Mushroom Baked Tofu

A cake of soft tofu almost always lives in my fridge. The expiration date on tofu is usually pretty forgiving, so I tend to get around to cooking it long after the more perishable ingredients of my fridge get used up.

When it’s ultrafresh, however — like when I get it from Hodo Soy at the Ferry Plaza on Saturday mornings — it’s like eating a beautiful grain salad; no baking needed. The supercreamy tofu they call “custard tofu” is what I’m talking about–it’s almost liquid ,and resembles panna cotta or flan. I’ll be posting

My favorite non-custard tofu is the “sukui” tofu made by House, available at Nijiya and other Japanese markets. It bakes up beautifully. So with a pile of crimini mushrooms and a cake of sukui tofu, I was able to make an extremely satisfying dinner. Here’s how it’s done. Note that you could substitute pretty much any kind of mushroom for the criminis; I’m tempted to try one with pulverized shiitake to see how much it permeates into the tofu. But for now, this version is really good.

Mushroom Baked Tofu

butter and extra virgin olive oil
4 cups crimini mushrooms, chopped roughly
1 red onion, sliced into thin strands
1 tub sukui tofu
2 eggs
about 1/2 cup fresh chopped parsley
½ cup spiced breadcrumbs (see instructions below)
2 tablespoons fresh thyme
umami salt

Heat the butter and olive oil in a claypot, and cook the onions and shrooms over medium heat until most of the moisture disappears and things are beginning to carmelize. While that’s cooking, in a mixing bowl place the tofu, eggs, and parsley, and gently mix. Season with umami salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

Make the breadcrumbs: whir several small chunks of stale bread together in the spice grinder with dried spices of choice. Today I used a combo of coriander seed, fennel seed, kosher salt, and green peppercorns.

Add a a few heaping spoonfuls of the onion/shroom mixture to the tofu/egg mixture, gently mix, and transfer it all back to the claypot with the remaining mushrooms and onions. Mix and smooth it out.

Sprinkle on the breadcrumbs and fresh thyme and bake uncovered in a 400 degree oven for about 25 minutes, or until the breadcrumbs get toasty and crunchy and everything sets. Serve very hot, in wedges.