The Crispy Tofu Sandwich my boyfriend is OBSESSED with

Category: Cooking Tutorial

Tags: Cooking TechniquesGochujang MayoPesto RecipeTaste TestTofu Sandwich

Entities: carbon steel pangochujang mayoMade InMaxpistachio pesto

Transcript

00:00

- This is the crispy tofu sandwich my boyfriend Max is completely obsessed with. And today I'm gonna show you two ways to make it.

At the end of the video, Max himself will join me for a taste test so we can see which sandwich reigns supreme. (bright music)

00:16

So I've got one block of extra firm tofu and I'm gonna slice it into half-inch thick slabs. Precision.

So right now these slabs are pretty delicate and so to ensure they don't break when we cook them, we're gonna press them for 10 minutes.

00:33

While the tofu presses, we can make our batter for the tofu. So we'll do three and a half tablespoons of corn starch, a generous amount of black pepper, kosher salt to season.

Of course tofu needs salt. And then we'll do one and one quarter teaspoons each

00:49

of onion powder and garlic powder. To batter the tofu, I found the easiest way to do that is to grab a gallon sized Ziploc bag, add in all your little tofu slabs, and then just take this batter and dump it on there.

01:04

Seal it up. So what I do is I just flip it upside down several times, just from the top of the bag to the bottom of the bag, just kind of this motion until you can see that pretty much all the batter has been used up.

Just be gentle. All right, it's time to cook the tofu.

01:20

And normally this is where I would tell you to grab your non-stick frying pan because tofu sticks a lot. But over the last few months, I have been using a different pan.

I've been cooking my tofu in this carbon steel pan with excellent results. And this pan is from Made In who is the sponsor of today's video.

01:36

They make professional high quality cookware that's not only perfect for the home cook, but it's also so good that it's used in three star Michelin restaurants. And they do that by partnering with artisans and factories who've been in business for generations.

So to get started, we're gonna preheat our carbon steel pan

01:53

over medium low heat, dry for two minutes. After two minutes, you can go ahead and add your oil.

This is two tablespoons of avocado oil and let the oil heat up for another minute. And now I'm just gonna gently increase the heat to medium or maybe just shy of medium

02:10

and carefully add in half of your tofu. And the reason I love this pan so much is that it has a lot of the same benefits of cast iron and stainless steel.

For instance, it's super lightweight and easy to move around as you can see. The light cast iron,

02:25

it has really good heat retention, but even better than cast iron, it responds to heat changes more quickly. Oh yeah, look at that.

It kind of looks like fried halloumi. And as you can see, absolutely no sticking.

I think what surprised me a lot about this pan

02:41

is that the more I cook with it, the more naturally non-stick it becomes, which is amazing. We'll let the second side cook for three to five minutes.

It really depends on how powerful your burner is. And honestly, I never thought I could cook tofu in like clean uncoated cookware.

02:58

I always assumed it would stick. So if you were looking to phase out your non-stick pans, definitely check out this carbon steel pan from Made In and all of my other favorite cookware by using the link in the description box below.

Or if you're watching on TV, you can go ahead and scan this QR code. All right, let's give a look.

Oh yes, nicely seared on both sides

03:17

and I just like to let them rest on a wire rack while I cook the second batch. It helps it crisp up a little more and then any excess oil will kind of just drip into the pan.

For the second batch, you might wanna cook it at a slightly lower heat since the pan is gonna be a lot hotter than batch one. Make sure the pieces are nicely coated in the oil

03:34

so they get that golden brown sear. Now that our tofu is done cooking, it's time to move on to the sandwich accoutrement.

And we're gonna start with version one, which is our pesto version, and we're gonna make a riff on my classic basil pesto. It's gonna take about five minutes to put together so it's very easy.

03:52

So instead of pine nuts, which are classic in pesto, we're gonna use some roasted pistachios. And that way we don't have to toast the pine nuts in a frying pan as an extra step.

But of course, if you love pine nuts, go ahead and do that. Add them to your food processor.

04:07

Ah, try to get it in there. You can of course use a regular sized food processor, but a mini one is just very cute and very easy to clean.

And then we'll add two garlic cloves. I always like to add my nuts and garlic first to the food processor

04:23

and give them a nice blitz so that they blend more evenly into the pesto. (upbeat music) (food processor whirring) Scrape down as you go.

Very important when you're making pesto in a food processor. All right, once you have little bite-sized pieces, you can add the rest of the ingredients.

04:38

Of course, we need some fresh basil. It is summer after all, such a delightful smell.

That was the perfect amount of basil in this entire plant. I'm very impressed.

We're gonna zest about half of a medium lemon into the basil and we'll do one and a half tablespoons

04:55

of lemon juice, which is about half of a medium lemon, a little bit of sea salt. And classic pesto has Parmesan, which adds a very kind of savory, cheesy, umami flavor.

I find that for a plant-based version, nutritional yeast works really well

05:10

to add that umami flavor. And we're gonna do a tablespoon and a hal.

Now we'll just add this mixture into our food processor and we're gonna blend this until it turns into a paste. If you're using a mini one like me, you're gonna need to push everything down so it gets evenly incorporated.

05:27

Once you have a paste that looks like this, it's time to stream in the olive oil, good quality stuff because it's gonna be a raw sauce. Good, good.

Go ahead and pour that in. And one final blend.

I want just a tiny bit more lemon juice. Oh (beep).

05:44

There's lemon juice in my eye. Would not advise.

And a very small pinch of salt. That is so good, oh wow.

Pistachio pesto, just as good as the classic. And we didn't have to toast the pine nuts in a frying pan.

