General Tao's Tofu

I wanted to write about my (only) favorite holiday tradition: blackeye peas and collard greens on New Year's Day, but I made this last night and have to share! It might look daunting, but don't let the different parts scare you. Just chop and prepare everything in advance, and then fire up the stove to finish!

This recipe is from vegweb.com, and is by far the most popular recipe. I've modified the recipe based on the 200+ reviews. So we have "rubybean77" to thank for the recipe.

You'll have five parts to make:

--cornstarch-coated tofu cubes

--rice or noodles

--veggies

--sauce

--slurry

Tofu

--Press one block of tofu for about 15 minutes.

--If you've never pressed your tofu, it's easy and worth it. I just take a small plate and put a folded paper towel on it. I then put the tofu on that, put another folded paper towel on top, and then put something heavy on the top. I usually use one of my big glass mixing bowls because they are sturdy and provide a good flat surface for pressing.

--Then take your tofu out (and save the paper towels for cleaning up stuff later--it's just tofu water!) and cut it into cubes of your liking.

--Put 3/4 C cornstarch in a clean paper bag or a ziploc bag (I used a big ziploc bag), and put the cubed tofu in it. Shake that for about a minute or so, until the tofu is cubed on all sides.

--Your tofu is prepared, but you have to cook it. Wait for the rest of the intstructions, yo.

Rice or Noodles

--Um, make some rice or noodles for your base. I used udon noodles because I didn't want to wait 40 minutes for rice. But I'll make rice today for the leftovers!

Veggies

Use whatever veggies you want! But do make certain to include:

--1/4 - 1/2 C onion

--1 T ginger

--1 T garlic

I used broccoli, zucchini, green peas, corn, and mushrooms, as well.

A couple of tips:

--This recipe calls for fresh ginger and garlic, but if you want a more "takeout" flavor, add a bit of powdered ginger, garlic, and onion.

--An easy way to prep ginger: I always wash and then break up my ginger into its "fingers" and put in the freezer. There, it will keep indefinitely, rather than getting all shriveled and dry. When I need any ginger, I just take it out and use a microplane to grate it onto whatever I need. Try it--you'll love it!

Sauce

I doubled the sauce recipe from vegweb and cut way down on the sugar, as other reviewers recommended.

--1 1/3 C vegetable stock

--4 T soy sauce

--3 T sugar

--hot red pepper flakes to taste

--1 T sherry (optional)

--1 T white vinegar

I used the sherry because I had some. It was great. Some other people used balsamic vinegar, and seemed to like that.

Slurry

Slurry is just the fancy cook name for the cornstarch and water mixture used to thicken soups and sauces. Just use 1 part cornstarch and 1 part water (usually just 1-2 T each), and mix together.

Okay, now you're ready to get cooking. It goes well if you multitask, plus it's more fun that way.

I cooked the tofu in an electric wok, because it was so big that I knew I could add everything to this at the end. Plus, it's great for cooking tofu. But you will need a large (really large) skillet to cook your tofu. This will take a little while, about 15-20 minutes, because you need to cook all sides of the tofu. Temp? I dunno, I was on 250-350 on the wok, probably medium on the stovetop. Cook until the tofu gets a bit golden, and when the cornstarch is fully cooked (not goopy) on the tofu. I just left mine alone and then stirred/flipped it every few minutes.

At the same time, cook your veggies in another skillet. I did this on the stove on medium heat. I always add my garlic and ginger last, because you don't want to burn those.

Also at the same time, cook your noodles or rice. If you're using brown rice, you should start that before you start everything else because it takes longer.

If you premade your sauce, hold off on that. If not, make it now!

Once your veggies are cooked, add the sauce to that and let it simmer a bit. And when the tofu is cooked, add the veggies/sauce to the tofu. This is when it really helps to have a huge wok.

Stir that around a bit. If you like the consistency of the sauce, stick with that. If not, if you want a thicker sauce, then re-stir your slurry and add a bit of that and stir it around. I only used about 1 T of slurry.

Serve over noodles or rice, and get ready to wow your friends!