To Taste with Tofu - Fried Tofu in Spicy Tomato Sauce

Everyone loves tofu. Right?

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... eh ... eh ... au contraire? Rather the opposite? Oh! Well, there is a rumour tofu is bland and tasteless and you can live very much without it. At least that is what some feel.
I say, you can eat everything with the right sauce ... eh ... almost everything. Before we go on now, I don't have a problem with or without tofu. In fact I like to have it from time to time, but ... now to the right sauce ...

As I was looking for some Vietnamese recipes for Bloggers Around the World this month, I logically came across the cookbook Vietnamese Bible, which is in my collection. I flipped through the pages and arrived at the page with the recipe Dau phu sot ca chua, which for the rest of us is called Fried Tofu in Spicy Tomato sauce. Well, I had to do it ...

Roughly, those were the things I needed.

First of all I went for the garlic, peeled it, finely sliced it and then started frying it in vegetable oil until it started to get brown and crispy. I removed the garlic and set it on kitchen paper.

The pan could use a little bit more oil and ... even more oil. The tofu - 400 g precisely - was cut into approximately 2 cm cubes and so I fried the tofu from all sides until it got the right colour, too. Again, I removed the content of the pan - the tofu - to a strainer.

After I had made sure, there wasn't too much oil in the pan left - about one tablespoon should be enough - I fried the onion, the chilli and the ginger for about 2 minutes. The onion and the ginger had been peeled and finely sliced and the chilli (sadly) been deseeded and sliced as well. Again, you should see that brown colour coming again.

Now it's time to get saucy ... eh, no ... that is the wrong word, I reckon. It's no good adding a "y" to words. Again! ... Now it's time to get sauce-like. Therefore I add 500 g of crushed tomates, 2 tbsp. of fish sauce, one tsp. of black pepper and 1/2 tsp. of sugar. That should all simmer now for ... let's say 7-9 minutes.

Once that time had passed I felt comfortable with the sauce, and folded in the tofu and 2 tbsp. of finely shredded mint (I couldn't get coriander at that time). One more minute and it's done ...

No, not really. Time to plate up and decorate with some more shredded mint and crisp-fried garlic. You could use crisp fried onions as well, if you prefer that.

That was delicious! A good way to have tofu. So, if you belong to the camp that things tofu is too bland for you, give it a shot and ... just to make sure ... do not deseed your chilli or use more than one ... make it even more spicy.

I ate it as it was, but you can serve it alongside something else as well, I reckon. Maybe you get some further ideas, when you check out the Bloggers Around the World - Vietnam challenge.

Will you still join? What are your thoughts on tofu anyway?