Sweet chilli tofu or chicken
In the first few weeks of lockdown I started to miss Wasabi’s sweet chilli chicken. A lot. More than expected, and definitely more than is acceptable.
Wasabi sweet chilli chicken has a very warm place in my heart. It had got me through many late nights of revision and essay writing as a law and anthropology student at LSE in Holborn. Just up the road in Fleet street it had been by my side for a fair number of late nights doing bundle preparation and document review during my first seat as a trainee solicitor. It was always there, just around a corner, in all it’s half-price-after-8pm glory as the perfect consolation prize. If you know you know. When lockdown was imposed in London and all the offices and restaurants closed their doors Wasabi was no exception.
This led me to what can only be described as a frenzied culinary experimentation process to find a cure to an increasingly acute case of wasabi sweet chilli chicken cold turkey.
A of couple of times during the lockdown months I put together a nice sweet chilli chicken sauce. But every single time I was in a hurry and didn’t measure out, let alone write out the ingredients and quantities I had used. From then on every time the sweet chilli chicken cravings hit I was left thinking “will I be able to make it again?”. Without fail I would halfheartedly attempt to record the details of its making and get distracted, hangry and before I knew it the sauce was made and I had only written down “mince garlic”. Great.
last night I was confronted with a frighteningly monolithic hunk of plain tofu. I had bought it to experiment with as, being a committed carnivore, it is not something I have cooked with before. I love exploring new ingredients so was looking forward to coming up against it in kitchen battle. When I opened it however and saw the pale spongy mass leaking cloudy water over my chopping board I felt a pang of fear that the tofu was going to beat me. As I crumbled off a piece and began to nibble at it I was reasonably sure that on this Friday evening after a full days work, I had bitten off more than I could chew.
And then I remembered the sauce. The illusive magical sauce that always came together to save the day and yet left no trace afterwards. “Mum” I said. “I need your help”. I knew this was a two man job. As I chopped and chucked, whisked and boiled, my lovely mum scribbled furiously on a note pad beside me. So I am very pleased to announce that I finally have a recipe for my secret sweet chilli sauce, which I only ever called “secret” because it’s exact quantities and process eluded even me until today.
Sweet Chilli sauce
For the secret sauce:
1)Thumb size section of red chilli, seeds removed, and minced
2) 2 cloves garlic, minced
3)Thumb size piece of ginger, minced
(Each of the above makes a tablespoon when minced)
4) 100 mls water
5)1 tablespoon Japanese rice vinegar
6) 1 tablespoon soy sauce
7) 1 teaspoon of fish sauce (or if vegan replace with more soy sauce)
8) 3 packed tablespoons dark brown sugar
9) Half a teaspoon of cornflour
10) 3 tablespoons of pineapple juice from canned pinapples (or 1 tablespoon of apple juice and 2 tablespoons of water)
11) 1 teaspoon paprika (not smoked)
12) a generous pinch of cinnamon
13) 1 tablespoon mirin
14) a generous pinch of white pepper
15) a quarter of a teaspoon cayenne pepper
16) 1 teaspoon garlic salt
17) 1 teaspoon sesame oil
18) 1 teaspoon Tomato purée
Method for the sauce:
1) combine all the ingredients in a sauce pan
2) on a gentle heat whisk the mixture to dissolve the sugar
3) bring the sauce to a boil and stirring regularly reduce the sauce until it has thickened and coats the back of a spoon. (7 mins?)
4) add your double fried tofu (or chicken) and stir to coat the pieces in the sauce.
5) Serve immediately with sesame seeds and spring onion.
Want the express version?
1) Combine 2 parts shop bought sweet chilli sauce with 1 part soy sauce
2) boil until it coats a spoon.
If you are vegan make sure the sweet chilli sauce doesn’t contain fish sauce.
Crispy tofu
Ingredients:
1) 1 block of extra firm, plain tofu
For the marinade:
1) 2 tablespoons soy sauce
2) 1 tablespoon mirin
3) pinch cayenne pepper
For the shaking bag:
1) 4 heaped tablespoons of cornflour
2) 1 teaspoon garlic salt
3) 1 teaspoon paprika
4) 1/2 teaspoon of salt
Method:
1) Pat the whole block of tofu with kitchen towl and break into bite size pieces with your hands
2) combine the ingredients for the marinade in a shallow dish and place the pieces of tofu in there, turning them to ensure all parts of the tofu are coated. Leave for ten minutes to marinade.
3) to shallow fry the coated tofu, heat a frying pan with 1cm depth of vegetable oil
4) remove the tofu from the marinade and drain in a colinder
5) add all the ingredients for the shaker bag into a ziplock bag. Toss in the tofu and once the bag is sealed shake it around to coat all the tofu nicely .
6) When the oil is hot enough for it to fizz and bubble when a piece of tofu is added, add all the tofu and turn with tongs to brown all the outside. (You may have to do in two batches)
7) remove the tofu from the hot oil when golden and crunchy. Place on a plate lined with a double layer of kitchen roll.
8) Get your secret sweet chilli sauce boiling! It needs to be thick and syrupy looking, such that it coats the back of a spoon.
9) Return the tofu back to the boiling oil for a second fry! This stage makes for the absolute best crispy texture that is long lasting even after being coated with sticky sauce.
10) when the tofu have had their second fry remove and drain briefly on kitchen towel again.
11) take the sauce off the heat and add the tofu, stirring through to coat each piece.
12) garnish with sesame seeds and spring onion and serve immediately