Life-changing, Sticky, Smoky, Spicy Tofu

Tofu is a delicious, magical, healthy and versatile ingredient – but I still hear complaints from people who can’t seem to get along with it. The most frequent feedback I hear is that the texture seems “damp and unpleasant”, or that the flavour is “bland and sour”.

Although the phrase: “There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing” makes me want to punch a wall, there is some truth in it. The same peppy, judgy approach can be applied to tofu: There is no such thing as bad tofu, just bad cooking. Texture too damp for you? Press the water out and deep fry it. Bland flavour? Add some smoky, salty, chilli notes to your dish. Sour? Douse it in honey.

When I visited Singapore a couple of years ago, my friend Joyce took me to a fantastic hawker market, where she introduced me to a delicious, deep-fried tofu dish – Tauhu Goreng. The tofu was crispy on the outside and yielding in the centre. It was slathered in a creamy, spicy, sauce, but the richness of the dish was neatly offset by some shredded carrot and cucumber – delivering both crunch and freshness. It was magnificent and I have since recreated it in my own kitchen.

On another occasion I tried a wonderful Korean dish, Tteokkochi. where boiled and fried rice cakes are lacquered with a sauce that is thick with honey and rich with gojuchang (a fermented rice paste spiked with chilli powder).

Inspired by the flavours and textures of these two amazing dishes, I decided to make a strange hybrid, to pair the freshness and crispiness of Tauhu Goreng, with the sweet, smoky and spicy flavours of Tteokkochi. I am going to make a bold boast – that this dish could convert tofu-doubters to tofu-lovers.

Gojuchang is available in several UK chain supermarkets, but tends to come in tiny, stingy, expensive pots. I buy it in larger quantities from the Korean or Chinese supermarket. If you want to make this dish gluten free, use a gluten free gojuchang and replace the soy sauce with tamari. If you want to make the dish vegan, replace the honey with a non-bee-related syrup.

With a little julienned cucumber on top, for freshness and crunch

I pack firm tofu, drained, patted dry with kitchen paper and cut into slices 1 cm thick

1 large carrot, grated

1/3 cucumber, julienned

1 finely chopped white onion

Small bunch of chives, snipped

1 thumb of ginger, peeled and finely chopped

2 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped

2 tbsp sesame seeds

2 tbsp honey

2 tsp gojuchang

2 tbsp light soy sauce or tamari

1 tbsp sesame oil

50ml water

A little rice vinegar

Place the sesame seeds into a dry frying pan and cook over a low heat until lightly toasted. Place into a bowl and set aside. Cover the bottom of the frying pan with vegetable oil and heat. When the oil is very hot (check by putting a small piece of tofu in, it should hiss and spit a little), place the tofu in the pan and fry, turning once until golden brown on both sides. Remove the tofu to a plate lined with some kitchen paper. Put some more kitchen paper on top of the tofu to remove any excess oil.

Decant the cooking oil from the frying pan into a small saucepan and then return one tablespoon to the frying pan. In a bowl mix the honey, soy sauce, gojuchang, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, onion and carrot together with the water. Stir well until combined.

Reheat the oil in the frying pan and add the contents of the bowl. Cook over a low heat for a few minutes -the kitchen should start to smell really delicious. Add the fried tofu pieces and stew in the sauce for a couple of minutes before turning over. Turn off the heat and scatter with the chives and sesame seeds.

To serve, place the tofu slices on a plate and cover with the sauce. Arrange a pile of cucumber on top of the dish and dot with a few drops of rice vinegar. Serve with plain, boiled rice

Judgmental Bibimbap

 

I discovered Korean food whilst heavily pregnant with Number One Daughter. I was living in Beijing and had spent the previous months of my pregnancy being harangued by well-meaning strangers, keen to give me advice. A middle-aged lady snatched an ice cream from my hands in a Harbin branch of McDonalds; a woman on a flower stall chided me for my lack of tights, on a 30C humid August day. I was cautioned against raw food, cold food, spicy food, and told to eat walnuts for the baby’s brain.

The hospital where I was booked to deliver was close to a row of shops, including a large Korean restaurant. One day, after a consultation, I ventured in and scoured the menu. A couple nearby were eating from a large iron bowl and the scent wafting over was completely delicious. I summoned the waitress and asked her what this dish was.

“Bibimbap”, she answered, crossly.

“What is bibimbap?” I asked. She looked me with contempt.

“Rice. Vegetables. Egg. But spicy -no good for you”, she replied, looking down at my large belly.

Blessed as I am with an excellent constitution for chilli, even in late pregnancy -I rather fancied a bit of spice. “I’ll have one please” I said and she sniffed loudly as she went to the kitchen.

Shortly, the judgmental waitress returned – with an incredibly hot iron bowl. Inside were vegetables arranged in colourful groups on top of perfectly steamed rice. She cracked an egg into the centre of the dish and  told me to stir the contents. The bowl hissed pungent chilli steam, the egg cooked in the heat of the rice as the different vegetables combined to make a colourful and delicious mixture. I tucked in enthusiastically; the waitress looked at me as if I were jacking up in my groin. The bibimbap was delicious and I have adored it ever since.

My good friend and colleague David Hartung is married to a Korean lady and the couple very kindly shared their own bibimbap recipe with me -which I recreated. It doesn’t require the heavy cast iron bowl of my Beijing restaurant, nor does it involve cracking raw eggs into the rice,  but it is utterly wonderful – thank you David and Eunyoung.

If you made the Tteokkochi recipe I posted a while ago, you should have some delicious gojuchang (smoky chilli sauce) kicking about in your fridge -and this dish is the perfect way to use it up. You can switch the vegetables about -I like to include a sea vegetable and some pickles to add extra seasoning and umami to the dish -but you can be flexible. Just cook each vegetable separately. It’s time consuming -but really worth it.

Non-judgy bibimbap – serves four

350g jasmine rice

2 carrots, julienned

2 cups frozen spinach

2 courgettes, halved lengthways then sliced

1 onion, cut into thin half moons

1 handful samphire (sea asparagus), cleaned

2 handfuls button mushrooms, thinly sliced

100g bean curd, cut into thin slices

2 handfuls beansprouts

1 tablespoon fermented bamboo shoot (any Chinese pickled vegetables will do -but these are delicious)

Sesame oil

1/2 cup sesame seeds, toasted in a dry frying pan

A little crushed garlic

4 eggs

Gojuchang

Cook the jasmine rice until perfectly fluffy. Divide between four serving bowls. While the rice is cooking prepare each vegetable separately.

Fry the onions in a frying pan in a little oil and salt.

Blanch the spinach and mix with a teaspoon of crushed garlic, soy sauce and sesame oil

Fry the carrots in oil and salt

Fry the courgettes in oil, garlic and salt

Fry the beansprouts in oil and salt

Boil the samphire until cooked

Fry the mushrooms in oil, garlic and salt

Fry the tofu in oil. Season with soy sauce.

Arrange the cooked vegetables, together with the pickled bamboo and tofu, like spokes of a wheel on top of the rice. It should look a bit like a colourful dartboard. In the centre of each bowl, place a heaped teaspoon (more if you like) of gojuchang.

Fry four eggs sunny side up and place in the centre of each dish. Sprinkle with the lightly toasted sesame seeds and drizzle with plenty of sesame oil. For a vegan version, leave out the eggs -it is still full of flavour from the gojuchang and sesame.

Mix the rice, vegetables and egg together with a spoon -and enjoy.