Hello friends of the hive realm.
When 
In the western world there is a stereotype of a typical tofu eater. The image that many conjure up, is that of a yoga pants wearing, meditating, patchouli oil dowsed, hipster that teaches breath work and spends their time in search of auras and chi. This may be true in some cases.
I know many people vegan and non vegan, from all walks of life, that do like it.
In Asia tofu is popular, not just for vegetarians, but as an addition to many dishes that contain meat. I find that tofu is more often used in Asian inspired cuisine, even in the western world.
I have recently started making a dish inspired by a classic French dish. The dish is a plant based version of "boeuf bourguinon". This refers to beef stew cooked in wine.
I know this may ruffle the feathers of a French chef, however the idea was first introduced to me, by a former restaurant where I worked. It is a vegan restaurant where we dined a few years after we stopped working there.
We ordered the "tofu bourguinon" to try it. It was quite satisfactory but nothing to dream about. By the way the owner is from France.
I am putting my own spin on that spin of the tofu bourguinon that I tried.
Boeuf bourguinon is usually made in chunks like a typical beef stew. Tofu bourguinon is made the same way.
I do things differently, because...I can.
I have cut the tofu into a hasselback style like the classic hasselback potato. There are folks that have made hasselback tofu but as far as I can see, there are no hasselback tofu bourguinon recipes.
The blocks are cut as thinly as possible but not going through to the bottom.
I prepared a marinade to cover the tofu, which we all know, needs some help to flavour.
Fortunately I have the help of some vegan "no beef" broth powder. I wouldn't have been too worried if I couldn't find it. The other ingredients that I used, really lent a hand. Plus a vegetable broth would have been fine.
Marinade
40g vegan beef broth powder
25g soy sauce
30g fermented black bean sauce
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
750ml water
Salt to taste
I do not own a proper deep oven vessel so I was forced to use a aluminum pan that I had. this was fairly deep. I placed the tofu inside and covered with the marinade.
I let this sit in the marinade for a few hours. Overnight would be ideal.
Traditionally a bourguinon would have pearl onions in it along with regular onion. I had to omit them. There were no pearl onions to be found in the area.
I put regular onions and shallot which was fine.
Mushrooms are a common addition to this classic dish. I used a combination of oyster and button mushrooms.
Another common ingredient is bacon. I don't eat meat so fortunately the store I like to shop at, had vegan bacon that is the most accurate brand.
I'm sure that a meat eating bacon lover would be snubbing this product. It has a very bacon like taste but the fat is missing.
This is not real bacon in case you didn't read.
I am sure it's not the healthiest plantbased food to eat all the time, but in this case it really lent to the illusion of a real bourguinon.
I used only part of the package, as it's quite expensive and could overpower the dish, since it is another soy product.
The traditional version there would most likely be carrots cut in chunks and added to the stew.
Instead of putting the carrots in the stew, I roasted them separately to keep the colour.
The following recipe does not include the marinade which was added in the final cooking. It is also approximate.
Tofu Bourguinon
900g tofu
400g mushrooms
250g carrots (roasted separately but can be chopped into the stew)
400g onion
50 shallot
30g garlic
100g vegan bacon
50g tomato paste
25g vegan beef broth powder
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 cup red wine
Salt if necessary and pepper to taste (I like a lot of cracked black pepper)
I cooked onion in oil until they were translucent then added garlic, vegan bacon and tomato paste.
Add mushrooms, seasonings and stir together.
I added the wine at this point.
I didn't cook it very long since it was going in the oven. It could have been done on the stove in a deep pot but I opted to let the oven do the work.
The mushroom mixture covered the tofu completely and was covered in foil along with the carrots. They were baked covered in the oven at 350 for around half an hour, then uncovered for another half hour on lower heat. I didn't time it. In this time the flavour is absorbed. Because it's not meat it doesn't risk drying out or overcooking, especially if it's kept covered in moisture.
After removing it from the oven I took the tofu out and put it aside. I drained out the liquid in order to turn it into a gravy.
The liquid that was left had a bit of flour stirred into it to thicken it a little.
The blocks of tofu being together in blocks, was less like a stew but the thin slices allowed the sauce to penetrate as if it were cubed.
This was more like a festive dinner rather than a bowl of stew which was a change from the conventional. I'm sure I would already be in trouble from a classic French chef, for using tofu. Oh well, I wasn't the first to think of this.
In most cases, the classic beef version, would be served with mashed potatoes but occasionally it's served with pasta.
I love a good old fashion pile of mashed potatoes and gravy, on a Canadian winter's day. It's ridiculously cold outside.
I know that with foods cooked with wine, the wine can be optional. In this case you could omit the wine but you would not consider it a "Bourguinon" which refers to cooking in wine.
If you don't drink alcohol, aside from religious reasons, you can be assured that the alcohol is cooked out and the dish is left only with the flavour. You won't get drunk from eating this. I know this is common knowledge for most people but I do come across people that do not realize this.
The amount of wine that I used was just the amount I decided to use based on how much I was willing to sacrifice. It worked out perfectly for me.
Wishing everyone a great day and thank you for stopping by.
Photos taken with a Nikon D7500