Monday 20 July 2009

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!

13 comments:

Rachel said...

I've never tried smoked tofu. It sounds heavenly, though, in your treatment. Looks like I'll have to head to the Asian markets in the big city soon!

kat said...

Looks like a really tasty meal

Alicia Foodycat said...

Rachel - it is very tasty stuff. Almost as good as bacon.

Kat - thanks!

Teresa Cordero Cordell said...

I really like your carrot salad. Made with pistachios? Sounds amazing. I'll have to be more adventurous and try that soon. Thanks love.

Jude said...

Hmmm. I have yet to be convinced about tofu. The meal looks a bit orange . . .

Alicia Foodycat said...

Teresa - I think the salad would be better with the original peanuts.

Jude - I see what you mean. But I had no greens in!

maybelle's mom said...

Oh, i love smoked tofu--though I have been smoking it myself because I don't know that I have seen it in our Asian markets. I am enjoying your meat free mondays hope there are more.

Deb in Hawaii said...

Whoops--forgot about "Meat Free Monday" and featured hot dogs on my post today--nice! ;-) Both the tofu and carrot salad look and sound good!

hungryandfrozen said...

I actually...love tofu. It's really nice. Love the idea of pairing it with the carrot salad of Nigella's, which is a favourite of mine...

Alicia Foodycat said...

MM - you'll have to explain how to smoke it yourself!

Deb - oh well, there isn't REALLY any meat in a hotdog!

Laura - tofu can be horrible, but I love the firm stuff.

mscrankypants said...

Yum, I haven't tried smoked tofu for some reason ... you give me too many ideas.

I was making the folk at work laugh today by saying I'm going to audition for the next series of Master Chef and my dream cook book is going to be 100 new recipes for lentils. They thought I wasn't serious :-).

NKP said...

I have never heard of smoked tofu either, I'll keep an eye out for it.

Alicia Foodycat said...

Cranky - you should do it! Lentils and reindeer cupcakes.

Natashya - hope you find some!

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