Meat Free Monday - crispy smoked tofu with carrot salad

Here it is again - meat-free Monday. I don't know if it is becoming an actual thing, but still, I am running with it.

I'd come across a block of smoked tofu, and since I love smoked foods, I thought that would be a good foundation for the meal.

Crisp smoked tofu steaks with chilli sauce (serves 2)

1 block smoked tofu
Cornflour for dusting
Vegetable oil
2 shallots, finely diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp chopped red chilli (or less. Or more)
1 tsp grated ginger
2 tbs light soy sauce

Cut the tofu into 4 slices. Dust each side well with a little cornflour and fry until crisp in shallow, hot oil. Remove the tofu and drain on kitchen paper. Pour off most of the oil and in the small amount remaining, fry the shallots, garlic, chilli and ginger until soft and fragrant. Deglaze with the soy sauce. Add the tofu steaks back to the sauce and reheat for a minute.
I served it with Nigella's carrot & peanut salad - made with pistachios because that was what we had. The sweet, cool carrots were a very good accompaniment to the hot, spicy, salty, smoky tofu. The different levels of crunchiness from the crisp surface of tofu, carrot and pistachio also work well - very successful!