Pan-Fried Tofu with Spicy Sweet Sauce

There are several vegetarian blogs on the net which give one lots of great food ideas.  One of my favorites, with Toni Fiore, had a recipe using tofu to make a nice crispy sandwich filling.  Below is my version.

You will need firm or extra firm tofu.  In a large flat pan, such as a half- or quarter-sheet pan, place an absorbent kitchen towel, topped with three layers of white paper towels.  Slice your blocks of tofu across horizontally in four slices then place each slice on the paper towels.  Continue until you have all your slice tofu on the pan....which assumes you will do several blocks of tofu for your treat!

Place three more layers of white paper towels and another absorbent kitchen towel then top with a pan of the same size.  Place a weight on top of the pan...a good sized weight, like a couple of bricks or several cans of vegetables or whatever you have in your pantry.  Be sure that the weights a spread out equally.

After about an hour of being weighted down, remove all the layers of towels and you will find your tofu is about half as thick as it was previously. You are now ready to dredge it in a pan of cornstarch into which you have shaken some salt and pepper.  Dredge both sides well then place in a hot pan which has had canola oil heating.

You can see the cornstarch left on the plate...

Fry the tofu slices until they are solidly golden brown on the bottom, then turn them over for the other side to get golden brown.  Only flip them one time or you can break up the tofu...not that this is a bad thing, but it won't fit on your sandwich as well.

When the tofu is nicely fried, place it on a plate to be doused with spicy sweet sauce or onto a slice of bread or into pita bread as the beginnings of a sandwich.  You can add lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, onions, peppers, or whatever you like for the sandwich.

If you just want to eat this out of hand,  put a couple of pieces on your plate then sauce it with spicy sweet sauce which you can find in an Asian market.  This is the sauce I use and absolutely LOVE!  I think I will try it on other foods now!