Tofu Taste-Test

Monday, January 17, 2011: Neither Susan ( my sponsor) nor any of her college interns were at Strawberry Fields today, so I spent my afternoon testing out tofu recipes on my George Foreman Grill at home, one of the projects Susan assigned to me (D). Tofu has always seemed very strange to me (F), so I have never attempted to cook or taste it before. Since I had no idea how to prepare tofu, I first did a bunch of research (D). The first thing I learned is that you have to "press" tofu: this means sandwiching it between two dinner plates, putting a book on top, and waiting about 30 minutes until all the moisture has come out of it (D). Next step was to marinate. This was the fun part for me (F), because I invented my own marinade recipe that was a combination of honey, soy sauce, and ginger (D). I felt very proud that it tasted pretty good (F)! The other marinade I made was a bbq sauce recipe I found online (D). So I sliced the tofu and let it marinade for a couple of hours. While it was marinating, I researched more information about grilling tofu on the George Foreman grill (D). Finally, the time came for me to grill my tofu, and I placed the tofu on the grill with high hopes that it would turn out tasty (D). However, I was very disappointed by the results (F). First of all, the sauces burnt to my grill pretty badly, even though I sprayed it with cooking spray beforehand. So I had to scrub the grill for a LONG time afterward (D). Not fun (F). Secondly, the flavor was fantastic, but I discovered that I absolutely cannot stand the odd jelly-like texture of tofu (F)! I did not care for it at all, but my mom (who loves tofu) thought it was delicious (F). I realized that everyone has different opinions, and that just because I think that something is bad does not necessarily mean that it is bad for everyone (A). I also learned the importance of testing recipes, because it took me a few different slices of tofu to figure out the perfect grilling time (A).