Tofu Sticks

Whole Foods Markets sells some wonderful tofu sticks/logs in their salad bar.  They are so delicious.  They are great cold from the salad bar, heated up with vegetables and grains, and warmed and put into a sandwich just by themselves.

These tofu sticks have been baked in some way so they are more chewy than mushy.  I cannot stand soft tofu, unless it is in miso soup, and then I really just prefer the miso broth and not the other stuff in the soup, except for the scallions.  The scallions really make the miso soup, in my opinion!

Anyway, the last time I was at Whole Foods I asked the nice boy how they made them.  He said he was not sure they gave out that recipe BUT the process was that they marinated the tofu sticks in sesame/ginger/garlic sauce.  After marinating, they pour some more of the sauce on top then bake for a while.  Once baked they pour more sauce over the tofu sticks and serve them in the salad bar.

This stuff tastes so good to me that one day when I was there I filled one of their small boxes full to the gunwales.  There were only two more pieces left in the salad bar pan. I could not in good conscience take them all...

This was what my effort looked like:

They do look icky but they tasted great!  Since I did not have any of the Whole Foods sauce, I made up my own with rice vinegar, sugar (about equal amounts of those two), soy sauce, ground ginger, ground garlic, Sambal Oeleck, some vegetable broth.  Since there was not enough sauce after marinating overnight, which does tend to produce a salty taste, I added more soy sauce and poured over the top on the pan which is why you see the black residue.

One thing Whole Foods Boy did not tell me was whether or not WF presses the tofu first. I did. I sliced it in half horizontally then set it on a kitchen towel that was covered with three layers of paper towels on a quarter sheet pan, put on three more layers of paper towels and a second quarter sheet pan  (which I bought for this specific purpose to Dear One's disgust) then put a few containers of food that were already in the refrigerator on top to press.  I did this in the morning then at night I pulled the whole works out (without dumping all the food containers, which was a big plus!) and removed the tofu slabs from the pans.  They were now ready to soak up the good sauce.  I cut them into sticks and started the above marinade.

When marinated well, I baked at 350 degrees F. for about an hour, turning over after 30 minutes.  The tofu sticks that were smaller were a little crispy, which was great.  The rest were nice and flavorful and chewy.  I am going to get more tofu (once the refrigerator is empty of leftovers...) and see if I can find that sauce Whole Foods uses.