Tamarind and Date Glazed tofu with Dried sweet orange slices

This is a vegetarian riff on my roasted chicken dish of the same name.

Cooking to satisfy everyone is a challenge, as half my family is vegetarian and the other half are omnivores.

Personally, I eat vegetarian most of the time, but do go rogue every now and then, especially for holidays and Shabbat.

It’s important to me to have food that will be enjoyed by everyone at the table, but it can also be a bit ovwerwhelming to make two different entrées, especially at holiday time when I’m making so many other things as well.

What’s so great about this dish, besides the fact that it tastes very good, is that I can make one glaze for both dishes, simplifying the “two entrées” debacle.

I thoroughly enjoy both versions. In fact, I’ll probably take some of each…

Rather than repeating all the preamble here, I ask that you check out the recipe for Tamarind and Date Glazed Roasted Chicken with Dried Sweet Orange Slices  for all the particulars, and we’ll go right to the recipe, here.

*Just be sure to leave a couple of hours to press and then marinate the tofu. Tofu can be kind of boring on its own, but when you drain off all the water and replace it with a marinade it becomes transformed.

Tamarind and Date Glazed tofu with sweet dried orange slices

Ingredients:

For the Tofu Marinade:

2 blocks firm or extra-firm tofu

oil for pan frying

• ½ cup orange juice

• ½ cup no-chicken stock

• 3 cloves fresh garlic, finely minced or pressed through a garlic press

• 2 tablespoons fruity olive oil

• Kosher salt and pepper

• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary

• ½ teaspoon ground turmeric

• 2 large white or yellow onions

• a glug of olive oil

• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 packet of dried sweet orange slices

• fresh parsley or cilantro, snipped, for garnish

For the Glaze:

Whisk all ingredients together in a bowl until well combined.

• ½ cup date syrup (silan, available at middle eastern stores and online)

• 2 tablespoons tamarind paste (available at middle eastern stores and online)

• 1 cup orange juice

• 1 teaspoon corn starch

• 4 cloves garlic, chopped

• 2 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped

• 2 tablespoon olive oil

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

• ½ teaspoon ground allspice

• ½ teaspoon cardamom

• 1 small tuber turmeric, grated (or, if you can’t find fresh, 1 tsp ground turmeric)

Method:

• Drain the blocks of tofu. Set them on a small stack of folded paper towels and cover them with another stack of paper towels. Top that with a metal baking sheet, and top the baking sheet with a few heavy books. Let it rest for about an hour, to drain the water out of the tofu.

• Now that your tofu is water-free, it’s ready to soak up the marinade, which is much tastier than water. Whisk together all the marinade ingredients to combine them well, and pour it into a flat dish. I use a rectangular pyrex baking dish.

• Cut one block of tofu in half down the middle to create two thinner pieces. Slice each of them into 4 planks. Then do the same to the other block. You will have16 planks.

• Lay them out in a single layer in the baking dish with the marinade. Let them soak for about 30 minutes, then turn them over and let them marinate for 30 minutes more.

• While the tofu is marinating, slice the onion into ¼” thick half-moons. Sauté them in a glug of olive oil until transparent, then add the minced garlic and a few chopped dried orange slices, and sauté until the onions are golden. Spread the fried onions out evenly on a serving plate.

• Remove the tofu planks from the marinade and pat them dry with paper towels.

• Warm a skillet over medium heat. Add a glug of oil to fry the tofu slices. Let the oil warm until it begins to look shiny, but don’t let it smoke. Fry the tofu for a few minutes on both sides until they look crispy and golden, then lay them out on a flat plate. You’ll probably need to do this in a few batches.

• Just before serving: Pour the glaze into the skillet and bring it to a gentle boil. Add some of the tofu slices and turn them a few times to coat them with the glaze. Continue until they’ve all been coated and then lay them out, overlapping a bit, on top of the onions in the serving dish. Tuck slices of the dried sweet orange between the tofu planks. If the orange slices are large, you may want to cut them in half or in quarters.

• Let the glaze cook down a bit more until it’s thick and shiny, then drizzle it over all the tofu. Finish the dish with a sprinkle of fresh green herbs.