M blog/index.html => blog/index.html +1 -0
@@ 14,6 14,7 @@
<p>Posts:</p>
<ul>
+ <li><a href="tofu.html">Tofu</a>, a guide to frying tofu. 2021-07-14.
<li><a href="cli-mail.html">CLI mail</a>, a guide to checking your mail
in your terminal. 2021-04-04.
</ul>
A blog/tofu.html => blog/tofu.html +84 -0
@@ 0,0 1,84 @@
+<head>
+ <meta charset="utf-8"/>
+ <title>Tofu: Jordan Newport</title>
+ <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="blog.css">
+</head>
+<p><a href=../index.html>Back to site home</a></p>
+<p><a href=index.html>Back to blog index</a></p>
+<h1>How to fry Tofu</h1>
+<h4>2021-07-14</h4>
+<p>This is a guide ("recipe" feels strong) to making deep-fried tofu, because I
+never actually found one on the internet and I would like to have one for
+myself. This was developed over months of experimentation.</p>
+<p>I don't provide a recipe, but typically I eat tofu with some kind of sauce over
+rice. Aside: literally like 90% or more of the flavor profile of Chinese food is
+from soy sauce, garlic, and ginger, so if you make a sauce containing those
+three ingredients it will automatically taste Chinese. Easy!</p>
+<h2>Ingredients</h2>
+<ul>
+<li>1lb (or 14oz, which is a common container size) of <strong>tofu</strong></li>
+<li>Some <strong>cornstarch</strong>, also known as corn flour. A couple ounces should be enough.</li>
+<li>Enough <strong>canola oil</strong> to fry in. The specific amount needed will depend on the
+size of your tofu pieces and the size/shape of your pan; for my purposes 64oz
+usually suffices.</li>
+</ul>
+<h2>Equipment</h2>
+<ul>
+<li>A deep frying pan</li>
+<li>Some paper towels</li>
+<li>Something heavy (5-10 lb and no more than 6 inches square)</li>
+<li>Regular things like spatulas and knives</li>
+</ul>
+<h2>Instructions</h2>
+<ul>
+<li><p>Open the tofu (this often needs a knife; tofu packaging <em>sucks</em>). Pour and/or
+squeeze out all the water from the container.</p>
+</li>
+<li><p>Wrap the tofu brick in a minimum of 12 paper towels. Put this on a plate or
+cutting board and press under the heavy object. If necessary, put a plate or
+something on top to protect the heavy object from getting wet and distribute
+its weight more evenly. The goal here is to press more of the remaining water
+out of the tofu.</p>
+</li>
+<li><p>Let stand for 20 minutes. You can do things in this time like prepping frying
+oil or cooking sauce.</p>
+</li>
+<li><p>Unwrap the tofu and cut it into chunks. I usually do 24 roughly-cube-shaped
+chunks.</p>
+</li>
+<li><p>dust all 6 sides of each piece in cornstarch, to make it crunchier. This
+should be very light, as if it's too much then you'll have a variety of
+problems (pieces will stick to each other, it'll get too crunchy, whatever).</p>
+<p>This is very hard to do correctly if you don't have any kind of dusting
+equipment (cornstarch is clumpy), and basically any amount you try to add
+could wind up being too much.</p>
+</li>
+<li><p>Heat the oil in the pan to about 375 degrees.</p>
+<p>If you don't have a thermometer: the correct stove setting on my coil electric
+stove is about 7 ("medium high"). You can tell when it's hot enough by putting
+a little piece of tofu in; it should be bubbling pretty rapidly. It takes
+several minutes for the oil to get hot enough.</p>
+</li>
+<li><p>Put all the tofu in the oil and let fry for 7 minutes. It's best to add it
+slowly, as if you dump it all in at once it will splash, and that's bad when
+you have hot oil. If you added too much cornstarch (which you probably did; I
+usually do), then you'll need to stir almost constantly to keep pieces from
+sticking to each other; if you didn't then you can get away with stirring only
+once-twice in that time.</p>
+</li>
+<li><p>Remove the tofu from the oil and let it stand on paper towels to drain and
+cool; you want it to cool for 5-10 minutes before eating so the interior can
+cool down.</p>
+</li>
+<li><p>Put the tofu in sauce and serve it.</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<hr>
+<p>Comments? Questions? Email me at <a href="mailto:jordan@jnewport.dev">jordan@jnewport.dev</a>!</p>
+<footer>
+ <noscript> <hr> Thank you for blocking Javascript. </noscript>
+ <hr>
+ <p>This website features no Javascript and no cookies; best viewed in any browser.</p>
+ <p>The content on this website is <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">
+ CC-BY-SA</a>.</p>
+</footer>
A blog/tofu.md => blog/tofu.md +83 -0
@@ 0,0 1,83 @@
+<head>
+ <meta charset="utf-8"/>
+ <title>Tofu: Jordan Newport</title>
+ <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="blog.css">
+</head>
+<p><a href=../index.html>Back to site home</a></p>
+
+<p><a href=index.html>Back to blog index</a></p>
+
+# How to fry Tofu
+#### 2021-07-14
+
+This is a guide ("recipe" feels strong) to making deep-fried tofu, because I
+never actually found one on the internet and I would like to have one for
+myself. This was developed over months of experimentation.
+
+I don't provide a recipe, but typically I eat tofu with some kind of sauce over
+rice. Aside: literally like 90% or more of the flavor profile of Chinese food is
+from soy sauce, garlic, and ginger, so if you make a sauce containing those
+three ingredients it will automatically taste Chinese. Easy!
+
+## Ingredients
+- 1lb (or 14oz, which is a common container size) of **tofu**
+- Some **cornstarch**, also known as corn flour. A couple ounces should be enough.
+- Enough **canola oil** to fry in. The specific amount needed will depend on the
+ size of your tofu pieces and the size/shape of your pan; for my purposes 64oz
+ usually suffices.
+
+## Equipment
+- A deep frying pan
+- Some paper towels
+- Something heavy (5-10 lb and no more than 6 inches square)
+- Regular things like spatulas and knives
+
+## Instructions
+- Open the tofu (this often needs a knife; tofu packaging *sucks*). Pour and/or
+ squeeze out all the water from the container.
+- Wrap the tofu brick in a minimum of 12 paper towels. Put this on a plate or
+ cutting board and press under the heavy object. If necessary, put a plate or
+ something on top to protect the heavy object from getting wet and distribute
+ its weight more evenly. The goal here is to press more of the remaining water
+ out of the tofu.
+- Let stand for 20 minutes. You can do things in this time like prepping frying
+ oil or cooking sauce.
+- Unwrap the tofu and cut it into chunks. I usually do 24 roughly-cube-shaped
+ chunks.
+- dust all 6 sides of each piece in cornstarch, to make it crunchier. This
+ should be very light, as if it's too much then you'll have a variety of
+ problems (pieces will stick to each other, it'll get too crunchy, whatever).
+
+ This is very hard to do correctly if you don't have any kind of dusting
+ equipment (cornstarch is clumpy), and basically any amount you try to add
+ could wind up being too much.
+- Heat the oil in the pan to about 375 degrees.
+
+ If you don't have a thermometer: the correct stove setting on my coil electric
+ stove is about 7 ("medium high"). You can tell when it's hot enough by putting
+ a little piece of tofu in; it should be bubbling pretty rapidly. It takes
+ several minutes for the oil to get hot enough.
+- Put all the tofu in the oil and let fry for 7 minutes. It's best to add it
+ slowly, as if you dump it all in at once it will splash, and that's bad when
+ you have hot oil. If you added too much cornstarch (which you probably did; I
+ usually do), then you'll need to stir almost constantly to keep pieces from
+ sticking to each other; if you didn't then you can get away with stirring only
+ once-twice in that time.
+- Remove the tofu from the oil and let it stand on paper towels to drain and
+ cool; you want it to cool for 5-10 minutes before eating so the interior can
+ cool down.
+- Put the tofu in sauce and serve it.
+
+
+<hr>
+
+Comments? Questions? Email me at <jordan@jnewport.dev>!
+
+<footer>
+ <noscript> <hr> Thank you for blocking Javascript. </noscript>
+ <hr>
+ <p>This website features no Javascript and no cookies; best viewed in any browser.</p>
+
+ <p>The content on this website is <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">
+ CC-BY-SA</a>.</p>
+</footer>