About 2 weeks ago, one of the most prestigious if not the
most prestigious BBQ contest concluded its annual competition in Memphis with
anywhere from 40 to 120 teams competing to produce the ultimate BBQ concoction.
While there are categories in beef, poultry, seafood and various sauces being
judged, undoubtedly the most prestigious awards are in the porcine category
with ribs, shoulder and whole hog and are the most desired trophies for amateur
and professional teams alike. And from one of the three porcine categories and
Grand Champion is crowned. Basically, the Yokozuna of BBQ!
Though I’ve never dreamed of trying my hand at any BBQ
competition, I still do partake in smoked meats whether it’s a perfectly 14
hour smoked beef brisket or a 12 hour smoked pork butt that’s been pulled and
tossed with that perfectly seasoned vinegar and red pepper sauce or even my own
smoked pork marinated in the Gochiso Gourmet’s porky herbs.
But what if you’ve eliminated red meats from your diet?
Are you totally missing out of the perfect BBQ and smoked fair? Nope, not even
by a long shot! Welcome to the Gochiso Gourmet’s own version of Memphis in May…
The Soy and Tofu Festival in May!
Smoked Tofu
Tofu is
probably the first soy based product that comes to everyone’s mind when asked
to name something made with soybeans. Most Asian cultures have a protein rich
precipitate from coagulated soy milk that is tofu or closely resembles tofu.
Though firm tofu contains up to 10%
protein on a weight basis, it also is about 85% water on a weight basis. So
while turning a large piece of pork shoulder or beef brisket on your smoker
grates poses no problem, simply getting a block of tofu to just sit on those same smoker grates is near impossible.
Therefore a lot of the moisture in a block of tofu needs to be removed before you even fire up those coals. How
to accomplish this? Simply place the unopened container of tofu in your freezer for several days. Once the tofu block thaws, it releases a lot more
water than if you simply drained the block on a rack resulting in a block
that’s easier to slice without crumbling. I also place the slices of thawed tofu on a rack with some added weight on
the tofu to liberate even more water.
Now that you have that resilient cutlet of curdled soy
milk, does it go straight to the smoker? Nope, like any piece of bovine or
swine, you first have to season your protein. I personally marinate my tofu in shoyu, brown sugar and my “Porky Herbs” which consist of rosemary,
sage, marjoram, lemon thyme and garlic and onion powders. Of course after 2
days of marinating, I once again drain the tofu
cutlets with some added weight on the cutlets. But there’s no reason why you
can’t simply dust your pressed cutlets with your favorite dry rub or BBQ sauce
before placing in your smoker. Since I included my recipe for my Smoked Tofu Club Sandwich last year, I won’t
bore you with the details again but it IS a MIGHTY TASTY sandwich indeed!
Smoked Fried Tofu
With fried tofu,
you don’t have to do any freezer or draining and pressing prep work as these
blocks are as solid as tofu gets.
Therefore just simply slice it lengthwise to your desired thickness then season
and smoke. Once the slabs are smoked, you can once again place them in a hoagie
roll with sautéed onions and peppers and cheese for a vegetarian cheesesteak
sandwich or thinly slice and sauté with onions for the Gochiso Gourmet’s
version of the island classic, smoke meat and onions (residents of the 50th
call it smoke meat, not smoked meat) except this version is totally vegetarian.
Smoked Yuba
Most of the yuba
you’ll find available at the market is from China. But because it’s the dried,
rolled “skin” that forms on the surface of boiled soymilk, regardless of the origin,
it’s still yuba. Because the market
variety is dried, it has to be rehydrated before it’s used. Of course simple
water does the trick but since it’ll be soaking up a lot of moisture, how about
using flavored liquid? And since I’ll be smoking these rehydrated strips, what
other foodstuff comes as flat strips and is smoked? You got it, BACON!
Therefore like some of the best artisanal bacon, I’ll rehydrate my yuba with maple syrup, brown sugar and
bourbon!
Now what to do with my completed yuba “bacon”? How about “bacon” fried rice? Just thinly slice the
smoked yuba as you would slice bacon
then sauté with garlic, onions and other assorted veggies with a touch of shoyu and you now have fried rice with a
touch of smoked flavor. Perhaps place the sautéed fried tofu and onions on top of the smoked fried rice and add a sunny
side egg… VOILA! Double smoked soy loco moco!
Smoked Okara
Well before the tofu
sets, the initial by-product of tofu
is completed and previously it was used primarily as a supplement for livestock
feed. Okara or the ground soybeans
that gave up all of its precious soymilk originally wasn’t used for human
consumption. In fact some of the early tofu
factories in Hawaii used to dole out bagful’s of okara for free especially since there wasn’t much livestock
production in 50th. Of course, nowadays flavored okara cost more than the tofu itself. But you can still find bags
plain okara for a fraction of the
price. And because okara still
retains a lot of the protein and all of the fiber of the original soybean, it
makes a great replacement for breadcrumbs or cracker meal in baked protein
applications like meatloaf and patties.
So simply get one of those aluminum baking pans that you
normally use for sweet breads or meatloaf and puncture the whole pan with a
sharp paring knife. Fill the pan with plain okara
and smoke it for several hours tossing the okara
every 30 minutes to saturate it with smoked flavor (the knife piercings allow
smoke to penetrate the bottom and side of the pan). Once it’s done, you can use
this smoked okara in place of
breadcrumbs or cracker meal in any recipe… and it’ll fortify your dish with
added protein and fiber!
Not Just for
Carnivores
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