Pan-Fried Crispy Tofu Bowl

Pan-Fried Crispy Tofu bowl is a simple and a lip-smacking meal made using tofu and bursting with flavours from the different sauce.

Servings:

Vegetables of your choice for Serving -I have used green peas, Broccoli and Yellow Pepper
Cooked Steam Rice for serving
1 tablespoon Cashews (Optional)
1 tablespoon sesame seeds for garnish
Green onions for garnish

Remove the excess water from Tofu, by keeping a heavy object above it and placing the tofu block in a colander. The excess liquid will drain out.
500 gram Tofu
Cut the tofu pieces into small cubes.
In a large bowl add in 3 tablespoon Soya sauce, and 3 tablespoon Vinegar.
3 tbsp Vinegar, 3 tbsp Soya Sauce
Add in the tofu pieces and coat it well with the sauce. Be gentle or else the tofu pieces will break.
Let it marinate in the fridge for 15-20 minutes. The longer the better, in that case, tofu will absorb more liquid.
After 15-20 minutes remove the tofu from the fridge.

Sprinkle 4 tablespoon cornflour on it and coat it well. I do this step in a ziplock. I add the cornflour and tofu and mix it well.
4 tbsp Cornflour
Then keep this zip lock bag in the freezer for 15-20 minutes.
After 15 minutes, in a heavy bottom pan add in the oil.
1 tbsp oil

Once hot, add in crushed garlic and ginger and saute for a few seconds.
2 small (1 tbsp) garlic cloves crushed/grated, 1 half inch (½ tbsp) ginger crushed/grated
Now add in the cornflour coated tofu and let it pan-fry for 10-15 minutes turning in between.
This helps the tofu get crunchier and the flour gets cooked. One can skip this step if you are not looking for a crunchier texture, but be sure to cook the tofu later along with the sauce or else you will have raw flour taste.
After 15-20 minutes switch off.

In a small bowl, add in the sauce ingredients i.e. 3tbsp soya sauce, 1 tablespoon vinegar, 3 tablespoon sriracha, 1 teaspoon paprika, 3 tablespoon sugar, ¼ cup water and 1 tablespoon cornflour.
3 tbsp Vinegar, 1 tbsp Vinegar, 3 tbsp Sriracha, 1 tsp Paprika, 3 tbsp Sugar, 1 tbsp Cornflour/Corn Starch, ¼ cup Water, 3 tbsp Soya sauce
Mix everything and keep it ready.
Heat a heavy bottom pan on medium heat.
Once hot add the prepared sauce mixture and let it cook stirring continuously.
Once the sauce starts thickening, add in the tofu pieces and coat evenly.
Let it cook for 4-5 minutes until evenly coated.
One can adjust the consistency of the sauce by adding more water if required.
Switch off and serve.

I added some steamed rice and topped it up with the pan-fried tofu.
Cooked Steam Rice for serving
In the remaining sauce, I simply sauteed the vegetables one by one and added to the bowl.
Vegetables of your choice for Serving
One can serve it as is, but coating the veggies with the sauces adds a nice flavour.
Garnish with green onions, cashews and sesame seeds.
1 tbsp Cashews, 1 tbsp sesame seeds for garnish, Green onions for garnish
Serve it warm.

Standard US Size cups are used
Sriracha sauce can be replaced with Red chilli sauce Soya sauce can be replaced with Tamari sauce