Wednesday 2 June 2010

scrambled tofus

Danni and I are somewhat new to the world of scrambled tofu. Although we'd tried it one or two times in Perth, and although I come from a tofu family,* scrambled tofu didn't feature very high on our rspective radars, and it wasn't until we came to Melbourne that we really mastered the art of scrambled tofu.

scrambled tofu another scrambled tofu

Scrambled tofu is an easy way to use up leftover tofu, and I take advantage of this to make scrambled tofu (or fuscram) about once a week. Also, it's delicious.

It's important to use firm tofu for fuscram, though I have on occasion used a soft tofu, just because that's all I've got in the fridge. Carla has a brief tofu post here if you're unfamiliar with the different types of tofu.

scrambled tofu

Although scrambled tofu is a sort of instead-of-scrambled-eggs thing, you can't just scramble the tofu on its own. Tofu is really versatile, but it doesn't have much flavour on its own - you have to add things to it. I like to use up whatever veggies are in my fridge, my favourites are tomatoes (preferably cherry tomatoes), spinach, grated carrot, red onion sliced skinny, and golden boy mushrooms. Not necessarily all at the same time.

The combination of herbs and sauces that I use also varies. My favourite combination is dark soy sauce, cumin, tumeric, nutritional yeast/savoury yeast flakes, and kala namak/black salt (which is pink!). I also don't mind a nice pesto combination, when I've got some good looking spinach or basil leaves in my garden from which to make some pesto.

I do try to match flavours - a recent scrambled tofu contained bok choy and golden boy mushrooms with lots of soy sauce; this morning's was cherry tomatoes, shallots, and a tiny drop of dark soy with nooch and kala namak. Sometimes there's chillis involved.

scrambled tofu with nacho cheeze sauce scrambled tofu in pan

I've also been known to add marinated things - I marinate and cook tempeh first, then put it aside to cook the fuscram, and throw it in at the end. This is a good way to use up some leftover tempeh, or to add some extra flavours and textures and nutritional elements to breakfast.

This is my generic how to scramble tofu: start with the vegetables, in a general cooking order, as well as the condiments. You want them to be mostly to totally cooked before you add the tofu.

Drain the tofu! Some people also pat the tofu dry, or at least a bit drier. Add the tofu to the pan, and thoroughly break it up/scramble it. Big chunks of tofu in your fuscram will be largely bland and unflavoured, and that's no fun when you're looking for a flavoursome fuscram. Make sure it's totally mixed in with your condiments and veggies - you may want to add more, depending on your tastes. This is totally a what is your preference sort of thing.

If I'm making toast, on which to put my fuscram, I'll start toasting about now, because I have to do four slices. By the time the four slices are done (in two lots, about seven minutes), the tofu is ready to nom!

I ♥ scrambled tofu (and have previously and more specifically blogged it here).




*ie, a Chinese family

4 comments:

Louise said...

...weird how everyone scrams 'fu differently...i like a lot of tumeric in mine, and so scram the 'fu with the tumeric first, in order to get a nice yellow colour, then add the vegies and cook without much stirring (so's not to end up with yellow mushrooms!) and serve with a fresh herb on top!

scrambled tofu is one of those recipes...millions of diff ways to make it! :)

Keira said...

I tried to make scrambled tofu once, when I had just gone vegan. It wasn't very good, and since then I've let my Mr do it, although we don't have it much.

You've inspired me to give it another try. I love the sound of the one with mushrooms :)

steph said...

@louise yeah, I think it's interesting! I love trying out the fuscrams of other people.

@keira give it a go! once you get the flavours to something you like it is EASY and DELICIOUS :o)

K said...

Toby's made a yummy version using fried bean curd (jar dau fu)too, it was yummy.