BBQ - New York Vegetarian Style

Tricked you! This is a post about BBQ Tofu. I have heard that New York City does not have particularly good BBQ on account of restrictions about smoking meat indoors. However, I am hardly cocky or presumptuous enough to claim that my BBQ Tofu outdoes the makeshift New York meat BBQ. Still, I enjoy it, I can eat it (kosher) and its cheap as can be, so why not?
This dish is, like many other I make, my own interpretation of things my mother made (and which at the time I did not enjoy) while I was growing up. Now I marvel at most of her creations.
There are three basic components to the meal: Tofu, homemade BBQ sauce, and bulgar. [Even my spell check suggests that bulgar is in fact vulgar. Its not, but for many years I enjoyed making that pronouncement.] The tofu should be firm to extra firm and should be sliced into thin (1/2" x 2" x 2") pieces and pressed between two cutting boards with some weight (a cast iron pan or some cans of beans) to drain excess water. Meanwhile in a large sauce pan prepare the BBQ sauce. The choice of ingredients that went into my sauce were as much out of intention as out of convenience (things I had in the fridge). I started by semi-caramelizing a really large onion, half of which was chopped fine and the other half sliced. Then I threw in like 1/3 cup of apple cider vinegar, a Tbs or two or soy sauce, between 1/2 cup and a full cup for apple sauce (I had left over from my Hanukkah party), 1/2 container of tomato paste and 1 container of tomato sauce. I also added in some carrots and hot pepper, but this is totally optional. I left this simmering for around 15 minutes until it cooked down a little and thickened up nicely.

At this point let me make a note for anyone who may try to replicate this recipe. I added the vinegar in first, to the hot pan, and the result was that some of it boiled off immediately into the air. The result of this was that for the next day or two the apartment smelled somewhat vinegary. This was good and bad. Bad because myself and my roommates did not particularly enjoy the smell. Good because I learned from one of my roommates about a Chinese dish made from vinegar which smells horrible but is really good. In any case, you may want to add the vinegar in a little later to avoid the extreme smell.

In a rectangular oven safe Pyrex lay a thin layer of the BBQ sauce then cover with the tofu, cut diagonally. Then over top spread the rest of the sauce to cover all of the tofu. Put into a hot oven (my oven has two settings: on and super hot, or on and filling the room with gas but without a flame) and cook for at least 20 minutes.

As that is cooking, boil some water and when hot pour into a bowl with a cup or two of bulgar. Depending on the size of the bulgar it takes different amounts of time to cook. For my medium grain bulgar, I let the water and bulgar sit covered for 15 minutes or so. When tender, pour out excess water (this can be a little tricky).

Serve the BBQ Tofu on top of a portion of bulgar.

Perfect Tofu for stirfry

Here is the way I like preparing Tofu to accompany a stirfry. Cut a block of tofu into 16 pieces of like 2.5" x 2.5" x .5". Press the tofu to drain excess water for like 30 minutes. Then mix together soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, orange juice, honey, diced scallions and diced ginger. Put the tofu into this mixture, adding orange juice so as to cover all the tofu. Leave for 30 minutes or more to absorb flavor. When ready to cook take a large cast iron, well seasoned, skillet and put enough oil to just cover the bottom. Transfer tofu to a cutting board and remove pieces of scallion and ginger. Then cut tofu pieces in half. In two shifts put the tofu into the pan and cook until browned on each side and slightly crunchy. One extra thing which makes the tofu really nice and crunchy is to brush some honey on to each side before cooking. This will really make it good.
When done put on a paper towel and let cool. Don't immediately add to a dish, but rather store separately.