Choosing this one favourite dish from an amazing vegetarian and vegan menu in “Pod Norenami” restaurant is really a challenge. Every dish I ate there was so delicious! Little dumplings with colorful dips, tofu in sweet-sour way. Miso with aubergine, hooott Thai curry. Crunchy tempura, incredible salads and marinades. I can make an endless list of delicious dishes I tried there. But despite the plethora of tasty things I manage to choose this one, favourite.
Ladies and Gentleman I introduce you to Szechuan tofu! The combination of flavours is just perfect for me! INCREDIBLE! Food mindfuck! So there is nothing weird in my idea of making this on my own. Who doesn’t want to eat such a divine dish at home! I started to analyse the ingredients: peanuts, garlic, onion, oblivious hot pepper and Szechuan pepper.
But the most intriguing and difficult thing was the sauce. How to make it to be so gooey and with it amazing clarity!
I have to admit still I have no idea how to make such a sauce. I manage to make it a little bit gooey using corn starch, but clarity is still a mystery.
Still, my Szechuan tofu is delicious, hot and spicy! And the flavour of freshly ground Szechuan pepper spreading all over the house is just wonderful! Definitely my dish gives a little food mindfuck, too.
Ingredients:
4 servings
300g firm tofu
1 green pepper (160g)
1 hot pepper like peperoni
1 onion (100g)
100g peanuts
2 tbsp minced ginger
3-4 garlic cloves
½ cup vegetable stock
2 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp ground Szechuan pepper
1/3 cup vegetable stock + 3 tbsp corn starch
Tofu maridane:
1 tbsp white miso paste
½ cup vegetable stock
1 tbsp semi dry red wine
Szechuan sauce:
3 tbsp rice vinegar
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
4 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp semi dry red wine
soy sauce for seasoning
1. Drian the tofu. Wrap it in paper towels and put something heavy on it, like a jar. This method helps to drain extra water from inside of tofu. Cut tofu in cubes. Mix it with all the tofu marinade ingredients (miso paste, vegetable stock and red wine). Bake tofu in marinade for 10-12 minutes in 180C (360F). Rember to make single layer of tofu cubes.
2. Mince garlic, hot pepper and giner. Dice green pepper and chop onion. Heat the canola oil on the frying pan. Throw garlic, hot pepper and gigger and cook for about 2-3 minutes. Add green pepper, onion and ½ cup vegetable stock. Cook until the veggies are soft.
3. Mix all the ingredients for Szechuan sauce. Add tofu with marinade and peanuts to cooked veggies. Pour Szechuan sauce and ground Szechuan pepper (before girding it’s worth to roast the pepper to get more aroma). Cook on the medium heat for a while.
4. Mix corn starch with 1/3 cup vegetable stock and add this mixture to the dish. Cook until the suace begins to get thick and glue-like. Remember that after a while the sauce will be even more thicker, so you can add few tbsp of vegetable stock extra, if you want.
Serve hot with jasmine rice.
Enjoy!
Nutrition info:
Whole dish:
1444 calories
protein: 68 g; fat: 91 g; carbohydrates: 95 g, dietary fibre: 18 g;
iron: 12 mg; calcium: 825 mg; zinc: 6 mg
1 serving:
361 calories
protein: 17 g; fat: 22 g; carbohydrates: 25 g, dietary fibre: 4,4 g;
iron: 3 mg; calcium: 206 mg; zinc: 1,5 mg
