Chickpea chapter: Burmese Tofu

vegan, gluten free

Firstly, apologies for not posting any Chickpea Chapter recently. I've been adapting to a career change - social care!

This week focusing on Burmese Tofu; exploring a few variations on the recipe from Mary of Mary's Test Kitchen. There is no soya in this recipe, despite the connotations of its name. Only chickpea flour, water and whatever seasoning you choose. Naturally the flavour is savoury and slightly eggy with a softer, creamier texture than firm soy based tofu but has enough structural integrity to be fried, grilled or deep-fried. Today we are going to try 2 simple flavour variations of this

Mary kindly allowed me to share her recipe as the base for my variations. Here is here video of how to make Burmese Tofu.
You will need:

6 cups of water

2 cups of gram flour

Salt or veg. stock

I highly recommend browsing the rest of Mary's website, the amount of delicious vegan and allergen-friendly food is amazing.

Variation 1) Vegan Sea Sticks

Since becoming completely gluten intolerant 5 years ago, I haven't had many opportunities to enjoy the golden bubbly batter found mostly in chip shops. This is my attempt at making it possible for those following gluten-free and Vegan diets. If you don't fall into this niche, hopefully you can still take pleasure from this.

Ingredients:
1 pack of Nori sheets (untoasted or toasted)

250g Gram flour

250g Cornflakes

500ml water

salt

black pepper

white pepper (optional)

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Enough oil to fill a saucepan 3cm deep

Method:

1. Make a batch of plain tofu as Mary brilliantly instructs in the video above

2.Once it has set firm, cut tofu into pieces (somewhere between the size of a fish finger and smart phone)

3. Sieve gram flour then mix with salt, pepper and garlic into the water

4. In separate bowl, crush the cornflakes well; into pepper seed size pieces

5. If your Nori sheets haven't been toasted, toast/dry fry them until they turn an emerald green

6. Double wrap tofu pieces in Nori, then fully dip into the gram flour and water mix 

7. Once fully coated in the batter, roll the tofu in the cornflakes to coat evenly

8. Medium-heat the oil in a saucepan big enough to fit your sea sticks, once the oil is hot enough to brown and crisp a small piece of bread in 30-40 seconds you are ready to gently place the sea sticks in. Don't overcrowd the pan.

9. Ready when a dark-golden brown

10. Sit on a seaside bench and throw any scraps to the seagulls

2) Smokey Burmese Tofu

Very simple to make and versatile - smoked tofu steaks work well in a lot of dishes such as stir-frys or curries.

If you are using the same measurements as Mary does in the video, just add 4 teabags of Lapsang Souchong and 1tsp. of smoked paprika to the water when you add the stock/salt. Leave for 5 minutes so the teabags flavours can infuse, remove the teabags and continue as normal. 

Thank you. I hope you have found this post informative, tasty and useful.  See you next week for another Besan adventure.

P.S. If you'd like to add some extra flavour and outer crisp to the smokey tofu coat the strips in corn flour, finely chopped garlic, salt, pepper and nutritional yeast then shallow fry in a work like so: