Tofu steaks with garlic butter soy sauce
Thick slabs of tofu seared golden and spooned with a sizzling garlic, butter and soy pan sauce, a Japanese home-cooking favorite with rice and cool cucumber.
- 40 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 2
- About $2.42 a serving
- 810 calories
- Vegetarian
Dolly says: Most of the time here is hands-off, so you can sit down while it cooks.
Ingredients
For 2 servings.
- 1 package extra-firm tofu, drained
- 1 cup long-grain white rice
- 2 tbsp butter
- 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp mirin
- 2 stalks green onions, thinly sliced
- 1 cucumber, sliced
From your pantry
- 1½ cups water
- ½ tsp salt, divided
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
Each serving has about 810 calories, 34 g protein, 99 g carbs and 31 g fat, and costs about $2.42 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No extra-firm tofu? Firm tofu works.
- No long-grain white rice? Jasmine rice or basmati rice works.
- No butter? Ghee works.
- No green onions? Chives work.
- No cucumbers? English cucumbers or mini cucumbers work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Wrap the tofu in a clean towel and press it under something heavy for 15 minutes.
Timer: 15 min
Meanwhile, the rice and bring it in a small with the water and ¼ teaspoon salt over high heat.
Rinse. Rinsing means running cold water over rice or canned beans in a strainer while you swish them around. It washes off loose starch and can liquid, so rice cooks up fluffy and beans taste clean.
How you’ll know: The water running out goes from cloudy to mostly clear; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
Saucepan. A saucepan is a pot with tall, straight sides and one long handle. It’s for things that need depth, like rice, sauces or a few boiled eggs.
How you’ll know: The food fills it about halfway, leaving room to bubble without spilling over.
High heat
Stir once, cover, and cook on low for 15 minutes. Take it off the heat and leave the lid on.
Low heatTimer: 15 min
Cut the tofu into 4 thick slabs and them dry. Sprinkle with ¼ teaspoon salt and the pepper, then dust both sides with cornstarch and pat off the extra.
Lengthwise. Lengthwise means cutting along the long side, from stem to tip, which gives long pieces. Crosswise is the other way, straight across the middle, which gives short, round ones.
How you’ll know: Lengthwise halves of a zucchini look like two little canoes; crosswise pieces look like coins.
Pat dry. Patting dry means pressing paper towels onto food to soak up the moisture on its surface. Wet food steams instead of browning, so this is how you get a good sear and crisp skin.
How you’ll know: The surface feels tacky, not wet, and the last paper towel comes away barely damp.
Heat the oil in a large nonstick over medium-high heat until it . Lay in the slabs and cook without moving them 4 to 5 minutes, until deep underneath.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Shimmering oil. Oil shimmers when it’s hot enough to cook: its surface looks rippled and wavy, like heat over a road. That’s your cue to add the food, just before the oil would start to smoke.
How you’ll know: The oil looks wavy and runs thin like water when you tilt the pan, with no smoke yet.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium-high heatTimer: 4 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: Resist lifting a corner to peek. The crust forms only while the tofu sits still.Flip the slabs and cook the second side about 4 minutes, until .
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium-high heatTimer: 4 min
Food safety: Tofu is safe to eat straight from the package; cooking is only for texture and flavor.
Turn the heat to low, drop the butter and garlic into the pan around the tofu, and cook about 1 minute, swirling, until the garlic is pale .
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Low heatTimer: 1 min
Dolly’s tip: Garlic turns bitter if it goes dark brown. Pale gold is perfect.Pour in the soy sauce and mirin. It will bubble hard.
Low heat
Spoon the sauce over the tofu for about 30 seconds, until slightly thick and glossy.
Serve the steaks over the rice with the pan sauce poured over, green onions on top and cucumber on the side.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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