new adventures in tofu

We've had a couple blocks of tofu sitting in our fridge for a while, so we figured that tonight would be a good time to try out a recipe from This Can't Be Tofu! (an awesome birthday present from Jane and Mike—thanks, guys :)

We decided that we'd try out the cover recipe: Sautéed Asparagus with Curried Tofu and Tomatoes. I'm actually not 100% sure if it's really the cover recipe, but it seems like it could be. If you do a side-by-side comparison of the cover photo with the recipe, you can see that both have tofu, asparagus, onion, and cilantro (which I just realized that we forgot to use). What's more, the platter used for the cover photo is blue, and the recipe recommends serving the food on a bright blue platter. You'd think that would settle it, but then there are these red things in the picture that look like bell pepper slices, and the recipe calls for chopped tomatoes! wtf? I think I've spent too much time stressing out over this.

Initially, we prepared one 14 oz. block of tofu according to the instructions in the recipe (cut in cubes and simmer in salted water, then toss in spices—which we doubled, because you can't have too many spices—and fry). It turned out really nice and crispy. But after the tofu came out of the frying pan, we decided the tofu-to-veggie ratio would be better if we used the second block of tofu, too. So we went about the tofu-preparation process a second time, except that we took the lazy route and cut out the "simmer in salted water" step—no problemo, right? Not exactly. I have no idea if that's the secret to crispier tofu, but I'd say that the second batch was less crispy (though no less flavorful) than the first.

We took another detour from the original recipe by adding eggplant, which I think ended up being a good decision.

Even though the recipe gets an eight-tenths deduction for calling for turmeric but not indicating where to use the turmeric, the dish itself definitely wins the gold medal for being the best tofu we've made at home so far.