Tofu Grilling Tips
By Rachel Klein

Tofu Tips

Without proper preparation, your tofu will appear to be an indistinguishable white lump that no one will enjoy...let alone attempt to eat. To clear tofu of its sometimes bland name, and to make it more palatable than, say, an undesirable cube of protein, here are some important and easy tips.
1.    To make your tofu firm, it needs to lose a lot of water (buying
"firm" tofu is not enough!). You can do this by draining the water out of the package that it comes in, and then wrapping your tofu in a clean dish towel and setting a heavy object (say, a cook book) on top of it for at least five minutes.

2.    When pan frying your tofu, coat the bottom of the pan in oil and
make sure it's very hot. The hotter the oil, the quicker your tofu will cook, and the crispier it will become. Aside from spices, nothing else (sauces, juices,etc) should be added until the tofu is adequately fried and taken off the heat. This way, sweeter sauces won't burn the outside of the tofu, and additional liquids won't prevent the tofu from really frying.

3.    For a chewier, spongier tofu, put a package of non-drained tofu
into the freezer overnight. Let it thaw at room temperature and discard any ice that may have formed on the tofu; then cook as you would normally. Freezing sets up a texture in the tofu that is especially good as a chicken replacement in soups and chili.

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Tofu Mango Summer Rolls

Ingredients 
4 pieces of packaged rice paper 
1/2 block of tofu, drained, in 1/2 inch slices 
pinch of salt 
1 cup of cucumber
1 cup mango 
1/2 cup carrot
4 scallons- just the green part 
few sprigs of mint and cilantro 
grapeseed oil for cooking the tofu 

You will need a dish with a few inches of warm water in it, a frying pan, knife and a cutting board.

Heat grapeseed oil in a frying pan. When the oil starts to ripple, add the slices of tofu, and sprinkle the salt on top. Let tofu cook for about 4 minutes on each side, or until the tofu turns a nice shade of light brown. Take the tofu off the pan and let it cool for a minute. Then slice it into pieces about the size of french fries. 
Meanwhile, slice cucumber into pieces a bit bigger than match sticks. It works best without the seeds, so cut around the middle of the cucumber to just get the fleshy part and skin. Cut carrots into the same size. To make this super easy, use baby carrots (they're the perfect length and a bit softer than regular carrots. Next, slice mango so that it's the same size as the tofu strips. Then, cut the scallions in half and chop up the mint and cilantro. 

Now for the rice paper. Soak each piece of rice paper in the dish of warm water for approx. two minutes each. Please do each wrapper separately, so they do not stick together. 
Lay the rice paper, one piece at a time, on the cutting board. Fill each sheet of paper with everything (you may have a bit leftover, depending on how much you fill your rice paper with). Then, to wrap, pull the top and bottom of the wrapper over the filling, gently pull the right side over the filling, and roll what's wrapped up from right to left. 

Serve right away, or chilled. For a more filling version, add a tablespoon or two of rice to each roll before wrapping.