23 March, 2020
Crispy Fried Tofu
This Crispy Fried Tofu recipe pairs well with a multitude of sauces. My favorite is General Tso sauce but you could just as easily serve it up with some teriyaki sauce, or sweet and sour sauce, or BBQ sauce, or ketchup! (I won’t judge.) That’s the wonderful thing about tofu it’s such a blank slate. The secret to the firmest tofu is freezing it! Tofu is about 86 percent water; when you freeze it, the ice crystals expand, pushing apart the protein network. When thawed, the water drains away, leaving the tofu with a spongy consistency.
Ingredients:
- 2 blocks of extra firm tofu, previously frozen
- Cornstarch
- Chinese five spice power (optional)
- Vegetable oil for frying
I use mostly vegetable oil, but I like to add just a splash of extra virgin olive oil too for some extra flavor. Totally optional.
Instructions:
Drain the tofu well, pat dry, and cut into cubes. Place about 1 cup or so of the cornstarch into a medium sized bowl and mix in the Chinese five spice powder if using (about 1 tsp). Meanwhile heat about 1 inch of oil in a large pot over medium high heat. Once the oil is hot, roll tofu cubes in cornstarch mixture and carefully drop into the hot oil. To work quickly and keep the mess to a minimum I have a hand for wet and a hand for dry. I keep the cutting board with the tofu to my left and the wok to my right with the cornstarch in front of me. Then using my left hand I move a piece of tofu to the cornstarch, then using my right hand I roll the cube in the cornstarch and drop in oil. Like an assembly line. (When its all done you will still undoubtedly have cornstarch all over your kitchen.)
Don’t over crowd the pan, for my big wok that I’m using here I can get about half a block worth of tofu cubes per batch in there comfortably. I like to use chopsticks to carefully turn the tofu to crisp all sides. The spider strainer is great for transferring them to your paper towel lined plate once crisp. Again, it’s quick because we are merely crisping the cornstarch coating, the tofu doesn’t actually need to be cooked. So as soon as the pan is full I start turning with chopsticks, then switch to spider strainer to transfer to paper towel plate. And repeat for remaining batches. Once it’s done I drain the oil into a glass measuring cup and put it aside to cool, so I can use the wok again for tossing the tofu in some sauce.
My favorite is General Tso style so I toss in some pre-cooked steam-in-bag frozen broccoli and a jar of General Tso sauce and serve it over plain white rice.
