Marination-Inspired Miso Tofu

One of our very favorite food purveyors in the world is Marination. We've been loyal fans since Big Blue started visiting our neighborhood four years ago and we are even more enthusiastic now that they have a bricks and mortar location with a full bar and a view. In fact, I've got something of a reputation at all Marination locations because I always bring my own Pyrex dish to convey tasty tacos and sliders from point A to point B. For example, a friend of ours went to the Capitol Hill location (without me but with a Pyrex) and the counter person said, "Do you know Laurel?" I am quite proud of this, though I wish that bringing one's own dishes in order to avoid disposable containers were so commonplace that one person wouldn't be known by name for it. Our doula for our second daughter won a huge place in our hearts for walking from the hospital to Marination to get us tacos after my delivery. I don't think any food has ever tasted so good.

My husband's family knows of and supports our Marination obsession, and it is to Evan's aunt that I owe this recipe. She saw in the paper Marination's recipe for their miso chicken tacos and was kind enough to scan it and send it to me. Of course, I immediately adapted it! The biggest change was I added ginger. The tacos at Marination are miso ginger chicken, so not sure why the paper's version doesn't call for it. Other than that, I just reduced the size of the recipe and used it on tofu rather than chicken. I marinated two blocks of tofu for several hours (mainly because of when I had time to make the marinade, but at least a 30-minute soak would be good) and then Evan grilled it. Delicious and loved by all. We are excited to have another great tofu recipe to go into the rotation with Orange Tofu and Tofu with Savory Caramel Sauce. We used this amount of marinade for two blocks of tofu but I don't think I'd bother to halve it for one block; I'd just use the extra for sauce.

Edited January 2017 to increase the miso and rice vinegar and reduce the soy sauce and sugar.

INGREDIENTS
1 or 2 blocks tofu, each cut lengthwise into four slabs and patted dry
2 TBSP brown miso
2 TBSP rice vinegar
1 TBSP olive oil
1 TBSP garlic, minced or put through a press
1 TBSP grated ginger
3 TBSP sugar
3 TBSP soy sauce (we didn't use low sodium soy sauce and it was fine even though our mirin is salty)
1/4 c. mirin

DIRECTIONS
  1. Find a dish large enough to lay all the slabs of tofu flat but very close together. A 9x13 Pyrex dish isn't quite big enough for two blocks of tofu but I made do. Better a slightly too-small dish than a too-large one so tofu is well-coated with marinade
  2. Mix all ingredients except tofu in a small bowl and whisk well to combine and dissolve the sugar
  3. Spread about half of the marinade in the bottom of the dish and nestle the tofu slabs on top
  4. Pour the rest of the marinade over the tofu
  5. Let the tofu marinade for at least 30 minutes, turning once if desired
  6. Grill on medium-high heat on each side until you get nice grill marks. Alternatively, you could pan-fry, broil or bake
  7. Serve with rice and vegetables or make into tacos (which will never be quite as good as the ones at Marination)

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