Every Monday night, Bon Appétit editor in chief Adam Rapoport gives us a peek inside his brain by taking over our newsletter. He shares recipes he's been cooking, restaurants he's been eating at, and more. It gets better: If you sign up for our newsletter, you'll get this letter before everyone else.
Every now and then you come across a cooking technique that makes you wonder what the heck you’ve been doing all these years.
Case in point, Bon App’s brilliant Crispy Tofu with Maple-Soy Glaze.
I mean, come on—the dish delivers crispy and glazed all in one recipe. And you even get tofu, which makes it a bit healthy, right? Or, at the least, it provides you with a somewhat indulgent option for your Meatless Monday.
The first step is the key step: taking a block of firm tofu, wrapping it in paper towel, and pressing as much liquid from it as possible. This will allow the tofu, after you slice it into domino-like slabs, to fry up nice and crispy. A generous amount of neutral oil, such as grapeseed, is also essential. You don’t want the tofu scorching on a bare pan.
Once your tofu achieves a golden-brown doneness on each side, you drain the oil from the pan and replace it with a soy/maple/ginger mixture. The tofu absorbs the salty-sweet vibes of the soy and maple syrup, while the thinly sliced ginger takes on a caramel-y crunch.
Get yourself a pot of jasmine rice and a jar of kimchi and you’ve got dinner. Not to mention a new go-to technique in your weeknight cooking arsenal.
