Braised tofu with pork, garlic, and pickled chili
A quick delicious tofu dish that goes very well with rice.
Ingredients
- 1 block soft tofu (approximately 400 grams)
- 2.5 oz piece of pork belly or shoulder (can substitute ground pork)
- 3 scallions
- 3-4 Tbsp chopped garlic (8 cloves)
- 1.5 Tbsp chopped pickled red thai bird chili (about 8 chilies)
- 2 Tbsp chopped ginger (about a 1-inch piece of ginger)
- 1/4 tsp white pepper powder
- corn starch, as needed
- vegetable oil, as needed
Sauce
- 2.5 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp Chinkiang vinegar AKA black vinegar
- 1.5 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 7 Tbsp water
Slurry
- 1 Tbsp corn starch
- 3 Tbsp water
Instructions
Slurry
- Stir 1 Tbsp corn starch with 3 Tbsp water and set aside.
Sauce
- Combine all the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and stir until sugar dissolves. Set aside
Braised Tofu
- Slice the block of tofu in half lengthwise and then into 14 square pieces
- Place the tofu squares on paper towels and cover with a few paper towels to absorb excess moisture. Set tofu aside on the paper towels while preparing the rest of the ingredients.
- Thinly slice the scallions and separate the whites from the greens. You should yield approximately 1/3 cup of each. Set whites and greens aside separately.
- Thinly slice the pork.
- Chop the slices of pork to yield a course "ground pork". Set pork aside
- Make sure you have all of your ingredients cut and measured before beginning to cook.
- Heat a large flat saute pan or wok over medium heat and add a thin layer of oil. Fill a bowl with about a cup of corn starch and keep it near the pan that is warming up.
- When the oil is hot, carefully dunk two pieces of the tofu into the corn starch, flipping them and coating both sides with starch. Be careful as the tofu is very delicate and will want to break.
- Carefully tap the two pieces of tofu together to knock off excess starch.
- Carefully add the tofu to the hot pan. Repeat this with the rest of the tofu. Cook over medium heat for about 3-4 minutes or until the first side gets golden brown and crisp. Adjust heat as necessary to crisp up the tofu without burning it.
- Carefully flip tofu and cook on the other side until golden brown and crispy. Add more oil to pan if necessary.
- Remove the tofu from the pan and place on paper towels.
- Wipe out the pan with a paper towel and add a bit of fresh oil. Heat over medium to medium-high heat. Add the ground pork to the pan.
- Break up the pork and cook for about one minute or until cooked through.
- Add the garlic, ginger, pickled chilies and scallion whites (the scallion greens will be used for garnish later).
- Cook for about one minute while stirring. Garlic and ginger should soften but not get too much color. If pan is dry, add a touch more oil.
- Add the sauce to the pan along with the white pepper.
- After adding sauce, immediately add the cooked tofu to the pan.
- This is now the most crucial point in the cooking process. Simmer the tofu in the sauce for about 30 seconds. If the liquid is reducing too quickly, add a few additional spoonfuls of water to maintain the amount of sauce in the pan. While the tofu is simmering, use a spoon to stir the slurry as the starch will likely have settled at the bottom of the container. Slowly add about 1/4 of the slurry to the pan and gently stir the sauce around to let the slurry mix into the sauce and cook. The sauce should thicken slightly. If the liquid is evaporating too quickly, feel free to keep adding spoonfuls of water to the pan. Add more slurry, little by little, to the sauce until it coats the tofu nicely. You will probably only need to use about half of the slurry. Keep adjusting the sauce by adding slurry and/or water until you get a nice thick sauce that clings to the tofu.
- Carefully flip the tofu in order to coat both sides with sauce. Make final adjustments of the consistency of the sauce. Season with additional soy sauce, vinegar, or sugar if necessary.
- Place tofu on a plate and garnish with the scallion greens. Serve with steamed rice.
