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.

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My version of Mirch and Baigan Salan (Pepper and Eggplant Curry from Hyderabad with a Twist)

Salan is a popular curry with sesame seed and peanut base with hint of tamarind and Jaggary. This is original dish from Hyderabad, India. The curry can be made with Eggplant or variety of Chili peppers. You can use Hungarian peppers. You may want to remove the veins and seeds from the peppers to reduce heat, or you may use variety of peppers that are not very spicy.  I had posted the recipe earlier of just Mirch ka Salan, this time I made this with Eggplants and Peppers. You can only make it with eggplants or just peppers or even Okras.  It is the blend of these spices that gives its name and flavor.  

Salan recipe usually  calls for coconut as well, but neither I or my family members are crazy about coconut so I omitted that, and added Hemp instead for extra body in the gravy. However if you like coconut, you can add unsweetened coconut dried flakes.

The gravy is full of flavor and nuttiness. It tastes very good with Naan and Basmati rice. You can adjust the color by adding less or more Turmeric powder, as you can see mine looks little toward less yellow side as I did not put too much turmeric.  You don't want to add too too much turmeric as it can give bitter taste to the gravy.

Ingredients:

• 8 Hungarian peppers (slitted and you can take the vein and seeds out if you don't want it very spicy, but I left the vein and seeds in.)
• 8 Baby eggplants
• 1/2 cup roasted unsalted peanuts
• 1/3 cup sesame seeds 
• 1/2 cup roasted unsalted cashews
• 1/4 cup poppy seeds ( I was out of poppy seed so omitted)
• 1/4 cup whole coriander seeds
• 3-4 pods of dried red chili (can adjust based of desired heat)
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 1-2 two twigs of curry leaves
• 4-5 cloves on garlic peeled
• 2 medium size yellow onions peeled and sliced
• 1 green pepper sliced (capsicum) (optional)

• 2 table spoon of Tamarind concentrate
• 1 teaspoon of coarsely ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon of Kashmiri Cayenne pepper powder (optional)
• 2 tablespoon of cumin seeds (divided in two parts)
• 1/4 cup of cooking vegetable oil 
• 1/4 cup of extra cooking oil for tempering
• 1/4 teaspoon of asafetida
• 3 cups of water
• Salt to taste

Method:

• Wash and dry the Hungarian peppers and eggplants.
• Cut a slit in each Hungarian pepper keeping the stem intact.
• Cut two slits on eggplant keeping the stem intact.
• For both don't cut the slit all the way.
• Cook the eggplant in Microwave with water for about 10-15 min so the are soft but not mushy.
• Take 1/3 cup of oil in a frying pan and shallow fry the peppers as shown in picture so they are brown and soft.
• Add curry leaves and set sauté some more and take it out in a another tray and  set aside.
• In the same pan add some more oil if needed and add 1/2 of cumin seeds and sauté garlic, onions and green pepper until golden brown (green pepper is optional).
• take it out  in a separate tray and set aside.
• In the same pan now sauté the partially cooked eggplant until fully cooked and aside. 

• In another shallow pan roast the coriander seeds, 1 teaspoon cumin seeds,  dried chili pods and black peppercorn on low heat until the spices emit aroma.
• Let them cool and grind them in food processor and add sesame seeds, peanuts, cashew and hemp (and poppy seeds if you have them).
• Grind it in the food processor until paste.
• Add sautéed onions, garlic and green pepper, grind it to paste again.
• Mix tamarind concentrate and water in a cup and mix well. 
• Heat the frying pan on medium heat,  that you sautéed the peppers, eggplants and onions and garlic,   add rest of oil when the oil is hot add cumin seeds, when these seeds crackle, add asafetida, then add sauteed eggplant. 
• Then add the peanuts, cashews, sesame seeds, and spice paste to the Hungarian pepper and eggplant and tamarind concentrate mixed  in water.

Add the rest of the dry spice and salt.

Rinse the food processor with remaining paste with water and add that water to peppers and eggplants Salan.

Simmer on low heat to desired consistency.

Garnish with cilantro.

Serve hot with Naan and rice. 

Enjoy !!

The above picture is of when I had just made Hungarian peppers Salan without eggplants.

Photographs and Recipe by Surekha.

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