Sweet n Sour Sesame Tofu

Due to my current even-more-conscious-eating 2-week trial, I couldn't eat this, barely tasted the sauce just to make sure it didn't taste like poo...but apparently it was perfect and I nailed it. Wee!

I served this with rice and some spinach that I cooked by first sauteing some minced garlic over sesame oil, then cooking the spinach (about a bag) til almost all wilted, then adding about a tablespoon and a half of soy sauce and the same amount of granulated sugar, mixing that up over low heat til done, and then taking it off the heat and adding about a tablespoon of toasted sesame seeds.

These dishes went great together. I recommend you try the tofu out at least! Pretty good--I didn't fry every side of the small chunks of tofu perfectly (they were so small and kept breaking!) but used a spatula to turn them as best I could.

Sweet 'n Sour Sesame Tofu
Recipe from The Spice Train

3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon dark or light brown sugar
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/2 tablespoon sesame seeds
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon honey
about 1 pound firm tofu
1/2 cup flour
4 scallions, chopped
about 3 tablespoons vegetable oil for frying

Put the soy sauce, rice vinegar, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, sesame seeds, sesame oil, red pepper flakes, cornstarch and honey into a bowl and whisk well until fully combined. Set aside.

Cut the tofu into 1-inch cubes.

Roll the tofu cubes in the flour, making sure you are coating them on all sides.

Fry the tofu in vegetable oil until golden brown on all sides. Set aside.

Pour the sauce ingredients into a sauce pan and bring to a full boil. Keep boiling the sauce until it becomes transparent and thickens. Take off the heat and pour over the tofu.

Serve with rice and sprinkle chopped scallions on top.

Sriracha Chicken

Lately I've been posting things from forever ago in random orders at random times. I'm going to have to continue to do that since I'm super backed up with recipes and never have time to sit down and really go through all of these (aka I don't have time PERIOD to work on this but trying to find bits of time here and there to do what I can), but first while it's fresh in my mind I really really want to share this recipe.

SO.

YUM.

I found this recipe a while ago but was cooking with a friend who didn't want deep-fried (I don't really like deep fried either, but luckily my boyfriend does so I get to eat it on occasion) so we stuck with another Sriracha Chicken recipe that I'll post another time (it was also SUPERB).

This recipe was really easy to follow. SO easy to tweak the sauce, which was perfect and I honestly barely measured exactly I just threw things approximately together and heated it up and it seriously tasted as good as those Trader Joe's Orange Chicken things that you get in the freezer isle and reheat and OMG. I mean, different sauce, but same idea. This recipe was really fun and simple to follow. The sesame seeds tossed in at the end was also a great touch.

Chinese Sriracha Chicken
Recipe From Blog Chef

3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into chunks)
salt and pepper (to taste)
2 eggs
1 cup cornstarch
oil (for deep frying)
Sauce-
¼ cup sugar
4 tablespoons ketchup
½ cup vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon garlic salt
Sriracha hot sauce (to taste)
crushed red pepper flakes

In a medium bowl whisk together sugar, ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce, garlic salt, and Sriracha sauce, and crushed red pepper flakes. Set aside.

Heat oil in a deep-fryer to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl beat the two eggs. Add the cornstarch to a shallow plate or pie dish. Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Dip the chicken pieces first into the eggs and then roll in the cornstarch. Place chicken into the deep fryer, and deep fry the chicken pieces in batches at 375 degrees until golden brown and fully cooked (the internal temperature has reached 165 degrees). Drain on paper towels.

Pour the sauce mixture into a large sauce pan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. In a large bowl toss the chicken with the sauce. Top with sliced green onions and sesame seeds.