Buffalo tofu bites

Buffalo sauce is a shortcut through the entire argument about tofu. Nobody has to be persuaded to like hot sauce and butter, and the format is so familiar that people eat two before remembering they were supposed to object.

The sauce is two ingredients in the original: a cayenne pepper hot sauce and butter, whisked together. That combination was invented in Buffalo, New York in the 1960s and has barely changed since, which is a decent argument for not improving it much.

What matters here is that the tofu goes in properly crisp and comes out fast. Buffalo sauce is thin and aggressive and it will soften a crust in under a minute if you let it.

Ingredients

Tofu

• 1 block (14 to 16 oz) extra-firm tofu, pressed 20 to 30 minutes
• 1.5 tablespoons cornstarch
• Half a teaspoon of fine salt
• Half a teaspoon of garlic powder
• 3 tablespoons neutral oil for cooking

Sauce

• A third of a cup of Buffalo-style hot sauce
• 2 tablespoons butter, or a plant-based alternative
• 1 teaspoon honey or maple syrup
• Half a teaspoon of white vinegar
• Celery sticks and a blue cheese or ranch dip, to serve

Use a cayenne-based Buffalo or wing sauce rather than a general hot sauce. Sriracha and chipotle sauces both taste good here and neither tastes like buffalo, which matters if the point is familiarity.

Method

1. Press and cut. Twenty to thirty minutes under weight, then three quarter inch cubes, then pat the cut faces dry.
2. Coat. Toss with the cornstarch, salt and garlic powder until the pieces look lightly dusted.
3. Fry hard. Heat the oil in a twelve inch pan over medium-high until it shimmers. Single layer, gaps between pieces, undisturbed 3 to 4 minutes until they release themselves, then turn and continue until deeply golden. Twelve to fourteen minutes total, and go slightly darker than you would for other recipes, because this crust is about to take a beating.
4. Make the sauce. In a small pan over low heat, melt the butter into the hot sauce with the honey and vinegar. Whisk until glossy, then take it off the heat. Do not boil it or the butter splits out.
5. Toss and serve. Hot tofu into a bowl, sauce over, toss for about thirty seconds, onto the plate. Celery and dip alongside.

The bowl matters. Tossing in the pan keeps the sauce on heat, which thins the butter and softens the crust faster.

Air fryer version

This recipe suits an air fryer particularly well, because the drier surface holds up longer against a thin sauce. Toss the pressed and dried cubes with two teaspoons of oil, then the starch and seasonings, and air fry at 400F for 16 to 18 minutes, shaking twice.

Make the sauce on the stove while it runs, then toss in a bowl as above. The air fryer guide has timings for other cut sizes.

Where it goes wrong

The sauce split into grease and liquid. Too much heat. Butter emulsifies into hot sauce over low heat and separates over a simmer. Whisk in a teaspoon of cold butter off the heat to bring it back.

Everything went soft immediately. The tofu was not crisp enough going in, or it sat in the sauce. Thirty seconds of tossing, then out.

Too hot to eat. Cut the hot sauce with an extra tablespoon of butter rather than with water, which would thin it.

The coating slid off in the sauce. Starch went onto damp tofu. Dry the cut faces properly, as the crisping guide sets out.

Serving

Celery and a cold creamy dip are not decoration. The cooling and the crunch are structurally part of how this dish works, and without them it is just hot cubes.

It also goes into a sandwich with slaw, onto a salad, or into a wrap. It does not keep well, since the sauce softens the crust overnight, so cook what you plan to eat. If you want leftovers, fry a plain batch using the basic method and sauce it fresh each time.