Practice Makes Perfect, or At Least Better

In the last post I was whinging about my cooking blahs this past week, but today I managed to fiddle around enough with a great-sounding recipe for General Tsao's Tofu I got off vegweb.com
that was a mucilaginous mess when I made it last week. Armed with more broccoli and tofu I assaulted the General and emerged victorious. Three out of four Jagareskis snorked it up. I still need to fine tune some things, but it was a great recipe that we'll make again.

General Tsao's Tofu

1 box firm tofu (not firm silken, but firm firm)
1 egg
1/2 cup cornstarch
Vegetable oil
3 scallions, chopped (or one onion and some chives from the garden)
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 Tbsp. minced fresh ginger
2/3 cup vegetable stock
2 Tbsp. wheat-free soy sauce or tamari
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. sesame oil
1 Tbsp. cider vinegar
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
2 bunches of broccoli, cut into florets and stems chopped fine

Pat tofu dry and press to remove extra moisture about 1/2 hour.

Put rice on to cook (3 cups of uncooked rice seems to work for our 4 member family). The rice cooker makes it a snap.

Steam broccoli until bright green, but not mushy. Rinse with cold water to stop cooking. Set aside.

Beat egg well. Cut up tofu into cubes and dip into egg and then cornstarch. Heat vegetable oil in large saute pan and fry tofu pieces until golden. Scrape up any crusty bits and place with tofu to drain.

Heat another couple Tbsps. vegetable oil in pan. Add scallions, ginger and garlic and, stirring frequently, cook for 2-3 minutes until golden. Add vegetable stock, soy sauce, brown sugar, red pepper flakes, vinegar and sesame oil. Bring to boil.

Add broccoli and tofu and stir to coat with sauce and heat through.

Serve over steamed rice.

Serves 4.