Super-Crispy Tofu, No Pressing Required

I just want to show you the tofu. You can see it's got this beautiful, crunchy outer shell. Pretty crunchy. Hi, I'm Nisha Vora. We're in the NYT Cooking Studio kitchen, and today we're making crispy masala tofu with lemon rice and raita. The technique we're using today for the tofu is going to do two major things. It's going to crisp up the tofu really, really well. It's also going to infuse it with tons of flavor so you get the best of both worlds. You're essentially getting three recipes in one dish, and all three of the components can stand on their own, but together, this dish is greater than the sum of its parts. This recipe is really designed to allow you to multitask efficiently. So we're going to start by heating up our water for the rice. I've got two quarts coming to a boil here. I'm going to season the water with a little bit of salt, just a light season. It's not quite at a boil yet, so we will work on our tofu in the meantime. I've got a block of extra firm tofu here, and one of the three techniques that we're going to go over today for super crispy tofu is to tear your tofu into chunks instead of slicing it into even cubes. So, as you can see, you're getting a lot of different craggy surface area when you tear it into a chunk, and when it goes to hit the pan, there's so many different sides for the tofu to crisp up on, and I'd say you're aiming for about one-inch pieces. They're definitely not going to be the same size, and that is totally fine. The diversity in shapes and sizes, some pieces will be extra crispy, some will be slightly crispy. I think that's really nice. Our water is boiling. I'm adding in one cup of jasmine rice, and we're essentially going to cook the rice like pasta, except we'll cook it at a rapid simmer instead of a boil. It should take about 10 minutes. While the rice cooks, we can prep our tofu. Tofu is very watery, and one of the more traditional ways to get out some of that excess water is to press it, but today we're going to use a little more of an unconventional technique. We're going to soak the tofu in hot, salty water. So I've got two cups of water at a boil here, and I'm stirring in a tablespoon of kosher salt, and we're just going to pour it right on top of the tofu. So it sounds counterintuitive to remove excess water from the tofu by putting it in a bowl of water, but essentially what's happening is the salty hot bath in here is creating an osmosis-like environment. Some of the excess water on the tofu is going to migrate out of the tofu and into the saltier solution. That's how osmosis works. The heat from the hot water is also going to slightly firm up the protein structure in the tofu, so those two things mean you get tofu that crisps up better, it also browns better, and the salt is going to infuse inside of the tofu, so it's going to taste better. So we'll set this aside, and in the meantime, we'll prep some of the fixings for our lemon rice. For our lemon rice, we have some roasted cashews. We'll just roughly chop those or have them with a knife, whichever method you prefer. Lemon rice is a classic South Indian rice dish. Unfortunately, we don't have time for the more traditional version. Our streamlined version is still going to be really delicious, and it's going to come together really simply. You want the rice to be tender and cooked, obviously, but not soft or mushy. The tiniest bit of bite is what you're looking for. Give it a shake in the colander to get rid of any excess water, and then we're going to put the rice back in the pan so it can dry off, and then just cover the pan. Let the rice hang out for five minutes, and that's going to remove some of that excess water in the rice. Grab a big handful of cilantro. If you love it like I do, you measure with your heart and not with the measuring cup. If you have tender stems, like most of these are tender, these are absolutely edible. They are delicious. Do not waste them. As you can see, we've got individual rice grains, no stickiness. Just give it a quick fluff with our fork. I'm adding in just a little bit of oil. This is going to give our rice a buttery texture without using butter. It's also going to help the turmeric absorb into the rice, and you want to make sure to add the turmeric while the rice is still warm. The heat of the rice will help kind of cook off that raw, chalky turmeric flavor, and then make sure you stir really well so that you don't get any clumps of turmeric. So you're looking for like a nice, evenly golden color. Of course, we need some salt and pepper to season. And now for our mix-ins, our roasted cashews, about a half of a medium lemon. This is going to brighten everything up, give it a little pop. A lot of cilantro if you like it like I do. I like to add in a little bit of shredded unsweetened coconut. It's not required, but it does add another layer of flavor and richness that I really like. Smells good. Let's give it a taste. Make sure it has enough salt and lemon. A little more salt. And then just keep it warm while we finish everything else. It's time to drain our tofu. You can drain this in a colander, be very gentle, or you can grab a slotted spoon or a spider and just scoop it out. And then we'll just dab it dry. You're not going to get it completely dry, but it shouldn't feel too wet either. Now plop the tofu into, oh no, we lost one. That's okay. Plop all the rest of the tofu into a bowl. And we're just going to do a very simple seasoning batter for the