I consider myself a "substitution queen" when it comes to cooking. I developed this talent out of necessity: I know many individuals with food intolerances or allergies, and I rarely have every ingredient necessary for recipes. Having a basic knowledge of Food Science (thank you Charlotte Brennan) is very helpful in this arena, as well as my No-Fear attitude about experimenting. I once created pancakes out of the only 2 things in my apartment...a layered cookie mix and a container of yogurt. They weren't bad either :)
I have long heard and even taught that tofu can be used as a substitute for egg. But, I admit, I had never actually tried it. Probably because I don't really keep tofu just lying around. (I would never ever make it as a vegan...I love my dairy foods and other protein sources way too much. I've eaten tofu before and it's not bad (when cooked by people that know what they are doing) but only when it was used as a meat substitute.
So, I ventured this morning to try German pancakes and use tofu instead. This was a daring endeavor because egg is the main ingredient. But, like any substitution-ist knows, unless you HAVE to trade out an ingredient completely for a baked product (for an allergy or you really don't have ANY in your house), it's best to keep about 1/2 of the original ingredient or the texture/chemistry won't turn out quite right (remind me to tell you about my Ultimate brownie substitution experiment sometime). So, I did 1/2 cup silken tofu and 2 eggs.
Result? well. Let's just say I was not impressed. I'm positive that tofu works great in cookies and cakes where egg is a very small part of the recipe. As a main ingredient...it's not even close to an egg. The German pancake turned out spongy and difficult to taste. Pouring my warm fruit compote all over it made it barely tolerable to eat.
I still have half a box of tofu left over...anyone have a good suggestion on how to use it?
4 comments:
Maybe you could blend it up with some water in the garbage disposal.
German pancakes with tofu just doesn't sound good at all. >.< I'd suggest you use the leftovers to make curry or to replace half the ricotta in some lasagna...I'm not really much of a tofu fan, even as a veg-head.
Try using it as a meat substitute...
In more seriousness, let me think of ways that tofu is used in Asian dishes. Usually it absorbs a lot of the flavor of things around it. Usually you can fry it but in small amounts at a time with other things, but usually it is boiled so it becomes soft. Sorry I don't know specifics, but that's mainly what I see it used for (and I like tofu).
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