Soak'n'Bake

One of my continuing niggles at living in France is not that tofu is unavailable but that the tofu that is stocked in the large supermarkets is so unremittingly hard, like recycled tyres. I long to be able to buy fresh tender tofu and have a dream of starting a whole cottage industry here specialising in Japanese style foods because unless I make it myself it's rarely to be found. So, start-up investors, please step forward now.

Of course, in the absence of such a resource I do make use of what's available. Just recently I've discovered that grating the block changes it into a form that can be used with some success but my standard method of rendering the rubber edible follows.



Over the years I've come to rely on a very simple marinade for tofu. This works on all sorts of tofu, not just the French stuff, and has just six main ingredients. Other things can be added, lemon grass or chillies are good, but the basic form is excellent just on its own.

Take the juice of a lemon, add to it about the same volume of soy sauce, a thumb sized piece of root ginger grated as finely as you can manage, as much garlic, crushed or in cloves as you desire. Stir in anything from a teaspoon to a tablespoon of black treacle, depending on taste; I like quite a lot, then add a good dollop of a neutral oil. I have used peanut oil here but rapeseed or sunflower is fine. Olive oil will also work but detracts from the mildly oriental slant. Whisk altogether well and put the marinade into your baking dish.



My favourite little dish will take three blocks of 200g each of the firm stuff. I halve the pieces, then cut each one into six or seven thin slices. Stacked into the dish, each slice is eased away from its neighbour to allow the marinade to penetrate around all of them. The whole dish is wrapped up in foil and can then be left for as much as twelve hours in the fridge or for just a few minutes in the warm kitchen until you are ready to bake.

Pop the covered dish into the oven, temperature and timings aren't very important here. I usually give it an hour to an hour and half, from a start in a cold oven and encompassing any temperatures my other cooking requires. When you think it's had long enough, remove from the oven and allow to cool in its own liquid. Store covered in the fridge with juices around it for up to seven days.

And here it is served warm with some roasted cauliflower, currently my favourite veg. and a little marinade poured over as a gravy. It doesn't look that exciting, this is just the sort of simple supper I make for myself when no one else is around but it tastes good and the rest of the panful will make sandwiches, snacks and additions to everything from risotto to pizza over the next few days.