This Can't Be Tofu! 75 Recipes to Cook Something You Never Thought You Would and Love Every Bite

This Can't Be Tofu!: 75 Recipes to Cook Something You Never Thought You Would and Love Every Bite

Broadway Books, 144 pp., $15 (paper)

What a delight to find a book of tofu recipes that is packed with good basic information and recipes that don't try to disguise tofu as something that it is not! An added treat is that the author is Deborah Madison, founding chef at the celebrated Greens restaurant in San Francisco and an expert on vegetarian cuisine. Madison is the author of four bestselling cookbooks, including Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (winner of the James Beard Award for Best Vegetarian Cookbook and two Julia Child/IACP Awards for Best General Cookbook and Best Cookbook of the Year).

This little book contains 75 recipes that will appeal to meat-eaters as well as vegans and vegetarians. I was delighted to find that Madison's recipes using meat and seafood can be easily modified to meet the standards of the most stringent macrobiotic eater. This Can't Be Tofu! is well-written with directions that are easy to understand and follow, humorous asides, and tofu trivia. Madison's spirit and clarity shine throughout the 144 pages, providing readers with important guidelines for buying, storing, and preparing tofu. She addresses the differences of silken, soft, firm, and extra-firm tofu and the uses of each; gives information for pressing and draining tofu; and guidance for freezing and defrosting tofu to "texturize" it. Madison gives great "how-to" tips for shopping at Asian markets and describes many ingredients found there that go especially well with tofu. A chapter is dedicated to accompaniments and describes choices and preparation information for different varieties of rice, sweet potatoes, and yams.

Tofu, considered by many doctors, nutritionists, health professionals, and researchers to be a nutritional powerhouse, is packed with protein and calcium and is cholesterol-free. Tofu contains phytoestrogens (plant estrogens), which may reduce the risk of breast and prostate cancers. The cooling effects of tofu are believed to minimize hot flashes and mood swings related to menopause.

Madison's common-sense approach in This Can't Be Tofu! gives a fresh and imaginative perspective on cooking with this unique and adaptable ingredient that can be served as a main or side dish, beverage, or dessert at breakfast, lunch, or dinner. There are recipes for stir-fries, sautés, curries, "sausage," and eggs, and also for beverages such as iced coffee frappés and smoothies.

Madison's recipes do not hide tofu in dishes as a substitute for meat or cheese. Instead, she demonstrates how delicious tofu can be when it stands on its own in sophisticated, savory recipes such as chilled soba with soft tofu and soy-sesame sauce, red pepper and miso soup with tofu and black sesame, and iced coffee frappé.

Although most of the recipes in this book treat tofu as a food to be enjoyed for its own intrinsic qualities, Madison does present some recipes where tofu disappears into the dishes so completely that no one will know that it is there. If you like the taste of traditional foods and aren't using tofu to avoid eggs or dairy, adding tofu in a standard recipe gives the benefits of soy without giving up the traditional flavors. Puréed silken tofu can be added to prepared mayonnaise and no one will know the difference. Puréed silken tofu can replace eggs in pancake, muffin, quick bread, and cake recipes. Tofu provides moisture and structure to baked goods without interfering with the flavor.

I found the main dish recipes quick and easy to prepare and delicious. As a bonus, I heard not one complaint from my meat-eating friends. My favorite recipe is glazed tofu, a tasty basic dish with many possible incarnations by varying the type of tofu and the spices. The gingered tofu and peanut mince is a crunchy dish that looks like ground pork laced with dark green spinach leaves. My favorite is the warm red cabbage salad with peppered tofu crisps. The fried tofu crisps -- dark, crispy, and piquant -- in the warmed cabbage salad with peppered tofu crisps are tasty served or dipped into virtually any sauce from shoyu (soy sauce) to balsamic vinegar to mayonnaise.

In my chef training, I was taught to marinate tofu to infuse flavor into the mild, spongy bean curd before cooking. Maybe the best tip I learned from This Can't Be Tofu! is that glazing is much more effective than marinating. Madison's advice is to cook the tofu until golden brown and then pour in the marinade and continue to cook the tofu until it is glazed. She also gives good recipes and information for applying spice rubs to tofu for a zesty treat.

All in all, This Can't Be Tofu! is worth its weight in -- yes! -- tofu. Try some of Madison's unique recipes and you too will hear family and friends say, "This can't be tofu."