The texture of this tofu is a thing of beauty; it is like a Chick-fil-a nugget. Crumbling the tofu rather than cutting and slicing it really helps with this. I made this by accident and I will be making it again on purpose.
Ingredients:
- 1 block firm tofu
- dark miso paste
- rice wine vinegar
- hot sesame oil
- hot honey
- red pepper flakes
- gochugaru
- ginger powder
- garlic powder
- salt
- sesame seeds
First you’ll press your tofu to remove excess water. I am poor so I don’t own a tofu press, you can use some paper towels and a heavy plate or book. Leave it there for 5 minutes or so to get out all of the excess water. Then you’ll crumble it with your hands into bite size chunks. It’s ok if there are some really tiny crumbles, they get super crispy and they’re delicious.
After you’ve got your tofu crumbled you’ll want to lightly grease a saucepan, I used olive oil spray for this. Turn the stove on to medium-high heat, and add the tofu to a large saucepan once it is hot, add red pepper flakes and salt. If possible use a big enough pan that every piece of tofu can be on the surface of. Pan-fry until the tofu starts to develop a golden brown color on the outside, and then add a little bit of hot sesame oil and keep pan-frying until your tofu reaches the desired consistency.
While the tofu is going you can prepare your sauce. For this, you’ll combine miso paste, hot sesame oil, hot honey, rice wine vinegar, garlic, ginger and gochugaru. Whisk this up in a bowl and make sure it is well combined. You can add some water if it is too thick, you want a pretty liquid consistency, think sriracha-like.
Once your tofu is how you want it, add the sauce in. Since your pan is hot and there is oil in the sauce it will flash fry and get super crispy on the outside. Once it has done this you can turn the heat down to medium and just cook until the sauce reduces into a glaze.
Once your sauce has reduced you can remove it from heat and plate the tofu with a drizzle of hot honey and some sesame seeds, best served over a bed of white rice.
九生 