can do in a kitchen. It's a sponge, it soaks up everything. Simply cooking + coating will just get raw cocoa flavour in the soup.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 1:18 PM on August 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

I can find no evidence that this really exists on the internet, but I have very clear memories of chocolate tofu in 2 serving, break-apart packs occasionally being sold at Asian markets. I'm pretty sure both the Japanese and pan-Asian markets near me have both carried it on occasion. I've only had it once, and I do think it was sweetened, but I don't recall it being as sweet as pudding.

Making your own tofu is not too difficult (but does require special ingredients), if you like projects, you could try making your own using chocolate soy milk.
posted by snaw at 1:58 PM on August 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

Did you make sure to press the tofu first before marinating?

Getting out the liquid that is already in there allows the tofu to soak up other things much better.
posted by CarolynG at 1:58 PM on August 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

I would try doing baked tofu with cocoa in the sauce (kind of like a mole, but with spicing suitable for the curry you'll be adding it to).
posted by Lexica at 5:00 PM on August 25, 2015

I can find no evidence that this really exists on the internet, but I have very clear memories of chocolate tofu in 2 serving, break-apart packs occasionally being sold at Asian markets.

I don't have any idea what this is ...perhaps this? It isn't sweet but it matches the description.

I've never marinated tofu. Tofu readily absorbs flavors it is simmered in -- try simmering it first separately.
posted by Hollywood Upstairs Medical College at 9:02 AM on August 26, 2015