Thai Tamarind Tofu Veggies Stir-Fry

There is a Thai restaurant in our city, they serve this dish, I love it and always wanted to make this at home. I went to a local Asian Market and picked up some ingredients that I thought would make a nice replica of the dish and  I finally decided to make it for a dear friend's Birthday get together.  Everyone loved it ! One of my friends asked if I have posted in on my blog. When I first made it I did not take any pics, so decided to make it again and this time I took pics and exact measurements and here it is.                                     

Here are the Ingredients for the Base Sauce:

* 1/2 cup of coconut milk from can
* 2 cups of coconut water (if you don't have it no worries, just use water)
* 3 tablespoon of tamarind concentrate paste (or to your desired tartness)
* 1/2 cup of bean garlic sauce (from Asian Grocer)
* 3/4 cup of Teriyaki sauce
* 2 table spoon of soy sauce
* 1 table spoon of liquid amino
* 1 tablespoon of Tangy tamarind dip (optional)
* 3 tablespoon of corn starch
* 1 packet of Manchurian masala ( I bought this from local Indian grocer)
* 1 tablespoon of schezwan sauce or schezwan chutney (from local  Indian grocer) (I used both :)) but it is optional)
* 1 tablespoon of siracha sauce or to taste 

* 1 tablespoon of agave  
* 1 teaspoon of Chinese 5 spice (this consists of powdered Cinnamon, Star Anise, Fennel seeds, Clove, Ginger White pepper and Licorice root) So if you don't have 5 spice you can pinch of these spices.

* I also put 2 tables spoon of Golden mountain  seasoning sauce that I found in Asian market (optional) 

* 1 teaspoon of coarsely ground black pepper

 

Ingredients for Stir fry:

* 1 large yellow onion

* 1 fresh Jalapeno pepper

* 2 tablespoon of minced garlic from jar (or you can use 10 cloves of fresh garlic)

* 1 and 1/2 inch of peeled fresh ginger

* 1/2 cup of crushed tomatoes from jar (I used Marinara sauce)

* 2  tablespoon of  oil (which was  left in the  pan that your shallow fry the Tofu)

* 1/4 cup of sesame seeds (you can use less if desired)

* 1/2 cup of roasted cashews

* 2-3 pods of dried red chili pods

* 2 cups of water

Ingredients For the Tofu and Veggies Stir- Fry:

* 1/4 cup of vegetable oil

* 1 pound of firm Tofu drained and pressed to get all the water out and cut in to triangle pieces as shown in the pics

* 12 florets of Broccoli equal size

* 8 sweet peppers (yellow orange and red) sliced

* 6 baby portobella mushrooms sliced

* 1 red onion thickly sliced 

Hint: You can use any stir fry vegetable mix with baby corn, peapods and or green or red peppers,  but remember this is Tamarind Tofu, and the main ingredient is Tofu and it must shine. Therefore, I selected only few vegetable for this stir fry.

I wanted to keep the green color of Broccoli, therefore as you can see in pics, I boiled water in a pot with teaspoon of salt and dropped the broccoli floret in boiling salted water for and cooked for 1.30 min and quickly drained and dropped them in ice cubes water.  Broccoli you can add it last in the sauce. Note that there is not additional salt added in this dish as all the sauces and spices and soy sauce are well salted. 

Ingredients for Garnish:

* 5-6 spring onions chopped

* 1/4 cup of roasted peanuts

For Serving:

* You can serve this Tamarind Tofu stir fry with cooked Jasmine Rice or with Hakka Noodles or just by it self.

* I prefer this dish with cooked slightly salted Jasmine rice.

Instructions:

To make the base sauce: This is an excellent base sauce not only for tamarin tofu, but for any veg or non veg stir fry.

* Whisk coconut milk and water along with all the ingredients for sauce in a bowl and set aside.

To prepare Tofu:

* Heat a grilled pan (you can grill the tofu but I prefer to shallow fry it so it does not fall apart) 

* Add 1/4 cup of vegetable oil on this grilling pan on medium high heat.

* When oil is heated, arrange the tofu triangle on the pan and shallow fry them, flipping them with tong and until both sides are crispy light brown (about 5 min each).

* While this is cooking you can prepare the Broccoli florets like I mentioned earlier and as shown in picture.

* When the tofu triangles are cooked set aside on paper towel to drain extra oil.

* Transfer the  remaining oil from the grilling pan to a frying pan or wok.

To prepare the Stir fry and vegetables :

* In food processor chop onion, jalapeno and ginger.

* Heat the above oil in wok or frying pan.

* Add sesame seeds when these crackles, add red chili pods and cashew, sauté for a few seconds.

* Add finely chopped  onion, jalapeno and ginger.

* Sauté until chopped onions are translucent, add garlic.

* Then add sliced red onion, turn the heat on high and add mushroom and peppers, don't over cook them, just sauté for less than a min.

* Add crushed tomatoes( I used marinara sauce) cook for few seconds and add the Tamarind sauce base.  

* Turn the heat down to medium and cook the sauce.

* Add  2 cups of water and keep stirring in between so it does not stick to bottom of pan.

* Add agave at the end followed by fried tofu and cook for few min until sauce thickens and tofu is well coated with sauce. 

* Turn the heat off 

* Transfer it in serving platter, then add broccoli florets and mix well.

* Garnish with green onions and peanuts.

* Serve hot on top of Jasmine rice.  You can garnish it with green onions and some more peanuts if desired.

Believe it or not it came out better than that of the local restaurant that serves this dish.  After all homemade is always very rewarding.

This recipe yields 8-10 servings.

Hint: You don't have to have exact ingredients and measurements, you can always modify to your taste and to what is in your pantry.  Just don't add any extra salt, because all the Asian sauces and Soya sauce has plenty of that. 

 

Enjoy !! 

Recipe and Photographs by Surekha.