To celebrate the upcoming Chinese New Year, I will be sharing a series of Chinese recipes with you on Rasa Malaysia, and it started with my ginger and scallion fish recipe a few days ago.
Today, I have Christine of Christine’s Recipes here with her “Rainbow Fried Tofu” dish—or sweet and sour fried tofu. Christine’s Recipes offer a great selection of homey Chinese recipes which she makes for her family.
If you read Chinese, you should also check out her Chinese blog. Please give her your warmest welcome!
Rasa Malaysia is one of my favorite food blogs that I’ve subscribed for a long time. I really admire Bee’s cooking, blogging and photography skills.
When she asked me if I was interested in writing up a guest post, immediately I sent her a “YES” as it’s my honor indeed. Thanks to Bee for letting me have a chance to share my favorite recipe—sweet and sour fried tofu—on her blog. Here you go.
We’ve got lots of different Chinese dishes with sweet and sour sauce. Just name a few, sweet and sour chicken, sweet and sour pork, sweet and sour beef, that are traditional and well accepted in different countries.
I posted these old-fashioned recipes on my humble blog too. Whenever I go into a Chinese restaurant, I spot many Aussie people would pick a dish in sweet and sour sauce.
I can’t image how my Aussie friends are crazy about the taste of sweet and sour. Recently I created a dish on my own using this make-Aussie-crazy sauce with my favorite deep-fried tofu, feeling really good with both of the intriguing combination of ingredients and colorful outlook. So I also name it as “Rainbow Fried Tofu”.
This dish goes extremely well with Jasmine rice, or served as an appetizer.
How Many Calories per Serving?
This recipe is only 171 calories per serving.
What Dishes to Serve with This Recipe?
For a wholesome meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
5 Secrets to 20 Min Dinners
Get tricks for quick & easy meals!
Sweet and Sour Fried Tofu
Sweet and Sour fried tofu is a simple and homey Chinese recipe. Easy sweet and sour friend tofu recipe which is delicious as a main dish or appetizer.
Ingredients
- 1 piece tofu
- 120 g chicken breast or chicken thigh fillet
- 1/2 onion cut into cubes
- 1/4 green capsicum cut into smaller pieces
- 1/4 red capsicum cut into smaller pieces
- 1/4 yellow capsicum cut into smaller pieces
- 1 teaspoon garlic crushed
- 1 teaspoon minced shallot
- Vegetable oil for deep-frying
Seasoning:
- 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon cornflour or cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon Shaoxing wine or dry sherry
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1 pinch pepper
Sweet and Sour Sauce:
- 3 tablespoons white vinegar
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons tomato sauce ketchup
- 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Thickening:
- 2 teaspoons corn flour
- 2 tablespoons water
Directions
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1Rinse chicken and drain well. Roughly cut into chunks in bite size. Mix with marinade for 15 minutes.
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2
Cut tofu into 3 cm (1 1/4 inch) cubes. Drain and absorb excess water with paper towels thoroughly. Generously season with salt. Fill a wok or deep saucepan one-third full of oil, that should cover the tofu. Heat oil to 180°C (350°F), or until a cube of bread dropped into the oil browns, in 15 seconds. Carefully place tofu in batches and deep-fry for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until golden. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Set aside.
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3
Clean out the wok, reserving 2 tablespoons of the oil. Or you might like to use a frypan. Add the onion and stir-fry over medium heat until translucent and fragrant. Push onion to sides of wok or fry pan. Add marinated chicken in the middle and stir-fry until cooked through. Set aside.
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4
Add more oil in wok or fry pan, sauteed garlic and shallot until aromatic. Add the green, red and yellow capsicum. Stir-fry until softened. Toss in the onion and chicken. Quickly combine well. Pour in the sweet and sour sauce. Bring it to a boil. You might like to adjust the taste by adding more sugar or water bit by bit to your liking. Season with salt. Add thickening and cook to your preferred consistency. Remove from heat.
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5Place fried tofu on a platter, served with sweet and sour sauce.
Recipe Notes
1. Keep the cooked sweet and sour sauce in a separate bowl. Spoon the sauce over fried tofu in the last minute in order to make sure you can enjoy the crispy texture outside.
2. Take extreme care when placing down the tofu in hot oil. Mare sure the surface of tofu is wiped really dry. At the first time, I was too scared of getting burnt by hot oil. So I wore glove to lower down the tofu into the hot oil. (Too sheepish? Haha..) Then I thought a slotted spoon might be better than a glove. Carefully place tofu on a slotted spoon, then lower into hot oil, no hazards nor any mess at all. (Yay! Behave more like a professional cook, hehe… still a long way to go though.)
3. If you use firm tofu, it’s much easier to keep them intact while turning and deep-frying. Yet I used the silken, soft ones as I just grabbed whatever in my fridge to use. Both firm and silken tofu don’t have much difference in taste, but a slight difference in texture. Silken tofu needs more care when turning and cooking of course.
4. Yellow capsicums are not easily found. Simply omit it if you can’t find some. The taste won’t be changed at all. Or replace it with a few sliced pineapples, canned or fresh.
5. The sweet and sour taste can be adjusted by adding or reducing vinegar and sugar to your preference.
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