I like tofu. It always takes me back to my childhood days of living in Chinatown. Just below our old apartment in Manila is a tofu shop. It's popular then and it's popular now. I do believe that it's still there. My grandma (and sometimes my aunts) and I would walk in and I immediately feel warm. The shop was always busy and the interiors very 60's style with its miniature cream, brown and black tiles like tiny jelly cubes. The shiny metal tables and red leather chairs. But oh the smell. I can't describe it properly but it just smelled like...soy beans...cooked soy beans.My favorite food there was not tofu however, it was the banana fritters. These are wrapped in a thin layer of rice paper wrapper, coated in sugar then deep fried. The exterior would be very very crunchy but gooey at the same time and the inside was just piping hot and sweet. It was delicious.
The popular food there were the soy milk (we sometimes crave for it and we would go to the shop in the early mornings to get a few bottles for the family), tofu curd (plain or sweetened with cane syrup and tapioca pearls) and of course, tofu either firm or silken. It also came in fried form. My grandma always got the firm one in its square and 1 inch thickness. But what she made out of it was the magical part. She would slice these up and lightly fry them in oil then braise them in a light soy sauce with tomatoes, minced pork and spring onions. Everyone loves them. I remember eating this with a bowl of hot steamed rice or porridge.
Since coming here to Australia I very seldom cooked anything Asian or Chinese. It's because I think that I will never get the same taste as what my grandmother makes, so why bother? But sometimes when I do miss it, I just make do. Like today. I got a block of tofu and stared at it for 3 months - it's time to cook it.
If you have decided to follow this recipe, I don't think you'll be disappointed. Granted it won't be the tastiest dish you've ever had but I'm happy to report that it's very satisfying and tasty.
Ingredients:
1 block of firm tofu
1/2 cup light soy sauce2 tbsps mirin
2 tbsps red wine vinegar
canola oil
all purpose flour about 1/3 cup
250g of broccoli, cut into small florets
200g green beans, trimmed and sliced in half
2 medium sized tomatoes, its seeds squeezed out and cut into quarters
1/2 inch of fresh ginger, grated
1/2 cup chicken, beef or vegetable stock (or just water)
more canola oil
2 tbsps chilli garlic paste
1 tbsps honey
1/2 cup warm water or stock
Steps:
Prepare the tofu: Place a piece of paper towel on a plate. Make sure that the towel is enough to wrap the tofu around. Place the tofu on top of the paper towel. Wrap the tofu and place 2 unopened cans of anything (like canned tomatoes) on top. Place back in the fridge for 2-4 hours. This step will squeeze out the water in the tofu so that it can absorb the marinade and not splatter when cooked in hot oil
Marinade the tofu: Take the tofu out of the paper towel wrapper and slice to whatever shape you want. Combine the light soy sauce, mirin and red wine vinegar in a container or shallow plate that can hold all the tofu slices and plate the sliced tofu in. Cover and place in the fridge. After 30 minutes, turn the tofu slices on the opposite side to soak up the marinade. After another 30 minutes, time to fish out the tofu slices and place on paper towels to drain off the extra marinade. Set aside. There will be marinade left in the container, don't worry, we'll use this later so DON'T THROW OUT THE MARINADE.
Fry the tofu. On a clean shallow plate, place the all purpose flour. Prepare a frying pan and heat up the canola oil to medium high heat. While waiting for the oil to heat up, lightly dredge the tofu slices with the flour. Set aside. Once the oil is ready, fry the tofu slices on both sides until golden brown in batches. Set aside and drain on a cooling rack. While the last batch of tofu is frying....
Prepare the sauce: Using the remaining marinade in the container, add the honey and the chilli paste. Put this in the microwave and heat for 1 minute. Once the sauce is heated up, scoop 2 tbsps of the remaining all purpose flour and stir. You have made a slurry! Set aside.
Time to Stir-Fry: Now that all the tofu has been cooked, it's time to cook the veggies. In the same frying pan, heat up the canola oil and place all the veggies (broccoli, green beans and tomatoes) into it. There will be a strong and very violent hissing sound because the pan is very hot. Stir around to get the veggies coated with the oil. Do this for 2 minutes. Next, add the stock/water. Let this bubble away for 2-3 minutes until the water/stock has evaporated. Now, add the tofu and combine with the veggies. Do this slowly, don't rush. At this point, all your veggies should be cooked through. If not, make sure that they are before the next step. Once everything looks nice and shiny, pour in the slurry and lower the heat down to medium low. Let this bubble away for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Keep an eye on it - the sauce will thicken very fast. Once it has come to a very thick and saucy consistency (imagine the consistency of a thick sweet and sour sauce), it's time to serve up!
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