EASY & DELICIOUS
My favorite is deep fried anything whether it’s seafood, spring rolls and tofu. I love going to my favorite Chinese restaurant for a sit down meal or a takeout dish especially after a gig. The most popular choice of dish as an appetizer or main course is Deep Fried Tofu with Spicy Salt. The crunchy and soft center of the tofu with spices just melts in my mouth! You can also use frozen prawns and squid (frozen cut up squid) for this recipe.
Tofu is also known as bean curd and one of the oldest forms of food dating back to the Han Dynasty in China dating 2,000 years ago. Tofu is low on calories with large amounts of protein. It is the perfect staple food for vegetarians.
In this recipe, I used All Spice instead of Chinese 5-Spice. You can find Chinese 5-Spice in Asian stores. But I used All Spice because it’s something that I already have in my pantry.
You can use a deep fryer to fry the tofu. I don’t have a deep fryer so I used a deep Teflon pan to avoid oil spills. Make sure that the oil is piping hot at 350°C before dropping the tofu in oil. The point is to fry the tofu quickly so it’s crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.
The results are amazing! Enjoy a Buddha feast.
Ingredients:
- 1 package of Firm Tofu (Water Drained)
- 2 Jalapeno Peppers or 1 Bird’s Eye Chili
- 10 cloves Garlic, minced
- 1 small Onion, minced
- 1 ½ tsp Spicy Salt (see ingredients below)
- 1 cup Cooking Oil
Spicy Salt Ingredients:
- 1 ½ tsp Fine Salt
- 1 tsp White Sugar
- 1 tsp Ground Pepper
- ½ tsp All Spice or 1 tsp Chinese 5-Spice
- 1 tsp Ground Ginger
Directions:
- Mix all Spicy Salt ingredients in a bowl. (Save the rest in a tight lid container and store for future use.)
- Cut up tofu as illustrated in the photo. Set aside in a bowl. Slice peppers and set aside.
- Heat the oil in pan at 350°C. Lay the tofu in oil carefully using a spatula. Fry the tofu pieces until golden brown. Place the tofu pieces in a plate with paper towel to absorb excess oil.
- Remove excess oil from pan and leave about 3 tbsp. of oil for the next step. Add garlic and onion and sauté’ until golden brown. Add challis and sauté for a minute or two until challis sweat a bit. Add tofu pieces and spicy salt seasoning and mix well. Remove from heat.
- Serve immediately as an appetizer, as a side dish with Chow Mein noodles or with a bowl of steam rice as a full meal.
