A fusion tofu dish with a spicy kick!
Today's special: Chef's Surprise!
"You will eat it, AND you will like it!"- from Lucy (Charlie Brown)
Watson's Notes:
This recipe has revived a traditional Chinese dish "Tofu with thousand-year-old eggs", and made it more accessible and acceptable by the modern palate. Of course, if your guests are the more adventurous type such as some in my household, simply replace the avocados with thousand-year-old eggs.
Avocado is probably one of the most adaptable ingredients in salad dishes. Rich in texture, it readily absorbs flavor from the accompanying ingredients and turns the dish even richer and more flavorful.
Ingredients:
1 box of soft tofu
1 avocado
2 tablespoons cooking oil
2 tablespoons Szechuan Chili Soybean Paste (Pi Xian Dou Ban) - frequently found in Asian grocery market. We used the one in the picture above (upper right, red pouch), but really any brand would work.
(Optional) ½ teaspoon rice vinegar
(Optional) 1 teaspoon soy sauce
(Optional) 1 tablespoon sugar - this and above “optionals” add flavor to the dish, however, you can forego these for lower sodium.
(Optional) 1 clove of garlic, minced, and/or diced scallion - whenever possible, always add a handful of fresh herbs that can boost both the flavor and healthy score of the dish.
Steps:
Take out tofu from the box, drain the water, and transfer the tofu to a serving dish. To serve this dish hot, simply microwave the tofu for 1~2 minutes on “High”, and drain any remaining water/juice from the dish.
Cut up an avocado, remove the pit, scoop out the flesh, and lay it on top of the tofu.
Heat up the cooking oil in a saucepan, put in the Chili Soybean Paste, gently stir while heating up the paste for about 2~3 minutes. In the end, the sauce should be well blended in with the oil rather than being chunky. If garlic and scallion are used, add them with the sauce to cook together.
Remove the sauce from heat immediately after being cooked. If desired, add the vinegar, soy sauce and sugar into the saucepan and mix thoroughly.
Pour the sauce onto the avocado and tofu dish.
Dig in!