Sweet & Sour Tofu

30 March 2025  (Sunday)

The clocks changed at 1am, so waking up at 7.30am it’s really just 6.30am, despite it being 7.30am…

Apparently the changing of the clocks to British Summer Time’s down to a decision during the First World War; elongating hours available to work due to the length of daylight hours.  It seems on Googling that this is totally true, though other claims prevail too!  And this is just British Summer Time… let’s not even get into Double British Summer Time!!

I needed to get the final segment of A Week at the Plot recorded, so I was down to the plot pretty early to get this done - as per usual, I wasn’t sure what I needed to do though once I was down there the jobs revealed themselves from the mists of my allotment mind, and I knew what I wanted to get done.

Home for lunch, and then edited the pieces recorded in the morning.  I’m trying to keep things under or around 30 minutes these days, certainly trying not to go over 40 minutes.  I do wonder if my weekly upload would get more views if I uploaded the daily segments as I went through the week, though doing it as I do, as one upload per week, suits me fine for the time being.  I mull this question quite often, and then think “Well, it works for me, so…”

I was back at the plot for an hour or two after editing, mainly weeding which I sort of enjoy.  I was delighted to receive a pint of Pride; a fellow plotter who’d seen me, wanted to thank me for some help I’d given them and they’d bought it from The Fox… Happy Days!!

Sweet & Sour Tofu

I’m beginning to get used to cooking with tofu and tempeh.  For years each has been a bit of an enigma - I know they’re a good source of protein, and apparently also good for us, but it’s not something that I’ve been hugely comfortable with cooking.  I have to admit I must have bought one or two blocks of tofu and tempeh over the years, and never used them only for them to be released from their packaging and added to my Hotbin!  A waste of money, of course… though thankfully, no more!

We’ve used tofu to make fake bacon.  It was a while ago and worked well though a bit of a faff, or so it seemed.  I cooked a dish with tempeh before Christmas, and I think one with tofu earlier this year, though only now am I being brave enough to get my head around my anxiety and really have a go.  As the Roasted Broccoli with Broad Beans and a Cheezy Potato Topping shows, if something does go wrong one can usually turn it around and still produce something edible, if not delicious!

I’ve learnt from various videos that freezing the tofu allows for more liquid to be squeezed out prior to cooking, and you end up with a firmer tofu.  Just torn from the block tofu, adding some spices and black pepper, a tablespoon of cornflour or gram flour and frying it gives a rather nice crispy, often delicious dish.  Adding extra flavours, as below, takes it to another level.

For this trial, I took inspiration from a reel I saw from Bosh, and have adapted it for how I cooked this: https://www.facebook.com/reel/514063331499667

Ingredients
300g block of firm tofu
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 tablespoon gram flour or cornflour
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, cut into strips (use green or yellow if you wish)
200g frozen green beans, or fresh 4cm piece fresh ginger or one frozen block
4 garlic cloves or one frozen block
250ml pineapple juice - this was the juice from a
4 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 tablespoon sesame oil
Rounded tablespoon tomato puree
Rounded tablespoon miso paste
Dessert spoon of honey
100g tinned pineapple chunks

Method
My block of tofu had been frozen, defrosted and then squeezed between my palms to remove as much liquid as possible.   Once I'd done this for a minute or two, I tore 2cm’ish chunks off the block and put them in a bowl, continuing until the whole block was in small chunks.  I ground black pepper over the chunks, sprinkled over the gram flour, and then tossed all together to coat the chunks.

In a heavy bottomed pan (or a frying pan) I put in half the olive oil and brought it to just before smoking, then added the tofu chunks with my fingers (leaving any remaining flour in the bowl) and cooked them through, stirring and browning for about five minutes.  I then removed all from the pan to a plate.

I added the rest of the olive oil to the pan, followed by the red onion and pepper.  I added a tablespoon of water and then covered it with a lid and put it on low heat for five minutes.  Then I added the green beans, and with a lid on cooked these for another five minutes, stirring regularly.

Whilst the veg was cooking, I put all the remaining ingredients except the chunks of pineapple into a jug and gave all a good mix.

The remaining flour in the bowl went into the pan next, and I gave it all a good stir - the remaining flour will thicken the mix a bit.  Then the liquid mix went in, I brought it all up to a bubble, and cooked through for another minute stirring regularly.

Then I added the cooked tofu chunks back in and the pineapple chunks, stirring all through and bringing back to a bubble and slow simmer for about a minute.

I thoroughly heated through some cooked brown rice in the microwave, popped this into two bowls and topped off with this sweet and sour deliciousness.

I think next time I will try cornflour instead of gram flour, though Richard was very happy with it exactly as it was!

Weather:  Sunny start, and despite a few clouds the sun shone throughout the day.  17° high today, though we’re due an overnight of only 3°.

Breakfast:  Bran sticks, yogurt, sliced banana
Lunch:  Baguette with cheese, our own lettuce, cucumber and a little mayo
Supper:  Sweet & Sour Tofu with brown rice​