Mango Ginger Tofu

Serves 4 – 6

You can prepare this in several ways, it is fabulous as a grilling marinade. Here I give you conventional oven instructions. It’s tropical, warm, a little spicy and a little sweet. The marinade will fill your kitchen with the most amazing scent while the tofu is cooking. This amount will feed 4 to 6 if accompanied by some jasmine rice.

Ingredients
For the marinade
3 cloves garlic
1 jalepeno, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup fresh ginger, roughly chopped
2 teaspoons peanut oil or veg oil
2 large mangos, roughly chopped (note: you will need one more mango when cooking the tofu, see below)
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 cup white cooking wine (or vegetable broth)
fresh black pepper to taste
dash of salt
1/4 teaspoon allspice
2 tablespoon rice vinegar (use apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar if you dont have rice)
juice of two limes
1 cup orange juice

For the tofu
2 blocks tofu extra firm tofu, drained and pressed
1 mango, sliced in long thin slices
1 red pepper, seeded and cut in long thin slices

Directions
The marinade
In a medium sauce pan, heat the oil, add garlic, ginger and jalepeno, saute on medium heat 7 minutes, being careful not to burn the garlic. Add 2 chopped mangos and saute 5 minutes

Add pure maple syrup and wine, cover and simmer 35 minutes; Uncover and simmer 5 more minutes.

Add orange juice, vinegar, lime, black pepper, allspice and salt; Add mixture to blender, puree until smooth.

The tofu
Cut tofu blocks into 8 slabs each. Place tofu in marinade in a sealable plastic bag or tupperware. Marinate in the fridge for an hour and up to overnight.

Preheat oven to 375

Reserve about half of the marinate. Lay marinated tofu in a single layer in baking pan. Cook for 20 minutes. Flip tofu over and add more marinade. Dredge peppers and sliced mangos in marinade and add them to pan. Cook another 15 minutes.

Heat up remaining marinade in a sauce pan and put in a bowl on the table (or floor, where ever you’re eating) so guests (or room mates, or who ever is eating) can pour it over the tofu. Serve over jasmine rice, with a steamed vegetable, such as asparagus or broccoli.