things wot i made then ate: tofu with vegetables

Favorite vegetables are cut. Actually, they're the vegetables I had on hand. After this, nada.

Tofu is pressed in a kitchen towel to help rid it of excess water. Pressure is applied until dampness can be felt through layers of the towel, then the block of tofu is moved to a dry spot on the towel and pressed again for as many as five pressings.

A little something different this time: the FoodSaver was put to use to create a partial vacuum inside a mason jar. The idea is to suck out most of the air from the jar containing the tofu held in marinade. When normal pressure is restored then the tofu is expected to suck the marinade into its interior like a sponge, except in reverse. Instead of being squeezed like a sponge it's being encouraged to expand.

See YouTube video [+foodsaver +marshmallow] I'd link a video but they have a very bad habit of disappearing. I'd make a video myself, but alas, for I am marshmallowless. In the videos, you can see that under reduced air pressure of a partial vacuum the marshmallows expand within the jar. When normal pressure is restored the marshmallows return to normal size. Now imagine if the the marshmallows were in a liquid. (They'd melt, of course) Now imagine if the marshmallows were tofu.

The marinade is weak because it was diluted in order to have enough liquid to cover the tofu inside the jar. The marinade is strained from the tofu jar, shaken with one teaspoon of cornstarch for thickener, and simmered to concentrate. The sauce was taste-tested and adjusted. Could have done without the half lemon.

Sauce:

* sake

* soy sauce

* mirin

* Three Crab fish sauce (minimal amount)

* garlic powder

* ginger powder

* cayenne powder

* coriander powder

* 1/2 lemon

Everything you learned about the treatment of mushrooms are lies, ALL LIES !!¡¡11 eleventeen1111!!!!

Yes, when washed they do indeed absorb water like little sponges. But so what? That actually helps them cook. Here's the deal. When you sauté mushrooms that have been cleaned by being rinsed with water, the wet mushrooms release water as they fry and shrink. Conversely, dry mushrooms drink up oil as they cook and shrink, and they continue to beg for even more oil after they're done being cooked. They're insatiable. They keep absorbing oil until they're completely lousy with oil. Gross. You will find that dampened mushrooms are actually better.

Added to that, I live in Denver. It's dry here. A quick rinse under water, and within three minutes on a cutting board the mushrooms are dry again.

The point is that all your mushroom-rules are belong to us!

So did the partial vacuum work in getting marinade inside the tofu? I guess it did a little bit, but not as thoroughly as I anticipated. You can see it around the edges but I am not convinced it is any more than would occur without vacuum suckage, and that makes me sad. It causes me to think about poking holes in the tofu or something to make it more porous.