I know plenty of people who find tofu terrifying. It’s this weird, beige, jiggly block of something that smells vaguely like stale water — what are you supposed to do with it? I’ll tell you what you’re not supposed to do: eat it plain, straight from the packaging. I know a few traumatized folks who have done just that, the fools. They’re now convinced that tofu is a culinary abomination, but dear reader, this does not have to be your fate.
So what are you supposed to do? I propose that you fry it. And then dust it in a delectable concoction of salt, peppers, and ginger powder so you end up with a tasty, fluffy nugget of goodness. It will make a tofu believer out of you and it will take less than 30 minutes to put together.
But why tofu at all, instead of chicken or pork, or anything else? Because tofu is an excellent vehicle for showcasing rather subtle flavors instead of overpowering them with its own tofu-ness, is super fast to cook, is vegetarian-friendly in case you’re ever going meatless, and the texture just sings with this particular dish — slightly crisp on the outside, and pillowy on the inside. Oh yes.
There are two potentially unusual pantry item called for in this, though: white pepper powder and five-spice powder. All respectable Asian markets will carry these in their spice aisle, but it may be more difficult to find it at your typical mass grocery store, though I know the McCormick brand sells them both.
White pepper has a much more intense pepperiness than black pepper, and the taste hits you in the back of the throat with smokiness and mustardiness. A little bit of this stuff goes a long way, and it’s one of my staples when cooking Chinese food. Five-spice is a combination of cinnamon, star anise, fennel, ginger, and cloves.
That said, if you plan to do a fair share of Asian cooking, get yourself a bottle of both. If not, substitute in fresh-ground peppercorn medley instead (the bottles with black, white, and red peppercorns) for the white pepper. It won’t be the exact same flavor, but it’ll be closer than just using ground black pepper. For the five spice, substitute in equal parts cinnamon, cloves, and ginger.
I usually serve this with white Jasmine rice and sauteed watercress or radish sprouts, but you can also just eat the little tofu cubes like popcorn. I won’t judge you.
Salt & Pepper Tofu
Yield: Serves 1 very hungry person, or 2 moderately hungry people
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
For the tofu:
- 8 oz firm or extra-firm tofu
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- pinch of salt
- few grinds of black pepper
Seasoning mix:
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp white pepper powder
- 1/2 tsp five-spice powder
Optional:
- Sauteed spicy greens, like watercress or radish sprouts
- Jasmine rice
Drain your tofu and pat it dry with a paper towel. The drier, the better.
Cut it into bite-sized cubes (I get 16 cubes out of 8 ounces of tofu), and dust it all with the salt, pepper, and cornstarch.
Get a saucepan of oil heating up over medium-low heat. You want there to be enough oil to completely submerge each tofu cube. Once the oil gets hot, toss in a tiny piece of tofu to test it. If it starts frying right away and making some noise, you’re good to go! However, make sure it doesn’t get so hot that it smokes.
Cook enough pieces at a time to where you don’t crowd the tofu. You may need to fry these in two to three batches. Fry each batch for about 5 minutes, or until they’re pale golden brown.
Quickly drain them on a paper towel and dust them with a hefty pinch of the seasoning mix while they’re still hot out of the oil. Though we’re draining the excess oil, coating them while the residual oil is still hot on the tofu will get the seasoning to stick to it better.
Repeat until all the tofu is fried and dusted. Put them all in a bowl and give it all another hefty dust and toss it around to coat all of the tofu. You will likely not use all of the seasoning mix, and that’s okay! Just save the rest for when you inevitably make this again because it is that addictive.
Serve with Jasmine rice and sauteed greens.
2 Comments
Looks and sounds delicious! We’ve contemplated a deep fryer solely for tofu because it’s just so dang good! I’ll have to try your method and spice mix out sometime soon, we are always looking for new ways to do tofu.
July 18, 2014 at 2:53 amKaty — Yes, this is one of the only tofu dishes I will bother cooking at home! And no deep dryer is even needed. :) I just use a saucepan and pour about an inch of oil in it. Yum (the tofu, not the inch of oil, haha)!
July 20, 2014 at 10:05 pm