I am confused. I pressed my tofu all day, put corn starch on it, and threw it up in some vegetable oil. I turned the induction stove up to fairly high up to the point where the oil bubbles immensely when putting in the tofu. It takes about 4 minutes to get it golden.
The result is that I have tofu with a crust (a bit too much I must have put too much corn starch on) but the crust is soft and squishy. Not crispy.
What did I do wrong here? Do I need to heat the oil more? Press the tofu more? Do something special when removing it?
Best Answer
Well there are a lot of variables to this but from my experience you can do the following:
Use a tofu press and press evenly (not just the edges from a poorly balanced plate etc) for several hours, gradually increasing the pressure with the screws (you can find them online).
Cut your pieces more thinly; if theyre too thick the heat wont penetrate fully.
You can also freeze the tofu pre-press and pre-cooking to force more water out of it, although Im not a fan of this method.
Try different brands of tofu. Different brands have different mouthfeel and may drain more thoroughly with the above methods.
Try a slow, low heat fry to get allll the moisture out rather than a fast/flash fry which may not penetrate as deeply. Honestly I think you can get crispy tofu without deep frying, but long and slow with a shallow fry.