Sweet and Sour Tofu

This lovely sweet and sour crispy tofu with veggies is paying all the work off. Inside the delicious sauce, the amazing crispy shell with a faint aroma of bean curd is extremely appealing.

Sweet and sour taste has two explanations in Chinese. One is “酸甜”, literally means “sweet and sour” and the other one is “糖醋”, which means sugar and vinegar. We think the taste is a combined and balanced taste from all kinds of seasonings and condiments. To achieve the authentic sweet and sour sauce, we also have different approaches too. In Chinese cuisine, we name the dishes using vinegar (either black vinegar or rice vinegar) and sugar as the main seasonings “糖醋” . Take sweet and sour ribs for example, vinegar and sugar are mainly for the taste and the red-color is bought by the fried sugar. So they are usually in dark red. However when ketchup is added in the sauce, we love to name this group of dish “酸甜 or 茄汁”. Ketchup builds a very basic and solid sweet and sour taste, with only a small a rice vinegar and sugar to highlight or balance the taste. Those dishes usually have bright orange color.

In generally, sweet and sour sauce can be applied on all kinds of meat including pork, chicken, ribs and fish. Tofu is a great substitute for those who are on a vegan or vegetarian diet. And the two match great with each other too.

Cut firm tofu into small cubes. Place around 1/2 cup of oil in a small pan. Place the tofu cubes in. Start the fire and fry them ( by two batches if necessary). During the process, stir them from time to time so they can be heated evenly.

When they are golden brown, transfer out.

Remove extra oil and leave only around 1 tablespoon in the pan, fry garlic, scallion white and ginger over slow fire until aromatic.

Pour the sweet and sour sauce mix in, heat to boil.

Return the tofu cubes and continue heating over slow fire until the sauce is sticky to the tofu cubes.

My favorite way is to serve it with steamed rice.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Sweet and Sour Tofu

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

25 mins

This lovely sweet and sour crispy tofu is paying all the work off. It tastes lightly sweet and sour but within a slightly crispy taste on the near surface of the tofu pieces.

Author: Elaine

Ingredients

One box of firm tofu (around 300g)
½ cup of cooking oil for frying
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1 scallion white, minced
1 scallion green part, minced for garnishing

Sweet and Sour Sauce

2 tbsp. ketchup
6 tbsp. water
½ tbsp. corn starch
½ tbsp. sugar
½ tbsp. light soy sauce
½ tbsp. vinegar

Instructions

Firstly, mix all the ingredients for sweet and sour sauce together.
Cut firm tofu into small cubes. Place around ½ cup of oil in a small pan. Place the tofu cubes in. Start the fire and fry them ( by two batches if necessary). During the process, stir them from time to time so they can be heated evenly. Transfer out when they are all golden brown.
Remove extra oil and leave only around 1 tablespoon in the pan, fry garlic, scallion white and ginger over slow fire until aromatic. Pour the sweet and sour sauce mix in, heat to boil.
Return the tofu cubes and continue heating over slow fire until the sauce is well-thickened and sticky to the tofu cubes.
Garlic some spring onions and serve with steamed rice.

Notes

The recipe is firstly published in 2014 and then re-tested and posted in 2017.