About the Recipe
It's no secret that tofu is a great non-meat source of protein but it suffers from something of an image problem - bland, tasteless etc. I like to think this dish would convert a lot of sceptics - not only is it very tasty, you can also make it in under 20 minutes.
Ingredients
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
Preparation
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 vegetable 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.