tofu. Two teaspoons of garam masala, which is kind of a cheat code ingredient. It's a blend of pre-toasted spices. You get a lot of delicious, sweet, complex warmth in one ingredient, which is lovely. A few pinches of salt, a little black pepper. And then our third secret for super crispy tofu is to hit it with some cornstarch. This is going to help it develop a really nice crispy outer shell as it fries. And then a silicone spatula is really helpful at this stage so that you can fold in the seasonings without mashing up the tofu. Kind of always want to be gentle with tofu. It is a bit of a delicate gal. Treat her with care and love and seasoning. Definitely salt. You might notice that the tofu looks a little bit different in texture from when we first started. You can see that it has firmed up a bit, which is going to help it hold on to all the seasonings better. We are ready to start cooking the tofu. So you want to grab a large frying pan, get it over a medium high heat with a few tablespoons of oil. Once you see the oil sort of like shimmering and almost rippling, it is ready to take the tofu. Spread it out in an even layer so there's no overlap. Once you've done that though, don't fuss with it. You want to let it cook undisturbed because if you keep tossing it, keep checking it, you're going to disrupt the crisping process. The crispiness is what we're after. So let it be for five to six minutes. You'll start to see a crisp kind of shell start to form at the bottom. You'll start to see it turning golden brown. You can try flipping one piece and if it looks good, then you can start flipping the rest of the pieces. I'm using a nonstick pan today for ease. You can use a stainless steel pan, but you need to make sure to preheat it properly several minutes over a medium high or until a bead of water will glide effortlessly across the pan. If you're not sure what that means, just Google and the internet will provide. Melissa Clark also has great videos on this. So find them on the NYT Cooking Channel. All right, I'm starting to see this really beautiful golden brown crust on the bottom. So we'll start flipping like that. Some of the pieces will stick together totally fine. Actually makes it easier to flip. You can always separate them when they're done cooking. That's the nice thing about the chunks is that they have so many like little areas to crisp up on. And the second side should be done a little faster. You can start checking around three, three, four minutes. I have air fried tofu. You can use this method-ish. Unless you have a huge air fryer basket, you have to do two batches for one block of tofu. So you're looking at like 40, 45 minutes for one block of tofu. Feels like too long for me. Sorry, air fryer pans. Some of these are definitely done. So we'll start transferring this whole network of tofu onto our paper towel just to get rid of some excess oil. You can see it like looks crispy and crunchy. It's got like a shell on it almost. It's nicely golden brown. It looks delicious. So element three of the recipe is the tomato raita. So we've got some beautiful multicolored cherry tomatoes. Any ripe, flavorful tomato is fine. For little tomatoes, I like to just cut them in half. For a larger tomato, you can quarter it, but I find it easier to just kind of slice it like this. It's a little messier. I leave the decision up to you. We're gonna also chop up a little bit of a serrano pepper because I like things spicy. I am gonna start with just maybe half of it. And we can taste, add more as needed. And we'll just finely chop the pepper. If you don't like spicy food as much, you can take out the seeds first. Or if you just want like a little extra kick and flavor but not heat, you could grate a garlic clove into this instead of using a chili pepper. Now for the yogurt, I'm using a creamy coconut yogurt. A full-fat coconut yogurt is really nice for raita because it approximates a dairy-based yogurt, a Greek yogurt, really well. Don't use a sweetened yogurt. You save that for your breakfast. And then we just mix everything together, super simple. Couple pinches of salt, pepper. Depending on how tangy your yogurt is, you might want to add a little lemon juice. This is just our leftover lemon from the lemon rice. Look how pretty it is. And then just give it a taste for salt or if you want more chili, more salt. And personally, I would like more chili. But to keep this family-friendly, I'm gonna stick with half a pepper for today. All right, we are ready to start plating. Got everything plated. I just want to show you the tofu. You can see it's got this beautiful, crunchy outer shell. I am very excited to try it. Pretty crunchy. The tofu is still a little soft on the inside, but it's got this amazing, crunchy shell. I love the contrast of those textures. The garam masala really hits with the sweet warmth. It's got the perfect amount of salt. And even if you don't make the other components, definitely make this and just snack on it all day. It is so, so good. You have every amazing texture in here. Creamy, crispy, crunchy, tender. It's buttery, it's spicy, it's well-spiced, it's tangy. It's everything, all the things in one bite. Make all the components for an epic dinner or make just one or two for something a little more streamlined. You can find this recipe and many more at NYT Cooking. Thanks so much for watching. Bye! Do I have tofu in my hair? Huh? No. Has that happened? All the time. Tofu or garlic, one of the two is in my hair at all times.