Crispy tofu in a sticky lime and soy sauce

This is a basic recipe to create crispy coated tofu and a spicy sweet sauce to serve it with.

This recipe was to find out if I could create crispy tofu, to make this a better dish, I would add a chopped red bell pepper, a handful of cashew nuts to a frying pan and char them then add these to the sticky tofu at the end along with some finely chopped spring onions and white sesame seeds sprinkled over the top

I have previously put the tofu in the freezer and removed it and allow it to defrost. I find this gives the tofu a denser, ‘meatier’ texture.

begin by draining the tofu and squeezing out any water and patting dry with paper towels.

slice up the tofu and tear the slices into bite size chucks, you can just cut them into bite size chunks, but tearing them gives a raggy edge which is good to catch sauce.

leave them on a paper towel to dry while you make the dry dusting and wet batter to coat the tofu.

a crispy coating requires 2 things – a dry mix and a wet mix, the dry mix first coats the tofu which helps the wet batter stick, Then this dry coated tofu is then dipped into the wet batter and fried.

For the batter. Place in a small bowl the cornflour and chickpea flour with the spices and add a little water and stir to make a thick batter. allow to rest for 10 mins.

for the dry mix place in a bowl the cornflour and the spices and mix together.

Next, we need to set up the battering station. so put the tofu next to the dry mix and the wet mix next to this. and place all this near the pan of hot oil

put some vegetable oil into a pan and heat. Once a tiny piece of tofu dropped into it sizzles it’s ready.

now coat all tofu pieces in the dry mix and then take a few at a time and put them in the wet batter and gently then take them and place them into the hot oil and fry. take a few more pieces of tofu and do the same.

After a few mins, turn the tofu pieces until they are golden brown all over. and then remove from the pan and place onto paper towel to help drain the excess oil.

Now make the sticky sauce – place the cornflour, soy sauce and lime juice into a bowl and add some cold water to make a spicy slurry.

Pour the slurry into a pan and gently heat and keep stirring while its heating (about 3 mins) up as the corn flour will thicken.

Now tip the crispy tofu onto the pan and stir to coat all the tofu with the sauce.

Once coated tip out into a bowl and serve with rice.