This recipe is specially created for all of you who may not have the luxury of living near an Asian grocery store.
You can choose to buy your sweet and sour sauce ready-made or make it with my sweet and sour sauce recipe which is honestly just as simple.
Although it has clear American influences, sweet and sour fritters originate from 18th century China where they were primarily made with pork.
Ingredients for sweet and sour tofu fritters
Well, let’s start at the beginning: tofu. You need extra firm tofu.
Freezing tofu: an essential element of the recipe
Freezing the extra firm tofu block (no need to press out the water before freezing) is essential, as the water inside the tofu expands when freezing and creates these layers in the tofu to give it an even more “meat-like” texture. It’s a technique I love to use in my vegetarian recipes for its added texture and consistency.
Rice vinegar: This is pretty much the only “exotic” ingredient on the list. And even then, now that sushi is fashionable, it’s very easy to find in supermarkets.
Tips for successful crispy sweet and sour tofu
First of all, you need to wait patiently for the oil to reach the right temperature. Ideally, you have a cooking thermometer, otherwise you can put a small drop of the batter in it.
If it sizzles and rises directly to the surface, it’s at the right temperature! The consequences of oil that’s not hot enough are that the batter will come off and the fritters won’t be crispy.
In continuation of this, you shouldn’t add too many pieces at once to the oil. Otherwise, you risk lowering the oil temperature and ending up with the consequences mentioned above. In short, you need to fry in batches!
For the sauce, there’s no problem preparing it in advance to avoid having to coordinate on a small cooking surface. However, make sure to heat it before adding the fritters.
How to serve sweet and sour tofu fritters?
You can simply serve it as an appetizer. But if it’s the main dish of a dinner, white rice can be delicious in all its simplicity. Mixed with the sauce, it will be delicious.
Alternatively, I can suggest my fried rice, Cantonese rice or even my yellow rice. And why not my lemon chicken for a beautiful color duality?
If guests (or you) aren’t fans of rice, I have a delicious recipe for stir-fried noodles with vegetables like at the restaurant. Honestly, it’s amazing and the “savory” taste will perfectly complement the sweet and sour tofu
Crispy Fried Sweet and Sour tofu
Matériel
- 1 Asian fried food
Ingredients
SAUCE
- 100 g powdered sugar
- 60 g rice vinegar
- 60 g ketchup
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons water
Batter
- 1 portion my universal batter
Tofu Marinade
- 300 g extra firm tofu frozen
- 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon shaoxing wine
Procédé
- Thaw the tofu in the fridge overnight (do not press it)300 g extra firm tofu
- Now press the tofu to extract almost all the water
- Gently break it into small pieces, be careful as it will be very crumbly
- In a bowl, combine it with the marinade ingredients and mix gently3 tablespoons light soy sauce, 1 tablespoon shaoxing wine
- In another bowl, mix the batter for fritters (my universal breadcrumb recipe)
- Heat oil to 180 degrees (360F)
- Dip each piece of tofu individually in the batter, then place in the oil. Fry the tofu pieces a first time until “lightly golden. Set aside for 5 min and fry a second time until” golden
- In a bowl, mix the sauce100 g powdered sugar, 60 g rice vinegar, 60 g ketchup, 2 tablespoons cornstarch, 2 tablespoons water
- In a wok, over medium heat, add the sauce mixture and stir constantly until thickened
- Reduce to low heat and add the fritters, gently mixing
