Burmese tofu three ways
Man do I have a special treat for you! A quick and simple base recipe for homemade Burmese tofu and then, not one, not two, but THREE different ways to use it! This is Burmese tofu three ways.
“Burmese tofu? What the heck is that!?” you might ask. Well, despite it’s name, it’s not made from soybeans, but from chickpeas! Or, chickpea flour to be precise. The color you see in the photo above is due to a small amount of turmeric. Other than chickpea flour and turmeric, the only other ingredients are water, and a little vegetable stock – that’s it! You simply mix them all together, boil the mixture until it thickens and wait until it cools. Then you have your Burmese tofu base. You can eat it just like that, cut up into cubes, or….
… you could make yourself an “egg” salad sandwich! I mean, would you take a look at that beauty! It’s enough to make me get up and go make myself another one right now! If you thought using normal, soybean tofu makes a good egg substitute – you ain’t seen nothin’ yet! This is without a doubt the most realistic, vegan egg-like approximation I have ever tasted! And this first of the Burmese tofu three ways is also soooo easy to make. All you do is mash some of the tofu with a fork, add a little egg-free mayo, mustard, black salt (and maybe a little paprika if you are up for it), spread that goodness on your favorite bread and pile it high with fixin’s like avocado, tomato, red onion… It’s makes the perfect lunchtime sandwich.
But maybe you are having some friends around and you want to impress them with a cool new snack? In that case, you are gonna wanna go with #2 – Beer-battered, double-coated, cheezey-tastin’ Burmese tofu nuggets! These little babies are like a cross between mozzarella sticks and chicken nuggets, minus all the unnecessary animal stuff. If you’ve seen my jalapeño popper recipe, you’ll know that I like to double, or even triple coat these kinds of things. Of course, you don’t have to, but the extra effort pays dividends, believe you me. So what’s in the main coating – a mix of panko breadcrumbs and nutritional yeast. Fry these up, serve them with your favorite dipping sauce, and your friends will forever put you in charge of making party snacks!
The last version, is just about as easy as the first, but it has a sense of style and class that I think makes it perfect as part of sophisticated Asian buffet, or why not a special dinner for two. You can serve it cold like this, as more of a salad type of appetizer, or you can warm it up so it gets all soft and gooey and serve it with rice or noodles as part of a main course. The garlic, ginger and soy all play nicely together in this most traditional of Burmese tofu variants.
So, no matter what you want to do:
- stop with the basic recipe
- make yourself a sandwich
- treat some friends to a beer-battered snack
- make a more traditional Mayanmar dish, with Asian flavors…
Burmese tofu three ways has got you covered!
Ingredients
-
Burmese tofu base
- 2 cups (4.8 dl) – Chickpea flour
- 4 cups (9.6 dl) – water, divided
- 1 tsp (5 ml) – vegetable bouillon powder
- ½ tsp (2.5 ml) – turmeric ”Egg” salad
- 8 oz (225 g) – Burmese tofu base
- ¼ cup (.6 dl) – egg-free mayonnaise
- ½ tsp (2.5 ml) – yellow mustard
- ¼ tsp (1.25 ml) – kala namak, aka black salt Nuggets
- 8 oz (225 g) – Burmese tofu base
- ⅔ cup (ca 1.6 dl) – vegan-friendly beer
- ½ cup (1.2 dl) – flour
- ½ cup (1.2) – breadcrumbs (optional)
- ¼ cup (.6 dl) – nutritional yeast
- ¼ cup (.6 dl) – panko breadcrumbs
- oil for frying Myanmar salad
- 8 oz (225 g) – Burmese tofu base
- 2 Tbsps (30 ml) - peanut oil
- 1 clove – garlic, thinly sliced
- 1 Tbsp (15 ml) – tamari/soy sauce
- ½ inch (1+ cm) - fresh ginger, grated
- 1 tsp (5 ml) – lemon juice
- a pinch – red chili flakes
Instructions
Burmese tofu base- Pour half the water, 2cups (4.8 dl), and the rest of the ingredients into a bowl and whisk/blend well.
- Pour the other 2 cups (4.8 dl) water into a medium-large pot and bring to a boil.
- Slowly pour the flour mixture in to the boiling water while stirring.
- Lower the heat to medium, and continuously stir for 5-7 minutes, until the mixture gets very thick.
- Pour the mixture into a ca 6 x 10 inch (15x25 cm) ovenproof form lined with parchment paper.
- Allow to cool to room temperature before chilling in refrigerator for at least one hour.
- Mash the tofu with a fork, but not too much, until you get the desired consistency.
- Add the rest of the ingredients to the tofu and mix well.
- Serve on your favorite bread along with some extras, like tomatoes, avocado and red onion.
- Slice a chunk of tofu in half, horizontally, so that you get two pieces, each half as thick/high as your original slab. Now, cut these into nugget-sized pieces.
- Prepare 3 bowls: In the first bowl, mix the flour and beer to form a batter. Pour the normal breadcrumbs into the second. And, in the third, blend the nutritional yeast and panko (I double-coated these, first with normal breadcrumbs, and then with panko, but that is optional.)
- Dip each piece of tofu in the batter, then the normal breadcrumbs, the batter again, and then the panko/nutritional yeast mix.
- Heat some cooking oil in a small pot, and when it is hot enough, deep fry each piece of tofu until you get a lovely, golden-brown nugget.
- Serve with your favorite dipping sauce.
- Slice the tofu into short, noodle-shaped pieces.
- Heat the oil in a small frying pan, and fry the garlic until it gets just a little color. Remove the pan from the heat. Remove the garlic and chop finely.
- Mix all the ingredients, including the garlic-infused oil (but not the tofu) in small bowl.
- Pour the dressing over the tofu pieces and turn gently to blend, coating all the pieces.
- Serve on a bed of lettuce with some fried/roasted red peppers and some spring onions.
Lee September 22, 2016 (10:37 am)
Man, you DO have a treat for us! I’ve been wanting this (so simple!) recipe for a long time, for for some reason I didn’t know it was called Burmese tofu or that is was JUST those ingredients! I always though some kind of mystical binding ingredient was necessary :p thank you so much for this!
Chris September 22, 2016 (4:03 pm)
So happy to be of service 🙂 And yeah, it really is THAT easy. The base is somewhat bland, so I prefer to use it to make other things. Right now, I’m so totally addicted on the “egg” salad sandwich!
Lee September 23, 2016 (10:14 am)
Do you think it could be possible to “spice up” the base recipe? Like with some smoked paprika or herbs? Or is it better to just do that after?
Chris September 23, 2016 (10:40 am)
Oh yeah, for sure! Chickpea flour has a special flavor, and at the same time this base is very neutral. So cumin, paprika, thyme/basil… whatever, should all work well!
Anna September 27, 2016 (3:17 pm)
Nor vegan or vegetarian am I, but I would love to try this. The ‘egg sandwich’ looks delish.
Chris September 27, 2016 (6:07 pm)
Hi Anna and thanks for writing. That’s great to hear. You should definitely try it out – it’s really easy to make. 🙂
Nandar June 29, 2019 (8:07 am)
Thanks for good recipe. I am from Myanmar. I learned it to make different styles for tofu based.