Peanut Encrusted Grilled Tofu (Oil Free)

Uncertainty is beautiful. Although our intellect longs for clarity and certainty, its the uncertainty that is always fascinating. That’s how I would like to describe the weather here in Bangalore.  It’s not has hot as it was a few weeks before and at times it gets cloudy (its going to rain any moment type). The evenings are the best! Cool and breezy! All you need is a cup of tea and a nice crunchy, spicy and comforting snack.  The weather can be quite an excuse to munch on some deep fried stuff isn’t it? 😛 Snacks are always synonymous with something deep fried. Lets just break that norm! No compromise on taste! I promise!

Tofu

Whenever I have cooked Tofu before, I have always ended up deep frying it and have loved it. Thanks to the new grill (actually its old, but I’ve started using it very recently, hence NEW :P), I ended up grilling the tofu and loved it equally.

Garlic, Chilies, Ginger, Tofu and some dark Soy.

I love the combination of sweet and spice and hence I made a marinade using the soy, palm sugar, tamarind, garlic, ginger, chilies and sesame and it turned out to be soooooo gooooood! The tiny bits of ginger, garlic and chilies bring in bagful of flavors.

I started making it, with the motive that at the end of it I should not say “It would taste better when fried” (which I do often). To have a perfect crunchy crust I decided to combine, peanuts and bread crumbs and the crust turned of just the way I wanted it to be.

Peanut and Bread Crumb Crust

It works really well as a perfect weeknight-accessible goodness. A bowl of steamed rice/noodles,  some salad with nice lemon based dressing, and this grilled tofu. You are eating well tonight for sure! 🙂

A No-oil Peanut Encrusted Grilled Tofu

 

PEANUT ENCRUSTED GRILLED TOFU- RECIPE

1 packet tofu, cut into long rectangular slabs of 1/2″ thickness

For the marinade

2 tsp dark soya sauce

1 tsp palm sugar

1 tsp tamarind pulp

1/2 tsp roasted sesame seeds

1 tsp finely chopped garlic

1 tsp finely chopped ginger

1-2 green chilies, finely chopped

For the crust

1/2 cup crushed peanut powder

1/4 cup bread crumbs

 

In a pan mix the soya sauce, palm sugar, tamarind juice, sesame seeds, ginger, garlic and chilies, and bring the mixture to a boil. Once the mixture is cooled down to the room temperature, pour it over the tofu slabs.  Allow the slabs to soak in all the marinade for about 5-6 minutes.

Coat the tofu with the peanut and bread crumb mixture. Once the tofu is nicely coated, refrigerate  it for 20 minutes. This is to make sure that the crust is firm before grilling.

Place the tofu on the grill. Grill each side for about 5-7 minutes to get a perfect crust. Serve hot with some tomato ketchup.

Note:

The soya sauce has enough salt, hence add the salt accordingly to the marinade.

 

More to come… 🙂