So we saved a few extra minutes and an extra dish.

06:00

I really like having a slaw with the sandwich, especially in summers. We're gonna make a very quick and easy slaw, just a few ingredients.

We're gonna start with some red cabbage and you can slice it really thinly, but I prefer to use my mandolin so it gets super fine. One medium carrot.

06:15

Just use the large holes of your box grater. A little bit of sliced jalapeno for a kick.

It's really fun in the sandwich. That's it for the veggies in the slaw.

And now it's time for our dressing. I don't wanna do like a heavy mayo dressing 'cause we already have some richness from the pesto.

06:31

So we're just gonna do a very simple vinegarette style dressing. We're gonna squeeze in two teaspoons of lemon juice, a half tablespoon of, went out a little quickly, half tablespoon of red wine vinegar, just a smidgen of Dijon mustard, like a quarter teaspoon, a little bit

06:47

of maple syrup to balance all this acidity, pinch or two of salt, pepper and a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. (upbeat music) And then just season it with more salt or lemon juice

07:04

or olive oil or whatever you think it needs. Like any sandwich, you can use whatever toppers vegetables you like.

Since it's summer, I am using an heirloom tomato. I always have to have one on my sandwich in summer, some avocado for that beautiful creamy factor.

And because tomatoes and avocados are so much better

07:21

with a little salt and pepper, we're just gonna go ahead and season them right on top here. All right, so before we assemble this pesto version with slaw, let me show you how to make the second version of the sandwich, which is ultra quick.

For the second version of our sandwich, instead of pesto for the spread, we're gonna make

07:37

a very quick gochujang mayo, very loosely Korean inspired. And I love this recipe because you just need three ingredients.

We're gonna do a half cup of vegan mayo and two tablespoons of gochujang, which is a Korean fermented red chili paste.

07:52

It's salty, it's spicy, it's tangy, it's umami, it's sweet, and it goes so far in adding so much flavor. And then just a couple squeezes of lime juice for some brightness.

That is it. In addition to being super quick and so flavorful, it's also got this incredibly gorgeous,

08:09

vibrant orange color. For the veggies on this one, we are keeping it super simple.

I wanted this to be a version you could make even on a weeknight that would come together in five minutes once you made the tofu. And we're gonna make some carrot ribbons.

You just need a Y shaped vegetable peeler like this.

08:24

And this just adds a little pizazz to your sandwich without taking much extra time. And you definitely don't need to whack your avocado pit out.

That is how you injure yourself. You can just gently squeeze it out like so.

We'll just slice up the rest of the avocado for this version.

08:39

Assembly time. My favorite of times.

I have some beautifully toasted Ciabatta rolls that I just toasted in a little bit of vegan and butter. Start assembling the first version, the pesto slaw version.

Get some pesto on the bottom bun. We'll add a lettuce leaf and two slices of the tofu

08:57

we pan fried earlier. Nice, gorgeous heirloom tomato slice.

Few slices of the avocado and can't forget our slaw. So many fun colors.

Definitely wanna get a jalapeno slice or two in there, and totally optional. But if you have any extra basil, I like

09:13

to add a couple leaves just to accentuate the pesto. Woo, look at this.

So pretty. Onto sandwich version number two for the gochujang mayo, a nice dollop of that gochujang mayo, tofu slabs, cute carrot ribbons, cucumber slabs, few slices of avocado,

09:30

and to compliment these flavors, a few cilantro leaves. I'm so excited to dive in.

But as promised, at the beginning of the video, I'm actually gonna have Max join me for a taste test so he can determine which is the ultimate tofu sandwich.

09:48

Welcome to the show. Can you tell us your name?

- Way too close. Hi everyone, I'm Max.

- Max films our videos, Max is wonderful, and today he's gonna help us determine which tofu sandwich is the ultimate tofu sandwich. That was a bit of a mouthful.

- Nice one, it's fun. Cheers.

10:03

(bright music) - A little messy. - Not messy for me. That's a you problem.

Nope, no, no. - Hoisted by his own Batard.

Thoughts? - That sandwich rocks.

That's a good sandwich. Anytime you can get pesto on a sandwich, for me,

10:19

that's the best topping for any topping, spread, condiment for any sandwich I think, feels very fresh and that slaw is super good. - All right, shall we try a sandwich two?

- Yeah, let's do it. Cheers.

- This one looks easier to eat. - Yeah, it does.

10:34

- I lied, it's all over my face. I like to point out that you have spilled over here and I have not spilled.

- Do me like that in front of the camera. - You were saying that you were messy earlier and I was.

Thoughts on number two. - This one also rocks.

I love gochujang.

10:49

I love Korean food. - This is absolutely not Korean food.

Just a little light Korean inspiration. Having tried both of them and having been very messy about it, which of the two sandwiches do you prefer?

- I would say the gochujang, is that what we're calling it?

11:04

- We can call it the gochujang. - The Korean, it's not a Korean sandwich.

- No, we we can call it the gochujang mayo one. - The gochujang mayo one is the one that I would probably make because it's like super simple, certainly like on a weeknight.

The one that I like more is the pesto. The pesto, you wanna finish the line?

11:22

- Is the besto. Woo! - The pesto is the besto.

- I don't know why I'm wooing, they're both my sandwiches, but they're both delicious. We can agree. - I 100% agree.

- Well, you can get the pesto version linked in the description box below. The gochujang version is also written in the description box.

Super simple.

11:38

Hope you enjoy the sandwiches. And thanks to Max for joining me, he films all our videos.

Give him a lot of love in the comments, bye. - Oh my god. - Oh no, we're falling.