By Ezra
So in a fit of culinary inspiration triggered by Bill Buford's Heat, I decided to give up my cheap non-stick saute pans for some serious, stainless steel cookware. Those were heady, exciting days, imagining the blisteringly quick convection of heat, the perfectly browned food, and the end of carcinogenic teflon flakes. They have not come to pass.
It's important to know that I primarily cook tofu, frying it in a tablespoon or two of olive oil till it develops a bit of delicious crust. My expectation was I'd be able to do this on slightly lower heat with the new pans, retaining more moisture in the soy itself. That's, uh, not happened. Instead, the steel cookware simply tears off the crisping, outer layer of the tofu, resulting in a dirty pan and soft, white cubes, rather than the beautifully browned chunks I'd been anticipating. I've tried superheating the oil, but that just makes the whole contraption catch on fire, albeit only for a moment or so (on the other hand, this seems to happen often in restaurants, so maybe it's to be expected)?
What am I doing wrong? How can I brown my tofu in my good pans, or is soy too wimpy and delicate for real cookware? And if so, what's the actual benefit of steel cookware? Better chefs than I seem to favor it, but why?
