Customer Reviews

This Can't Be Tofu!: 75 Recipes to Cook Something You Never Thought You Would--and Love Every Bite

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Brilliant book. I was one of the people described in the introductory anecdote...I always buy tofu, feeling hopeful and virtuous. And I always have rotton tofu ready to throw away. Eat the stuff? I didn't think so. So this comes at a great time when many of us really are trying to eat more healthfully. So far I have tried the mango smoothie made with silken tofu - tastes great and gives energy for hours. I also tried the tofu and asparagus with lemongrass rub - tasty! Like all of Deborah Madison's books, the reading is delicious....I consider her books take-to-bed material. There is a lot to learn about the types and handling of tofu, and Ms. Madison explains it with clear simplicity. The book calls for a trip to the oriental market - there is an eastern slant to many of the recipes. It looks like the recipes will provide an education in Thai and Indian cooking! The next challenge will be to start serving tofu regularly to my meat and potatoes family. These recipes look so robust and flavorful - I can't wait to see if they notice that they are eating tofu.

I have been eating and loving tofu for 25 years and eagerly look for new and different ways of using it. I have a dairy allergy and first came upon tofu as an excellent dairy and egg substitute for baking. I had high hopes for this new cookbook "This Can't Be Tofu" because all the reveiws I read here praised it. Sadly I was very disappointed. While the small section on the various types and firmnesses of tofu is helpful, and the soup section is the best and most healthful section in the book, the majority of the recipes call for deep or shallow frying, and a few for sauteing. There are recipes for smoothies but they also call for high fat and sugar additions. Tofu is a high fat food, and while I'm not a fat fanatic, I find there are more pleasing ways to use the product than frying it and adding lots of salt through the various fish and soy sauces. For an ocassional meal rather than daily meal planning, it might add variety, but there are better tofu cookbooks out there. For example, Louise Hagler's "Tofu Cookery" is a good classic guide for a wide variety of uses, especially for newcomers to tofu. Through using Hagler's book I found I didn't need to add all the oil she usually calls for in her recipes - you can substitute water or other appropriate liquids, or most times nothing at all.

I bought this book after reading a review in the San Francisco Chronicle. It is fabulous! I've made 4 of the recipes and I've only had it for a week. Each one has been so good I just can't wait to try the next one. I'm vegetarian but my husband isn't and I've always wanted to use tofu but had no idea how to make it appealing to him. So far he's loved everything I've made from this book and so have I. Thank you Deborah.

This book is a great primer for cooking tofu. She starts with a clear and informative section on different types of tofu, as well as basic preparations that highlight techniques, not ingredients: seared, braised, broiled, grilled, etc. The rest of the book has very yummy tofu recipies for mostly main course preparations. It is the first tofu cookbook I've come across with original (as in not traditional asian dishes like ma po tofu) recipes that are both extremely tasty and, for the most part, do not try to "hide" the tofu in cheesecakes and the like.

As for the comment that this book requires a lot of unusual ingredients, I think that depends on the cook. If your regular repertoire leans toward traditional american food, yes you will need many new ingredients. However, if you cook asian food with any regularity, you should already have soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, etc. on hand, and be fairly comfortable using fresh ingredients like ginger and scallions. If your tastes lean toward Southeast asian cuisine, you'll probably have things like coconut milk and curry pastes. If your tastes lean toward Indian cuisine, try the dishes that use cardamon, coriander, and turmeric. If your tastes lean toward Chinese, you won't need much beyond the basic list I mentioned above (except for fresh ingredients, of course).

Regarding the comment on the preponderance of dishes that fry the tofu, I only find this to be the case in the section on appetizers. It was not prevalent in the sections on soups, salads/sandwiches, curries/braises, pasta/noodles. The sections on stir-fries/sautes does call for browing the tofu in a bit of oil at the beginning in quite a few dishes, but this is very similar to browning the meat in a regular stir-fry.

Bottom line: the recipes in this book taste great. For that reason, it gets five stars in my kitchen.

"This can't be tofu!" were the words that jumped out of my mouth after many first-hand chomps of tofu testing. "This? This can't be tofu." I was there when Deborah built this book and the recipes therein. I'm her husband.

