Friday, July 23, 2010

General Tso Tofu


Last weekend, I had to get to the top shelf of my pantry for a bag of coffee, and found the remains of a chili pepper pack I was sent by Marx Foods. I had ground up the chipotles, ancho and New Mexico chilies for various dishes. However, I still had the Japones chilies to use. I read that they're best in spicy Asian dishes, so General Tso's Chicken came to mind (my husband's favorite Asian dish). I decided to compromise our taste, and make General Tso's Tofu, using both the Tofu Xpress and Chilie peppers. 
I looked up a few recipes to get a general idea, but ended up just winging it when I made the dish. I served it with wheat berries because I had some prepared in the freezer, and it was much less effort than making brown rice. I also just steamed some mixed vegetables on the side.
This dish was very spicy and flavorful, and only took about 15 minutes to prepare! 

General Tso's Tofu

1 block of extra firm tofu, pressed and cubed in 1" pieces
1 tsp. sesame oil
1 1/2 c. prepared brown rice or farro/wheat berries
1 head of broccoli, cut in florets
2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced thinly
1/2 lb. snow peas, trimmed
1 15 oz. can of baby corn in segments

sauce:
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 scallion, minced
1/4 c. tamari
1 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp. sherry
1 tsp. sesame oil
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1 tbsp. sriracha
1 heaping tsp. cornstarch.
10 Japones chilies

Place tofu in a press, set aside for 5 minutes.
Heat up rice, place in bowl.
Place vegetables in a steamer over 1" of water, bring to a boil and steam vegetables for 5-8 minutes, until tender but not mushy.
In a small dish, whisk together all sauce ingredients except chilies.
Heat a wok over medium-high.
Add 1 tsp. sesame oil and tofu, toss to sear the outside. 
Whisk sauce mixture again (make sure to get cornstarch if it settles to the bottom), pour over tofu, toss in chilies.
Use a spatula to gently mix tofu and sauce, bring to a simmer and turn to low heat.
Simmer for 2 minutes, until mixture is translucent and no longer milky.
Spoon vegetables into bowl, spoon tofu and sauce mixture over top.
Serve immediately.

4 comments:

Sophie @ yumventures said...

This is such a great idea to health-up such a popular dish! MY bf would love it!

Kelly said...

Sounds delicious. I am pretty sure I have some hanging around as well that I have been meaning to cook with. That tofu press definitely sounds interesting. My method is usually to freeze it first then let it thaw and press it out. Seems to work pretty well.

Joanne said...

General Tso's tofu was one of my favorite Chinese food dishes when I still ate out constantly. I love the idea of being able to recreate it at home...in a non-deep fried way of course!

mypixieblog said...

I am totally trying this--looks amazing :) Thanks for a great recipe!