Crispy Sesame Tofu

Usually during the week I eat at home. Besides the fact that I don’t want to waste money and I can eat healthier meals at home, I am usually disappointed with the take out in my area. You see, although my area boasts great air quality, has fast public transit and has a multitude of dentists within walking distance, it lacks in one crucial (of course subjective) area, restaurants! My students and I (I teach Pilates) are always complaining about the quality of the restaurants in our area. Anyhow, I won’t bore you with this first world problem. Let’s just say it helped me create this recipe for you, for us.

This dish is not as spicy as it looks, only if you bite into the dried chile! I wanted to create a dish that would keep the crispiness of the fried tofu and be different than let’s say an orange chicken or kung pao. If you don’t eat soy, you can easily swap out the tofu for cauliflower or even broccoli. Serve with rice or steamed veggies and you have a different and fun meal. Bon appetit!

Ingredients

1 block of firm tofu, drained and water pressed out, cut into cubes

1 tbsp each of minced shallots, jalapeño, and green onion

2 tbsp of bread crumbs

2 cloves of garlic chopped fine

1/4 tsp of ginger grated

1 tsp of tamari sauce (can use soy sauce)

1 tbsp of chili oil

handful of chile de arbol dried - optional

1-2 tbsp of sesame oil

cornstarch

neutral oil for frying

1 tbsp of sesame seeds

green onion for garnish

Heat up a medium saucepan with 1/4 cup of neutral oil on low/medium heat. Dip cubed tofu in cornstarch. Make sure you have an even coating of cornstarch on each side of tofu, set aside. Put minced jalapeño, shallots, garlic, green onion, sesame seeds, ginger, into a small bowl - mix to combine. Fry tofu 7-8 at a time. Do not crowd the pan. It took me 3-4 minutes per batch. You can tell when the tofu is done because it is no longer white and has achieved a light golden color. Place tofu on paper towels to absorb excess oil. When you are done frying tofu, pour out some oil. You should have 2 tablespoons of oil in the pan. You can add some of the sesame oil now. Add in shallot and sesame mixture, please be careful to not overcook. Your oil is pretty hot, it will only take 30 seconds or so to cook, add in the breadcrumbs, tamari and chili oil. Stir quickly with wooden spoon or chopsticks. Add in dried chilies and tofu. Cook until dried chiles soften and absorb some of the oil and tofu reheats. Serve immediately with scallion garnish and rice. Let me know if the comments below if you make it and what you think!