Loved the curried dishes and the mushroom tortellini, especially. Always liked tofu but had few ideas on the variety of ways to give it flavors and textures. My approach was to burn it, i.e. grill it with a little barbeque sauce. Well, Deborah made the tofu go a little further down South. And I know, being from Little Rock.

When Deborah is on the road, I can effortless empty the refrigerator of stockpiles of tofu from our local market.

Also liked it that Deborah wrote a few non-vegetarian recipes such as "Tofu with Cumin Laced Spinach and Shrimp," and one of Deborah's favorites (she orders it whenever it appears on a menu) i.e. cod, as in "Stir-fried Spicy Tofu and Cod with Scallions and Peanuts."

As her husband I'm probably biased, but I really like these recipes. A lot.

I have to respond to some of the negative criticism of Deborah Madison's tofu book.

Too many ingredients? Well, let's look at "Bachelor Tofu Sandwiches": tofu, onion, mushrooms, worcestershire sauce and bread. Yes, there are elaborate recipes too, but nobody with access to oriental markets should be put off. She does use mushroom soy sauce, but she uses it often.

Too much fried stuff? I hate fried food, and it's trivial to avoid it in using this book: most of her "fried" concoctions involve browning tofu in a nonstick pan filmed lightly with oil.

This book is singlehandedly responsible for giving tofu a weekly place at my table, and I have two thirteen-year-olds to speak for the results. DM has one of the most wonderful palates in the USA and a graceful and eloquent way of talking about food. This book is a tiny classic.

I was bothered by the title of this book, which implied strongly that tofu is a thing that must be disguised or improved, requiring the proverbial "spoonful of sugar" to be palatable. I bought it anyway because flipping though the recipes looked very interesting, and I reasoned that if the author really felt that way about tofu, she probably wouldn't be writing a tofu cookbook... right?

I've had the cookbook for a few months and probably made about a dozen different recipes so far. Every one has been a hit with me and with my family. Two of the soups have have already become family standards. My favorite is one with Thai red curry, coconut milk and butternut squash. I'm a big fan of Thai food and could make this soup every week if I weren't committed to variety.

I haven't tried any of the sauces, but not a single recipe I've tried has been a dud.

I have had this book for a couple of years and I cook from it frequently. It is true that many of the recipes call for frying, but the tofu is usually pan-fried in a very small quantity of oil. There are many Asian-inspired recipes, which doesn't bother me, because I find them all to be delicious. The recipe for Asian stock is great and it lends a lot of flavor to the dishes that use it. The szechuan tofu and green beans (which uses the mushroom soy sauce that one reviewer mentioned) is worth the small investment in a bottle of such an odd ingredient and the recipe is so good that I have gone through a big bottle of mushroom soy sauce using it only to make that one dish! And while it is true that some of the recipes are not vegetarian or vegan, I just want to add that I have been a vegetarian for a long time and I own dozens of vegetarian cookbooks, and for some reason the best ones are written by people who are not vegetarian!

I was new to the world of tofu, but not to cooking, when I picked up this book about a month ago; I now use tofu, and this book, every day. The best recipe in the collection, in my opinion, is the Bachelor Sandwich, but there are many others. For the reviewer who deplores the lack of "crunchy" tofu--it's there. Look again. I appreciate the author's extra suggestions and comments, too--they enhance each recipe.

I have enjoyed tofu for about ten years. There are a number of cookbooks at my favorite health food store. This one is fabulous! Tofu has a lot to offer. As a soy product it offers protein with out the salt, fat, cholesterol, and additives that are now inherrent in some many other protein foods. Tofu also is considered a good choice for women, especially those over 40 years of age. By combining tofu and yams, some people believe, women can avoid some of the problems that accompany menopause. Therefore, it is a good idea for even young women to develop the habit of including these food items in their daily diet. Japanese women, who do not typically take estrogen, do not experience the same problems that western women have with menopause. These recipes are so wonderful that even those who turn their noses up at tofu would be pleasantly surprised. I have served a number of these recipes to family and friends and they had no idea they were eating tofu until I told them! And my son has always thought it was disgusting! Bon appetite'!