How to smoke tofu on the stovetop

You’d think that all would have long gone out the window when I stopped consuming meat, and considerably of it has. I still remember my very last style of brisket at Austin’s famed Franklin Barbecue a lot more than a ten years back as I marveled at the smoke ring, tenderness and juiciness, I realized intellectually that it was the Platonic perfect – and emotionally that it didn’t go me. It took me lots of months to realize that what I experienced misplaced a taste for was the beef, not the smoke. Not by a prolonged shot.

Fortunately, today, I can get my smoke take care of from so several other meals. I have absent on document as a admirer of the smoked egg salad at Baltimore’s Neopol Savory Smokery (which has a well-known counter at D.C.’s Union Industry). I’m a sucker for smoked cheeses, and earlier this summer I couldn’t end speaking about the smoked kalamata olives I found out on a Full Food items Industry olive bar.

Get the recipe: Stovetop Smoked Tofu

Those are items I acquire now smoked. What I’ve accomplished a lot less over the yrs is smoke food items myself, even although I have a large backyard that features an out of doors charcoal grill that I could rig up for reduced-and-slow cooking (a.k.a. barbecue). I’ll blame it on a mixture of a hectic relatives and do the job lifestyle and fewer tolerance for the warmth and mosquitoes of the D.C. summertime (and at times spring and at times slide), but anytime I cook outside, I want to make it as rapid as possible.

The one particular household-smoked food stuff that retains tempting me, while, is a single of my other fantastic loves: tofu. 1 of Neopol’s other standout products and solutions is its smoked tofu, which I like to crumble up and bind with mayonnaise and scallions. Each time I do, I marvel at how splendidly wooden-kissed the tofu is, with a flavor that’s at the same time a lot more pronounced and a lot more nuanced than the assortment I invest in from the grocery retailer, as great as that is. I also like to consume it with greens or rice, stir it into chilis or place it on this kind of dishes as okonomiyaki, the Japanese cabbage pancake.

At any time considering the fact that I browse Steven Raichlen’s “Project Smoke” several a long time ago, I have been that means to try 1 of his methods for smoking tofu, but I kept halting at the hurdle of that outside set up. Then a reader questioned in a comment not long ago about how to smoke their have, so I doubled down and recognized that Raichlen experienced previously supplied me the key, with a short reference to how nicely tofu usually takes to stovetop (a.k.a. indoor) using tobacco. I really don’t have a stovetop smoker (like individuals produced by Camerons), but I quickly recognized I didn’t have to have that, either. With the assistance of some instructions in Cook’s Illustrated, I made use of my Dutch oven, wooden chips, a steamer basket and some aluminum foil to do the trick.

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Turns out, it is very darn straightforward: You just line the bottom of the pot with foil, sprinkle it with wooden chips (unsoaked, which implies they’ll commence smoking quicker), and top rated that with a steamer basket. Thick slices of seasoned tofu (I used barbecue rub) go on the steamer, you tent it with a lot more foil, and set the pot above high heat. In just a minute or two, at the time the wisps commence to rise, you cut down the warmth, address the pot and use a lot more foil to seal up the rim. In about 20 minutes, the tofu requires on a wonderful smoke flavor. You can consume it as is (it is tasty), mash it with mayo for the aforementioned salad, or turn it into one thing even extra food-deserving by searing the tofu in oil and serving with your most loved barbecue sauce.

It’s not classic barbecue, and it’s no project. In its place, it’s one of my favorite proteins, bathed in a person of my favored flavors. And just in scenario you had been wanting to know, it arrived with another bonus: Incredibly, the recipe did not established off my smoke detector.

Get the recipe: Stovetop Smoked Tofu