Kung Pao Tofu With Rice.

During our most recent trip to the library, LeeLee found a new book, “The Chinese Takeout Cookbook,” sitting on the “Featured Books” shelf, and it certainly caught his eye right away!  It caught mine, too, as soon as he showed it to me, so we brought it home for a test-drive.  Tonight’s meal of kung pao tofu (the link goes to the recipe, which was reprinted with permission in the Omaha newspaper) with white rice comes from its pages – the maiden voyage! – and it’s safe to say we were both thrilled with the results.

The original recipe calls for chicken, but as usual, it’s super-easy to substitute a vegetarian protein instead.  Tofu always works well in Asian dishes, and the extra-firm variety was a hit here.  It held up well in the marinade and in the stir-fry pan, keeping its form all the while.

And the end result tasted great.  After years of trying and failing (or, at least, not succeeding to my liking), I think I may finally be getting the hang of stir-frying.  The trick, of course, is to cook the food over a high heat for a very short amount of time – a task I’ve had trouble with for years.  But today I decided to simply trust the instructions (imagine that!) and let the chips, or tofu cubes, fall where they may.  Less than 10 minutes from the time I turned the stovetop eye on, dinner was ready.  Now that’s service!

I loved the sauce from this recipe; it was tangy but not overly spicy, which I appreciated.  I substituted red pepper flakes for Sichuan pepper because I couldn’t locate the latter, and the recipe wasn’t worse off for it.  The spice and sweet notes blended so well together; I could see this same sauce being an excellent dip for veggies or other appetizers!

I’m so glad LeeLee found “The Chinese Takeout Cookbook” sitting on the library shelf; we’re excited to try another recipe soon!

:)