Update on Pan Fried Sesame Garlic Tofu

Last time I made the pan fried sesame garlic tofu I had used silken tofu and it didn’t come out very crispy and the sauce was lacking aromatics. So I made it again, and this time used firm tofu which made frying it crispy possible. I also added aromatics (green onion, garlic, and ginger) to flavor the sauce. I added them just before adding the sauce slurry, but I think the pan was a little too hot, so garlic became a little bitter. Generally, I think cooking the sauce in a separate pot would be better because it lets you keep the sauce and the tofu separately and maintain crispiness until you serve it. And, trying to stir the sauce and maintain proper heat control while you have chunks of tofu floating in it is kind of tricky.

The sauce was improved by the aromatics but still somewhat sour I thought, just at the borderline between sour and unpleasant. Hannah liked it very much though, so that’s a win.

Notes

• On frying the tofu crisp: had a hard time coating the blocks with corn starch, maybe they were still too wet? When frying, some pieces stuck, so either I wasn’t using enough oil or the pan was not hot enough? But then again, the oil at a few points started smoking somewhat, so maybe reducing moisture is the next thing to focus on
• Try draining tofu more and pat dry
• definitely use firm tofu!
• make sauce separately
• adding aromatics to the sauce was great