Sweet and Sour Crispy Tofu

Sweet and Sour Crispy Tofu

Overview

I learned this dish from my idol, Master Qu Hao, on CCTV 2’s daily food program last year. But I made some improvements. He used southern tofu, and I used northern tofu. He used white vinegar to make the sauce, but I didn't. He added fruit and other particles, but I didn't think it was troublesome, so I didn't add them. I may try it next time. Again, you don’t have to be too rigid when it comes to cooking! In fact, I think when learning to cook online, it is not necessary to follow the script for every step. Maybe a certain step and a certain action will bring us a lot of inspiration, and we can turn other people's dishes into our own private dishes.

Tags

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Pour sweet potato flour into the plate, the amount can be slightly more. Here again, we solemnly introduce the homemade sweet potato flour made by Xinglong’s mother-in-law in Anyue, Sichuan. It must be sweet potato flour. If you use other corn flour, you can also use it, but the effect will not be good. By the way, there may be small particles in the sweet potato flour, so you need to crush it beforehand, otherwise it will easily collapse during frying. The end of the rolling pin I used was pressed directly into the plate

    Sweet and Sour Crispy Tofu step 1

  2. Gently roll the cut rectangular thick slices of tofu in the sweet potato flour with your hands to ensure that all sides are covered with sweet potato flour. However, be sure not to press the flour hard on the tofu with your hands. Just let it stick to itself. If you feel that the flour is not enough, you can roll the tofu in the flour a few more times

    Sweet and Sour Crispy Tofu step 2

  3. Follow step 2 and coat all the tofu pieces with sweet potato starch and set aside

    Sweet and Sour Crispy Tofu step 3

  4. Heat the pan with cold oil, the amount can be slightly more than usual for cooking. Here again, we solemnly launch Sichuan Anyue Xinglong’s mother-in-law’s homemade pure natural rapeseed oil, hehe! Remember, this dish is pan-fried, not deep-fried, so it doesn’t use much oil. The oil must be burned well, because rapeseed oil is fragrant, but if it is not burned properly, it will smell like lettuce oil. I usually heat the oil, take the pot away from the stove and wait for the oil to cool down, then return it to the stove for about half a minute, so that there is no smell of lettuce oil and it is not easy to burn things.

    Sweet and Sour Crispy Tofu step 4

  5. Turn down the heat a little, gently pick up the powdered tofu pieces piece by piece with your hands and place them into the pan to fry lightly against the oil surface. Here, I would like to share with you a little tip, that is, when we are frying something or a dish that is sautéed, do not move it immediately after putting it in the pot. It will easily come off and stick to the pot, because the protein has not solidified just after it is put in the pot. The correct way is to put it in the pot and wait a few seconds before moving it

    Sweet and Sour Crispy Tofu step 5

  6. Put all the tofu into the pot, and then turn the heat to medium, not the highest, so that it will simmer quickly. Once one side has solidified and hardened into a hard shell, you can use chopsticks to hold both sides of the tofu and flip it over. It only takes a minute or two, and then fry the other side until the golden tofu has a hard shell and bulges a little. The heat is very important when frying, medium heat, be sure to turn it over, use chopsticks to turn it several times, be careful not to burn it at all times. If you can't finish frying it once, just fry it twice. If the surface of the tofu feels hard when touched with chopsticks, it's ok.

    Sweet and Sour Crispy Tofu step 6

  7. After all the tofu is fried and placed on the plate, turn up the heat and heat the oil. Immediately pour in the tofu that has been fried once, stir-fry for a few seconds and serve immediately. The first time you fry the tofu is to make the tofu mature and color, and the second time to fry it is to make it more crispy and tender.

    Sweet and Sour Crispy Tofu step 7

  8. Pour tomato sauce and white sugar into the bowl. The ratio is 2:1. You can add white vinegar, but I didn't. Add a little bit of sweet potato starch. A little bit is enough. Twist a little bit with your fingertips. More is bad. Finally add a little water and mix thoroughly with chopsticks. In fact, there is no fixed pattern for the preparation of this sweet and sour juice. You can adjust the proportion according to your preference. Again, there’s no need to be too rigid when it comes to making delicious food!

    Sweet and Sour Crispy Tofu step 8

  9. Pour the oil for frying the tofu into a bowl that has been wiped dry. Just use the oil at the bottom of the pot. Pour in the sweet and sour sauce. The heat is medium to low. When frying the sauce, use a spoon to stir constantly. When it starts to bubble, pour some of the hot oil you just poured out. This will make the juice brighter and better looking. You can turn off the heat and use the remaining heat to stir the juice evenly.

    Sweet and Sour Crispy Tofu step 9

  10. Finally, just pour the stir-fried sweet and sour sauce on the tofu. You can pour it as you like or make it more beautiful. You’re done, let’s eat! Be sure to eat it while it's hot to enjoy tofu that's crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.

    Sweet and Sour Crispy Tofu step 10