Black pepper tofu

This dish is bursting with flavour. The combination of onion, garlic, ginger, chili, pepper and the soy sauce makes this dish very unique and tasty. The original recipe by Ottolenghi used 5 tbsp black pepper, but we just used 2 1/2 tbsp. You can taste it first, and add more pepper to suit your taste.

Serves: 4 people.
Preparation time: 40 minutes (the slicing and frying takes some time)

Prepared by Stella and Guus
Recipe from Ottolenghi

Ingredients

700 to 800 g firm tofu, sliced into large cubes
vegetable oil for frying
cornflour (for coating the tofu)
150 g unsalted butter (just use vegetable oil to make this vegan)
12 small (or 6 medium-sized) shallots, thinly sliced
8 fresh red chili's, thinly sliced
12 garlic cloves, crushed
3 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
3 tbsp sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
3 tbsp light soy sauce
4 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp sugar
2 1/2 tbsp crushed black pepper
16 spring onions (cut into 3 cm segments)

Preparation

1. Coat the sliced tofu with cornflour. Heat vegetable oil for frying. Fry the tofu until all sides are golden brown. Fry in batches. Once done, transfer to a kitchen paper to remove excess oil.

2. Remove oil from the pan, and melt the butter. Add the shallots, chili, garlic and ginger. Saute until the shallots are soft (but should not be burned, 10-15 minutes). Add the soy sauces and sugar. Stir and add the black pepper.

3. Add the tofu and spring onions. Mix well so that the tofu is coated with the sauce. 

Serve with rice, naan bread, flat bread or on its own.

Note: The slicing takes some time. So Guus and I prepared this together. While I was frying the tofu, Guus sliced all the other ingredients.

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