Crispy salt and pepper tofu with a cucumber and chilli dipping sauce is a moreish little nibble to have with drinks, or serve it up with sticky rice and steamed greens for a simple but yummy dinner.
½cupfinely chopped cucumber, a little less than ¼ of a telegraph cucumber
½a red chilli, finely chopped
1 ½tablespoonwhite sugar, or alternative sweetener of your choice
Pinch of salt
For the tofu:
One pack of firm tofu, 275g, I used Tonzu organic tofu
¼cupcornflour, (cornstarch)
2teaspoonblack peppercorns
1teaspoonrock salt
¼cupcooking oil for frying, I used rice bran oil
Instructions
For the dipping sauce:
Stir sugar and salt into the vinegar until dissolved, then add the cucumber and chilli and stir to combine.
Set aside until ready to serve.
For the tofu:
If you have time, it's always a good idea to press and drain your tofu. I do this by removing it from the package, wrapping it in a few layers of paper towel and arranging it between two dinner plates with something heavy on top. Even 10 minutes of draining time will be of benefit, and ideally up to an hour if you have the time. The more moisture you can drain off the tofu, the better the texture will be (and in recipes where the tofu is marinated it will suck up the flavours better). Once drained, cut the tofu into even sized cubes.
If you have one, use a mortar and pestle to roughly grind up the salt and pepper. If you don't have one then freshly ground will be fine.
Put the salt and pepper mix and cornflour into a plastic bag and give them a bit of a shake to combine.
Add tofu cubes to the bag and give them a good shake to thoroughly coat them in the cornflour.
Add ¼ cup cooking oil to a frypan and bring to a moderate heat. Once the oil is hot, add the tofu and shallow fry (working in batches if necessary). Keep turning the tofu as it cooks, until it's evenly golden brown on all sides.
Carefully remove the tofu to drain on paper towels, season with a little more salt, then serve immediately while still hot.
Serves 2-4.
Notes
Nutrition information estimated.Preparation time does not include draining time for the tofu.