Leftover BBQ tofu sandwich to go

I finally made the barbecued tofu from Grub that I was going to make on one of the days of the kids' holiday travel saga, but they didn't want to wait for it to bake an hour. I let it do its baking while I was at Rachael's restorative yoga class on Sunday, and it turned out so good that even Al ate it, and I wanted to use up all the leftovers. It's also super eay to make. First we ate the tofu with greens and black-eyed peas, then I chopped up a couple of pieces and put them on a salad last night, but that still left three - which turned into bbq tofu sandwich to go, at work - the scariest part is that you can see how messy my desk is.

My version of the recipe follows - I did not expect to like it, but it was delish - I cut down on the soy sauce from the original just a bit, and also left out lime juice, because I did not have it, and I used a bit less olive oil. I had a barbecue chicken wrap from the snack bar here on campus recently, which I ate while reading an Utne Reader article entitled "Why Michael Pollan makes me want to eat Cheetos" - it's because of the unbearable smugness of locavores, who successfully resist the siren song of junk food - and I enjoyed the lushness of corn-syrup drenched bbq sauce on the wrap, as well as the transfat-deep-fried crust on the chicken. So I did not expect to like this far more PC-bbq, but it was really quite tasty.

Grub bbq tofu a la Deb

• 2 15 - 16 ounce packages of firm tofu (I like Bountiful Bean, made in WI)
• 3 TBLS olive oil (about; original recipe calls for 6)
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup soy sauce (I like Kikkoman, also made here in WI; original recipes calls for 3/4 cup of tamari)
• 1/4 cup canned tomato sauce
• 1 large chipotle chile in adobo (also canned)
• 6 TBLS maple syrup
• 2 tsp cumin
• ground cayenne pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350° Squeeze some of the water out of the tofu, and cut it into slices or triangles - you should get about 12 per block. Heat about 1 -2 TBLS of the olive oil in a large skillet, and fry the tofu in batches turning once until it is browned on both sides, adding more oil as necessary. Transfer the fried tofu to a 13 x 9 x 2 baking dish. Combine the remaining ingredients in a blender jar, and whir until smooth. Pour the contents of the blender over the tofu in the baking dish, cover the baking dish with foil, and bake for about 1 hour, until all the sauce is absorbed. Eat all of it, hot, warm or room temp.

I think this would also be good if you floured the tofu before frying and baking in the bbq sauce, to give it a little more crust.



Next I was casting around in the kitchen for something to go on the sandwich, and I decided to try making instant cole slaw. I had half a red and half a green cabbage in the bin, waiting for me to do something with them. So I sliced up some of the green, added some grated carrot, stuck it in a little container, and added a few spoonfuls of Marzetti's that was in the fridge. It was pretty good, but the cabbage did not get quite wilt-y enough, even after being in the slaw sauce from 7:45 a.m. until 12:30.