Crispy Tofu Sandwich
Juicy Crispy Vegan Goodness
So I found this recipe recently for a fried tofu sandwich. This thing was amazing, it’s a vegan sandwich which is crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside, and had a really unique texture and flavor. The tofu block gets marinated in pickle juice and chili paste, giving the whole thing such a unique flavor. It does take a little time, but honestly, the process is pretty simple, and the eggless batter used to coat the tofu really was so cool. Ok so let’s get started. We are going to end up cooking the tofu twice, once in the pan to give some browning right before we marinate it and the second time when we deep fry it.
Making the Marinade
So first things first, let’s start by making our marinade. Which it turns out is really simple, we only need four ingredients. First we about a tablespoon of dijon mustard, a pepper paste component, I am using some Korean gochujang, because I have this, but sambal or even some Sriracha would work here.
Sidenote: this stuff is such a good investment if you are looking for an ingredient to spice up regular dishes, it has a complex savory spicy flavor and it’s so great)
Next, a few shakes of tabasco sauce or any other hot sauce, and lastly 1.5 cups of pickle juice preferably from some dill pickle. Now give this a mix, and it will resist coming together at first, but it will eventually come together. Now for sure, this isn’t the most appetizing looking marinade, but it will give our tofu a spicy, salty acidic flavor which I really enjoyed.
Preparing the Tofu
Alright, once our marinade is mixed together well, go ahead and set it off to the side, and we can begin working on our tofu. I am using a block of ‘extra firm’ tofu, drain it, and try to dry it a little on some paper towels. If you have a tofu press and want to extract more liquid from this, it wouldn’t be a bad idea, making it easier for the tofu to sponge up more of our marinade, but if you don’t no worries.
Ok we need to cut the tofu block up in such a way to create an equal number of even blocks that would fit nicely onto a bun. As far as thickness, a 1 cm or 1/2 an inch thickness I found to be ideal, however, if you need to go a little thinner or thicker it won’t break the recipe. The block I used was a little weirdly shaped, but actually it worked out well. I was able to get four blocks out of the big block, now it’s not a bad idea to try to dry the surface of the tofu. Wet blocks won’t brown very well, so using some paper towels to absorb some water will help.
So speaking of browning, it’s time to get a pan ready. Heat up a pan over medium heat, and add some neutral oil, I am using vegetable oil. Once the pan is up to heat, carefully add a tofu block. It bubbling like this is a good sign. Now, your first instinct may be to flip this, but we really want a nice brown crust on this, so we really just need to let this sit for a few minutes, for the level of browning I wanted on the heat setting I had, it took 3 minutes. Once the three minutes are up, and it comes time to flip it, really be careful to try to get under the tofu block. I partially angled the spatula towards the pan to more or less scrape the pan ensuring I didn’t ruin the tofu block and I tried to flip it. Once it’s flipped, we are going to let this brown just like the first side for about 3 minutes. Once we are done, carefully remove the tofu block and place it directly into our marinade. We need to repeat this process for all four blocks, if you have the room, feel free to do 2 at a time to speed this process up. Once we have all four in our marinade, place this into the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours, or up to a whole day. I marinated mine for 4 hours, which yielded a pretty good level of pickly spicy flavor in the tofu.
Making the Frying Batter
Once we are done marinating, it’s time to deep fry these bad boys. To batter the tofu blocks we will, as usual, have a wet and dry component to the batter, although because this a vegan recipe, we won’t be using eggs for the wet component, but rather a mixture of 1/2 cup of dijon mustard and 3-4 tablespoons of water. Mix this up until it has a consistency like milk.
Now that we have done our wet part of the batter, it’s time to do the dry. For the dry ingredients, we need 2 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and a bunch of spices. You do have some latitude in what you use here, but I am using about a teaspoon of each of the following, Paprika, chipotle, onion powder, garlic powder and some freshly ground black pepper. Whisk this all up and, booomm we are ready to deep fry these puppies.
Frying the Tofu
So to fry the tofu, I am using an enameled dutch oven with a few inches of vegetable oil. Put the burner on medium heat, and wait til the oil comes up to 350F or 176C.
While this heats up, lemme show you how to batter the tofu for frying. Now ideally, you want to wait until the oil is almost ready before starting the battering process so directly after it’s battered, you directly place it in the prepared oil.
So to batter, we want to take a block of tofu, and coat it in our wet mixture, making sure to get all of the nooks and crannies, let the excess drip off, and then we wanna toss this into our dry mixture and coat it in the flour. Now Chef John would recommend using one hand for the wet, and one hand for the dry, but unfortunately, I needed a clean hand to operate the camera, so I also battered my fingers in the process. Once we are done coating in flour, it’s time to go back and coat it again in the wet mixture. By doing a double coat of batter and, we will get that nice crispy coating that you may see on a chicken sandwich for example.
Alright once we are done coating, its time to put it into our oil, which is hopefully up to temperature. We are going to let it fry for 3 minutes or so, then give it a flip. Once it’s cooked on both sides, it’s time to pull it out and place it on to some paper towels to soak up the excess grease. We need to repeat this process for all four of our blocks, and we are set to go! Again feel free to do multiple at a time if you have space in your pot.
Now we are ready for the final assembly. I am using a toasted bun, with some vegan mayonnaise, some cabbage and hot sauce, then our delicious warm tofu, and then some pickles. And that’s it! Now, this was such an amazing sandwich, it had such a unique and delicious flavor, something, unlike anything I had before. I know it’s a little work, but honestly, this was a super amazing sandwich.
Condensed Recipe:
Ingredients:
One block extra firm tofu
Marinade:
1 Tablespoon of Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon of pepper paste (sambal, sriracha, or gochujang)
few shakes of Tobasco
1.5 cups (375 mL) of dill pickle juice
Dry Batter:
2 cups (500 mL) of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon chipotle (or cayenne)
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
Wet Batter:
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
3-4 tablespoons of water
Instructions:
Make the marinade,
Brown the tofu on both sides forming a nice crust in a pan over medium heat (about 3 minutes each side). Placed browned tofu into marinade.
Refrigerate for 4-12 hours
Mix wet and dry battter ingredients. Heat a couple of inches of oil in an enameled Dutch oven.
Once oil is up to 350, double batter the tofu and place into hot oil.
Fry for 2-3 minutes each side, then pull out and let drain on paper towels
Serve how you see fit!
Enjoy!