Braised tofu-simple and quick using onion infused oil

Tofu is one of my favourite ingredients to cook. It’s high in protein (vegetarian!) and also great for days when I want a slightly lighter meal. This braised tofu is simple to make and utilizes onion infused oil. Best of all it takes 15 minutes to make and is so good on rice.

I remember growing up hearing tofu from my classmates as something foreign and only eaten by people who are vegetarian. They also complained that it was too plain. However, I grew up eating tofu and I eat it multiple ways. Tofu can be soft, medium, firm. There are also fermented, dried tofu and even tofu skins. Each different type of tofu products are made differently so it’s very versatile.

I think this braised tofu is a great introduction to using tofu in your daily meal. It also helps that this recipe is simple to make and delicious too!

Ingredients

The main ingredients for this recipe is just tofu! I’m doing a bit of cheat here by using the onion infused oil to flavour the tofu. However if you don’t have the onion infused oil, just slice up some scallions, fried in oil. To make the tofu even more flavourful, I also added soy sauce, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, salt and ground white pepper.

To make the sauce more thicker, I used some cornstarch water.

How to make it

First use paper towel to dry off the tofu. Break the tofu with your hands into chunks. Cut some scallions to use for flavouring. You can either use onion infused oil that I made a post about or you can use the cut up scallions to make the oil. Make the sauce by combining soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, salt, white pepper and bit of water. Also get some cornstarch and mix with water.

Using scallion oil

If using scallion to flavour the oil, put some oil in a wok, heat on medium. Start to fry up the scallions they are golden brown around the edges. Take the scallion out and fry the tofu until the tofu is slightly golden brown. Add in the scallions back in, add in the sauce to let it simmer for about 10 minutes. Add in the cornstarch water to thicken the sauce.

Using Onion infused oil

If using onion infused oil, put the oil into the wok and heat on medium. Fry tofu in the onion infused oil. Add in some more chopped up scallions for more flavour. Fry the tofu and scallion until they are slightly golden brown and add in your sauce. Let is simmer for about 10 minutes. Put in cornstarch water to thicken the sauce.

Serve with rice.

Pro tip

• Make sure to dry the tofu with paper towel. It will help with splatter when frying and also develop a skin on the tofu.
• For the lazy, break the tofu with your hands
• Add enough oil to fry the tofu but don’t put too much as it will become too oily.