Snacking on tofu, baked and pressed.

That jam tart turned out kind of soggy on the bottom anyhow.

What sorts of things do you cook so that you will have them around the house for a while to snack on? I haven't made a batch of godlike lentil snacks in a while. Maybe I'll do that this weekend.

I will definitely be making more buttermilk oatmeal pancakes, which I like so much cold, with jam, for snacking that we no longer bother with eating them hot for breakfast. It's all direct to leftovers now, which is like direct to video except that it should be taken as a sign of success, not failure.

Another not very canonical snack in our refrigerator right now is these little cubes of pressed, baked tofu. Probably they make more sense as an ingredient in a stirfry or something, but I eat them all out of hand before they get a chance at the big time.

Stupid gadget confession: I really love the dense but unrubbery texture produced by the Tofu XPress. It seems goofily expensive, and I guess it is, but it sure does get the job done.

SNACK TOFU

First, press the hell out of one block of firm tofu. I put it in the Tofu Xpress for at least 24 hours. You can rig up whatever alternative pressing apparatus you like, but you'll want it to be something you can put in the fridge, so you can leave it to compress for a good long time.

A day or two later, slice the pressed block in half along the same plane as the cutting board, which is to say the largest side of the block. Then cut each half into bite-sized pieces. I do sixteenths.

Put the pieces back into the base of the Tofu Xpress or into a similarly-sized container and cover with marinade. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

MARINADE

1/4 c. ponzu or 2 T each soy sauce and lemon juice
1/4 c. sherry
1 T. mirin or a squirt of honey
1 T. sesame oil
1 T. miso
Plenty of freshly ground pepper

Dilute with warm water as needed to make sure all the tofu is covered, but try to choose a container that minimizes the amount of dilution necessary.

Bake in a single layer (a cookie sheet lined in parchment works nicely) at 375 degrees F for 25 minutes. Let cool on the pan at least until cool enough to handle, about ten minutes.

Comments

[Kake]

Pickles! Right now as I read this, I am snacking on pickled cucumber from this recipe: http://sunflower-recipes.blogspot.com/2010/04/fresh-cucumber-pickle.html

[Elsa]

I tend to make dish-type things, not finger-type things, as snacks: a couple of elements I keep around so I can spoon out a dish of X and top it with Y whenever I feel snacky. Then I get bored with them and move on to some other snacky thing, conveniently usually just as I run out of the current batch.

This week, it's been:

- X = brown rice, Y = almonds glazed with smoked paprika, kosher salt, and a tiiiiiiny bit of sugar.

- X = yogurt, Y = frozen berries (blueberries, and oooooh the very last of last summer's blackberries) macerated in a syrup of lemon juice and reduced triple sec. The macerating turns a pleasantly wholesome dish of yogurt and berries into something luxurious.

Other usual suspects include roasted vegetables, glazed nuts of all kinds, and this crazy-good tofu-based artichoke dip. In winter, I make a balsamic-baked tofu that seems pretty similar to your recipe above, but has the added feature of stinking up the house pretty badly.

I was intrigued by the tofu press you linked to, since we eat a lot of pressed marinated tofu, but I decided our dollhouse kitchen was already too full of tools and toys.

[Melissa]

yum! these look awesome! thanks for the fabulous idea - i bet they're a great addition to a potluck.

a little bit of shameless self promotion here, but will you check out my food blog and pass it on if you like it? i'd appreciate the extra traffic. thanks!

http://eatsbroccoliandsquash.blogspot.com/