Sweet & sour fried Tofu is a variant on the ubiquitous Chinese recipe, sweet and sour pork. Using tofu makes the dish more healthy and, of course, it's vegetarian and vegan friendly too. You could simply put firm tofu into this dish but I think using fried tofu has two things going for it - first, you enhance the flavour of the tofu and give it a great "crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside" texture. Second, you avoid the possible/probable break up of the pieces of tofu when you mix it into the dish.
If you've ever eaten a sweet and sour dish in a restaurant, you might have winced at the sweetness and lack of any sour tang. I like to think my sweet and sour sauce gets the balance right (but, of course, you can be the judge of that!) - it's a mixture of sugar, ketchup, vinegar and soy sauce. To get the crunchy texture of the tofu, I do two things - I wrap the tofu in kitchen paper for 10 - 15 mins to absorb some of the water content. Then, I give each piece of tofu a coating of potato flour before I fry. You can use corn flour at this stage as a substitute although I always think that potato flour give a better result in terms of texture and crunch. That apart, this is an easy meal to prepare. I serve it as a main course with a bowl of rice but it suits noodles very well too!
If you'd like to give this recipe a whirl, you can find the written recipe for Sweet & Sour fried Tofu below. The youtube tutorial is here Sweet & Sour fried Tofu or just scroll to the bottom of the page.
Happy cooking! Kurumi XXXX.
Sweet & Sour fried Tofu
ingredients:
(makes 2 servings)
200g / 7 oz firm tofu
some kitchen paper
3-4 tbsp of potato flour (or corn flour) to coat the tofu
1 tsp grated ginger or 1 slice of fresh ginger
1 clove garlic
1/2 onion
3 baby corn
1/4-1/3 green bell pepper (depending on the size)
1/4-1/3 red bell pepper (depending on the size)
2 slices canned or fresh pineapple
some oil for shallow frying
for the sweet & sour sauce:
2 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp tomato ketchup
2 tbsp vinegar
2 tsp soy sauce
60ml / 2 fl oz pineapple juice
1/2 tbsp of potato flour (or corn flour)
some vegetable oil for shallow frying
how to:
wrap the tofu in a sheet of kitchen paper to absorb some of the water while you prepare the other ingredients
mince the garlic
halve the baby corn lengthways and then cut in half
cut the bell peppers into bite sized pieces
cut the onion into 4 quarters
to make sweet & sour sauce:
combine the sugar, tomato ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce, pineapple juice and 1/2 tbsp of potato flour (or corn flour) in a bowl and mix well. set aside
cut the pineapple slices into bite sized pieces
now unwrap your tofu. cut the block into bite sized pieces and coat each piece in potato flour
put about 1cm of veg oil in a frying pan and heat to 170 C / 350F
shallow fry the coated tofu. (when you add the tofu to the pan, try to keep the pieces apart so that they don't stick together. when the tofu is light golden brown, turn over and fry again until the whole pieces are golden
heat 2 tbsp of vegetable oil in a second frying pan. stir fry the garlic, ginger and vegetables for 2 mins
stir in the sweet & sour sauce. add the fried tofu & pineapple and stir again
your Sweet and Sour fried Tofu is now ready. serve with some white rice.
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