General Tso's Tofu Stir-Fry

Next up, General Tso's stir-fry. It's hugely popular in Chinese restaurants in the States and a great dinner fix if sweet and sour is your go-to. Now, I'm going to be honest with you, tofu is not an ingredient that I use too often, but I have come up with the easiest way of getting it really crispy and that has been an absolute game-changer. It works perfectly in this recipe, but if you're cooking it in general, this is a great little tip. So, we want to squeeze out as much of the moisture out of a block of tofu like this. So, to do that, I have a little bit of kitchen paper and we're just going to wrap the tofu in the kitchen paper. And then, it's just a little bit of brute force. You've got to get in there and squeeze it until as much of that liquid is out of it. This will ensure that you get really, really crispy tofu that goes gorgeously golden brown. It completely changes the texture, so it's well worth the effort. This is looking pretty good. This is actually quite a firm piece of tofu. And once you've taken out most of that moisture, it's time to slice it up. So, we're going to cut this into cubes. Little bite-sized pieces is what you're after. Now, my little method is twofold. Firstly, it's to squeeze out the moisture. And secondly, it's to add a touch of cornflour. And the cornflour helps give you this gorgeous, crispy exterior when you fry it off in the pan. So, straight into a bowl, a teaspoon or so of cornflour. And then, just give it a good mix up. As soon as it's nicely coated, set it aside. Now, it's time for the sauce. This is the secret to creating that classic General Tso sauce, which is sticky, it's sweet, it's a little bit sour at the same time. And for that, we're going to need a teaspoon of sesame oil, three tablespoons of rice wine vinegar, three tablespoons of low-sodium soy sauce, a heapspoonful of hoisin sauce. That goes straight in. And for a little bit of sweetness, some brown sugar. This makes all the difference, so please don't skimp on this. That balance of sweetness and saltiness is essential to a lot of recipes like this, so it's well worth adding in here. Give it a good whisk up. Right, that is our sauce all good to go. We've got our tofu and the cornflour. Let's talk aromatics. One of my favourite combination of ingredients is Thai red chillies, ginger and garlic, and some broccoli for good measure. But, it's the holy trinity of chilli, ginger and garlic that are going to give us serious aromatics here. So, I want to go a hefty amount of all, and let's get chopping. Slice the garlic, chilli and ginger into thin strips. These are the perfect size for stir-fries like this. They cook in no time and have the right kind of bite if you just time it right. Then take a whole head of broccoli and cut off the florets into bite-sized chunks. Right, broccoli's sorted. Pan's coming up to temperature. Get some oil in the pan, and really what you're looking for is a screaming hot pan, because this is all going to come together really quickly, and the minute you start adding ingredients in there, the temperature drops in the pan, so if you don't start with one that's nice and hot, it's just curtains. It's going to sweat off your ingredients, and you're not going to get that golden colour. So, once that pan is nice and hot, it's time to get in there. We're looking for these little blocks to turn golden and crispy on all sides. This whole dish is actually vegan, so it's a really great one if you have friends coming around for dinner, because it suits everyone, it tastes fantastic, and it tastes quite meaty too, so nobody's missing out. But if you're using it for stir-fries like this, try and get your hands on the firm stuff, because it's that that will give you that crispy texture, and will hold its shape when you stir-fry it alongside some other ingredients. This is what you're after. Glorious, golden goodness, and beautiful pieces of tofu that have a bit of texture. So I'm going to just transfer these out with a slotted spoon. You can hear the rattle of them as they hit the plate, and that's how you know you've got crispy tofu. We're going to lose a little bit of that oil, so just pop that straight out, leaving about a tablespoon or so of it, and while it's still hot and it's smoking and we've got all that action, straight in with some garlic, chilli and ginger. Give it a quick stir, and then you get a bit of chilli up your nose, and you know you're cooking. This is where it needs to be. Straight in with the broccoli, give that a good toss, get your broccoli involved, and just to start off the steaming action, I'm going to add in a little splash of water. Give it a good shuffle, and to this we're going to get in there with that magic sauce that we prepared, and give it a little shuffle. The sugar in that sauce is going to help reduce it, and it's going to give you that really glossy, gorgeous, General Tso classic sauce. To maximise the heat without letting it overcook, pop the lid on for a tick to capture all that steam. This is where you need to be, that sauce should be viscous and bubbling, and your broccoli should be cooked through, and at that point it's now time to get in there with the tofu. And literally everything is done at this point, so just give it a good toss through, get those tofu pieces completely coated in that sticky sauce. Right, dinner is ready to serve. Nice bed of rice, glorious tofu, and the great thing is, it just soaks up all that sweet sticky sauce. And look at that. The kind of food you want to cook, it's all the things you expect from a General Tso dish, but in tofu form. Seriously spicy, seriously sticky, and that tofu just shines using that very simple method. I'm off to eat the rest.