Munchie Monday: Whole Foods Market Sesame Tofu

The day before the falling episode I had stopped in at the Whole Foods Market near our apartment and had purchased another box of their Sesame Tofu Sticks/Logs...actually, I don't know that they are called.  They just called out to me and since I had spoken with a nice boy in their prepared foods section a few weeks before, I stopped at that display again.  A nice girl asked if she could help so I asked if they made their own sesame sauce to marinate their tofu sticks in or if they used some in the store.  They make their own.  Whereupon I asked if I could buy some.  She told me yes but that they made it up fresh and did not have any.  There was nothing for it but to order some!  So I did.  I asked for a pint which they would charge me the same price as a pound of food from the salad bar.  No problem.

On Thursday I walked home from the office again, this time ON THE SIDEWALK ALL THE WAY!!  I stopped at Whole Foods, picked up the sesame sauce and two blocks of extra firm tofu.  (I also picked up a small amount of their roasted pork which I promptly ate after paying for it.  It gave me the energy to finish my road trip...!)

When I got home I put the tofu pressing.   The next morning I put part of the sesame sauce into a glass baking dish, sliced the tofu, put it on top of the sauce then poured the rest of the sauce over the tofu, covered it with a ziplock bag and put it in the refrigerator to marinate.  Well, I also ate two, maybe three, spoonfuls of that nectar of the gods!

Tofu ready to bake

Because I was not together that night to bake the tofu, I left it to marinate until the following day which was Saturday.  I baked it for 60 minutes at 350 degrees F, checking it halfway through.  It did not look cooked enough so I left it to cook the remaining 30 minutes then shut off the oven.  I still didn't think it was ready but did not want it to burn if I got too involved in something else (a real problem for me...Dear One does NOT like to hear the smoke alarm.  It makes him lack confidence in the next meal...) so I just left it in the oven with the heat off.

Tofu out of the oven--notice the separated oil in the lower right of the picture

Eventually I pulled it out of the oven and ate a bite.  Delicious!  Since it was warm it did not have the same texture as the Whole Foods tofu, but it sure did taste good.  Into the refrigerator it went after I took one slice for making a sandwich.  I had that sandwich around 2 PM and didn't need another thing to eat the rest of the day! Seriously.  I just was not hungry.  I wonder if tofu is magic food...

Tofu after refrigeration and ready to eat cold.  Makes a great sandwich though I might slice it thinner the next time.

If I had thought that I could ascertain the ingredients in the Whole Foods Market sesame sauce, I was mistaken.  All I could tell for sure was that there was a lot of sesame oil, some ground roasted sesame seeds, and some red pepper flakes.  When the baking was done, the oil had separated from the brown sludge-like material.  It still tasted good but I cannot for the life of me decide what it is.  I probably won't buy it again because it was so expensive and I am the only one eating it but it was a good experiment.