Chicken Fried Tofu

Growing up in Texas, there are two dishes you can find served at a restaurant within a stone's throw, no matter where you are. Barbecue and chicken fried steak.

And if you are in Texas, never, ever, ever, refer to chicken fried steak as country fried steak. Trust me on this.

As I have tried to explain to many meat eaters, I bet nine times out of ten it is not the meat they like so much as it is the flavors of the food. To that end I like to make dishes that even I-will-never-be-vegan folks will eat and proclaim it delicious.

Chicken Fried Tofu

One package extra firm tofu, frozen, thawed, pressed, sliced into 1/4" slices
3 T. nutritional yeast
2 T. panko breadcrumbs
2 T. soy sauce
Old Bay seasoning
Salt

In one shallow bowl, combine the nutritional yeast and breadcrumbs and mix well. In another shallow bowl, pour in the soy sauce. Dip the tofu slices in the soy sauce and place in the breadcrumbs mixture, coat well on both sides. Place coated pieces on a sprayed baking pan. Sprinkle on some Old Bay and salt. Bake for 15 minutes, turn over, season and bake for another 15 minutes until golden brown. Serve. Enjoy!

I served mine with some peppered cream gravy, garlic mashed potatoes and green beans. Delish!

What I like most about this recipe is it is baked, not deep fried. Yummy, healthy AND cruelty-free!

Have it Your (Tofu) Way

It amuses me the looks on the faces of those who have never had good tofu. The nose wrinkles, the head shakes, all followed by the inevitable "Yuck!". In fact, the only people I know who like tofu are vegans and some vegetarians. I suspect, no, I KNOW, it is because their exposure to tofu has been the little spongy blocks found in some dishes in a Chinese restaurant, or a block sitting in the refrigerator they mistook for cream cheese and wondered at the blandness. Some don't like the mouth feel, or as my non-vegan son states, the sense of biting into a marshmallow when you weren't expecting to.

It's all in how it is prepared.

I got in a major cooking mood yesterday. Two blocks of tofu were calling my name and I was in a feasting mood. I pulled out the packages from the freezer, boiled them, drained them and pressed them. Sliced one and cut the second into small squares. Let the cooking begin!

The tofu squares became:

Tofu Turkey

Marinate the squares in:

1-1/2 c. boiling water
1/2 t. dill
1/2 t. rosemary
1/2 t. thyme
1/2 t. marjoram
1/2 t. sage
1/2 t. black pepper
3 cloves garlic, sliced
3 T. olive oil

Let the tofu marinate for at least 2 hours, laid out in a single layer, in a casserole dish. After the 2 or more hours have passed, put the entire thing in the oven. 350 for one hour, but turn the slices over after 30 minutes.
When it is done and cooled, fry the squares in some olive oil until nicely browned on both sides.

The slices became:

Chicken Fried Tofu with Cream Gravy

Dip each slice in a non-dairy milk of your choice, and then into a mixture of:

1-1/2 c. flour and 1 T. of seasoning

Fry the slices in oil until nicely browned.

Chicken Fried Tofu Seasoning:
1/4 c. salt
2 T. garlic powder
2 T. black pepper
1 T. white pepper
1 T. onion powder
1 T. paprika
1 t. cayenne pepper
1 t. cumin

Combine this and mix well. Label so you'll know what it is so you can use it again!

For the gravy, I added the leftover milk and a handful of the flour mixture I'd used to coat the tofu with in the pan with the leftover oil. Whisk, whisk, whisk until it is blended smoothly. Add more milk if you have to.

I also whipped up some mashed potatoes, but not the usual boring kind. I cut up potatoes and carrots and about 3 garlic cloves and boiled them together. When everything was soft I mashed them with some non-dairy milk until smooth.

Then a green bean casserole.

My son overdid it a little with the gravy in the picture and the orange plate lends an interesting color to the photo, but everything turned out really well and was subsequently devoured. It really put me to thinking about Thanksgiving. I need to start to work on that menu!

Deep in the Heart of Texas

I decided some nice comfort food were on the menu tonight. Not for any reason in particular, just was in the mood. Inspired by my friend, Courtney, and her recipe, I made chicken fried portabellas with white creamy gravy, garlic mashed potatoes and oven fried okra.

Chicken Fried Portabellas

Portabella mushrooms, as many as you need
Soy milk, plain
Flour
Seasonings (I used salt, pepper and Bragg Sprinkle)
Olive Oil

For the gravy:
Earth Balance butter
Olive oil
Not Beef Bouillon cube
Soy milk, plain
Salt and pepper to taste

To make the gravy, melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add some olive oil and the bouillon cube and mix well. Start adding flour, stir, add, stir, add, until you get kind of a crumbly consistency. Start pouring in and whisking the milk. Add until you get the creaminess consistency you want. Salt and pepper to taste.

To make the portabellas, dip them first in soy milk, then in the flour with seasonings added. Fry up nicely in hot olive oil until nicely browned on both sides.

Oven Fried Okra

Whole okra, frozen and thawed
Soy milk, plain
2 c. cornmeal
1 t. salt
1 t. black pepper
1/2 t. paprika

Dip okra in milk, then in the cornmeal mixed with seasoning. Lay on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray (I like using olive oil in a spray bottle). Bake at 400 for 35-40 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally to keep them from sticking.

Play around with the chicken fried recipe, adding or substituting spices as you like. I think I might add some garlic and/or onion powder next time.

As for the okra, I had made this previously, thinking I could cheat a bit. I bought sliced okra, dumped it all in the milk and then into the cornmeal mixture, thinking to save time. What I got was more mushy and not very tasty okra at all. This time I used whole okra and dipped and battered each piece individually. MUCH better!

Chicken Fried Steak is kind of a staple here in Texas. My husband swears there is a difference between *chicken fried* and *country fried*, so I decided to do a little research. It seems chicken fried steak originated with German immigrants to the Texas hill country, who made schnitzel. Chicken fried steak was originally a way to use tougher cuts of meat by slicing the meat into round steaks and pounding them to tenderize. Recipes for chicken fried steak all require that the steak is tenderized, dipped in flour, coated in egg wash, and then dipped once again in flour. It is then fried in a cast iron skillet in oil and served with cream gravy. Brown gravy belongs east of the Sabine, while Central Texas makes it with breadcrumbs and West Texas without egg.

What about country fried steak? In most instances, it is another name for chicken fried steak (sshhhh, don't    tell my husband that!), but it might or might not have been dipped in egg. The gravy on top and side dishes will give away the origins of a "chicken fried steak". If served with brown gravy or anything else but mashed potatoes, you're looking at country fried steak.
I'm not sure which mine qualifies as. Mine is cruelty free, I didn't dip anything in egg, but did serve it with a white cream gravy, and did make mashed potatoes. I'm sticking with calling it chicken fried, I guess.
The portobello mushroom (also called portabella) is really simply a brown crimini mushroom in disguise. Evidently the usage of the two words "portobello vs. portabella" is nothing more than a marketing issue. Once the little brown crimini grows up to be about 4" - 6" in diameter he is deemed to be a portobello. No one seems to know how the name came about, but a few theories include:
•Named after Portobello Road in London which has many high end antique shops and other fashionable establishments.

•Named after a T.V. show called Portobello
•The portobello in Northern Italy is called "cappellone" which means "big hat".

Whatever the origin, it is a big brown mushroom that is very meaty, and can be grilled, oven roasted or sautéed, or in my case, fried. We like to grill them and serve them up on whole wheat buns, lettuce, tomato and any assorted other toppings we like (my daughter is partial to onions).