Just Substitute Tofu

Lately I’ve been trying more Asian cooking, primarily a little basic Chinese and Indian-style food. Nothing too fancy or complicated. Once I started this culinary ball rolling I began thinking of favorite Chinese take-out dishes, especially kung pao chicken. I love the spicy sauce, the crunch of the peanuts, the green onions. Could I, I wondered, recreate this favorite in my own kitchen using tofu instead of chicken?

A simple Google search for “kung pao tofu” brought up thousands of results through which I began slogging looking for recipes that didn’t require an unreasonable amount of ingredients or those that would require a trip to an Asian market. I settled on this recipe, substituting a red bell pepper (my favorite veggie) for the water chestnuts and celery. The result was delicious if just a little salty, though I think that was my fault. When salting the sautéing vegetables I forgot to account for the soy sauce and salted peanuts I would be adding later. Woops.

I also had a little trouble with my tofu. I had read that freezing the tofu, even just over night, would change its texture, making it a little chewier, and more like chicken. The only catch was that it needed to be well-drained before going into the freezer to keep water crystals from forming all throughout. Guess who didn’t drain her tofu thoroughly enough? The tofu ended up being a little more spongy than chewy, but still tasted good. Again, my fault.

One of my favorite things about cooking is finding a recipe I want to try again and again to tweak it until it’s exactly what I want. This kung pao tofu recipe will definitely be showing up on my menu again in the pretty near future.