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I press out liquid, marinate, and air fry or skillet toast tofu and mung dal, but it’s sticky in the skillet! Any suggestions?

Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Eric Wynkoop - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

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This event was on February 4, 2025

Join Chef Eric Wynkoop in his virtual office as he welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to Ask Anything – from cooking techniques to course-specific questions, to how to turn your cooking passion into profit or simply hearing the perspective of a professional chef, Chef Eric is ready to answer them all.

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Question

JULIE SHAW

I press out liquid, marinate, and air fry or skillet toast tofu and mung dal, but it’s sticky in the skillet! Any suggestions?

Answer

So if we're talking about, uh, tofu steaks, for example, uh, you know, here I would consider some oil. Um, tofu does have a tendency to stick when that pan gets hot. That's just the, the nature of, uh, of that item. And, and beans generally do. And so, so al would fall into this category as well. Um, I would recommend trying out a non-stick pan. I've had great success, um, cooking, uh, tofu steaks, um, you know, as well as bean patties in a non-stick pan or some sort of a non-stick, uh, surface. You can sometimes find these larger, um, uh, electric skillets. Uh, a lot of times they're marketed for breakfast cookery, but they work very well for this, uh, sort of a food item as well. So, you know, I hope you'll consider those two things, a non-stick surface, little bit of oil, you know, maybe one or the other or both will give you the results, I think that you're looking for.

Eric Wynkoop

Director of Culinary Instruction

Eric Wynkoop previously served as a founding faculty member at The International Culinary School, instructor in anthropology at Portland State University, and Senior Instructor at the Le Cordon Bleu program at Western Culinary Institute, in Portland, Oregon. He holds Master’s Degrees in postsecondary education and cultural anthropology, as well as credentials in Ayurveda wellness and cooking. Eric has spent more than twenty years in the food and beverage industry. His experiences include banquet management, catering, personal chef, winery cellar hand, educator, textbook contributor, consultant, and ethnographer. He also brings food and cultural insight from nearly a decade of residence in Japan, studies in Mexico, and research in India as a Fulbright Scholar. After graduating from the University of Oregon with a dual degree in Japanese and Asian Studies, he went on to receive his formal culinary training at Western Culinary Institute, in Portland, Oregon. Eric’s role with Rouxbe is central to enhancing the student experience through quality course content and new course development at Rouxbe. Eric is also the lead instructor in Rouxbe courses, a role which he has enjoyed since 2016.