Curdled Soymilk Anyone?

I know disgusting right, well actually this curdled soymilk I speak of is Tofu!  This soybean curd is made by curdling hot soymilk with a coagulant, such as nigari or other acids like vinegar or lemon juice, and then pressing it into blocks.  Although I thoroughly enjoy eating tofu, I have never been very successful in cooking it myself.  My tofu dishes typically turn out bland or mushy, so in my quest to reduce our meat consumption I thought I would give it another try.  This time I decided that the tofu should be marinated in order to really get a good flavor to it.  The longer you can marinate the tofu the better as it will absorb more of the flavors, I ended up marinating it for 2 days.  Here is the marinate I used:

Ingredients:
1/4 cup tamari
1 tbsp sesame oil

2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp ginger, minced

 
Mix all ingredients into a shallow bowl until thoroughly combined.  Slice one container of firm tofu into pieces and place into bowl.  Flip and rotate pieces of tofu periodically to make sure that they are getting all of the marinade.  To cook the tofu I heated a cast iron skillet with a tsp of peanut oil then placed the pieces in, to ensure a good golden crust I left the pieces untouched for about 4 minutes and then flipped and repeated for the other side.  I then added in a bunch of chopped broccoli and the remaining marinade, covered and cooked until tender.

Not only did this tofu get the seal of approval from me but Wren loved it as well!  Yay for finally conquering boring tofu!