Extra-crispy chili garlic tofu

If you are cooking for someone who has announced they do not like tofu, cook this. It leads with garlic and chili, two flavors nobody has to be talked into, and the texture is closer to something fried from a takeout container than to anything a health food restaurant served them once in 2009.

The whole recipe hinges on one decision: the sauce goes in off the heat, at the very end, and gets less than a minute of contact. Everything else is standard. That single change is why this stays crisp when other sticky tofu recipes turn soft.

Ingredients

Tofu

• 1 block (14 to 16 oz) extra-firm tofu, pressed 20 to 30 minutes
• 1.5 tablespoons cornstarch or arrowroot
• 3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
• 3 tablespoons neutral oil for cooking

Sauce

• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 to 2 tablespoons chili garlic sauce or sambal oelek
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey
• 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
• 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil, added off the heat
• Green onions and sesame seeds, to finish

One tablespoon of chili garlic sauce gives a warm background heat. Two is properly spicy. Sambal oelek is straight chili with no garlic in it, so if you use sambal, keep all four garlic cloves.

Method

1. Press and cut. Press the block 20 to 30 minutes, then cut into three quarter inch cubes and pat the cut faces dry. Tofu keeps weeping after it is cut, so this second drying matters.
2. Coat. Toss the dry cubes with the cornstarch and half a teaspoon of salt until they look lightly dusted rather than pasty. Do this immediately before cooking, not in advance.
3. Mix the sauce. Whisk the soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, maple syrup and vinegar in a small bowl and put it within arm's reach of the stove. Once the tofu is crisp there is no time to be measuring.
4. Fry. Heat the oil in a twelve inch pan over medium-high until it shimmers. Add the tofu in a single layer with gaps between the pieces. Leave it completely alone for 3 to 4 minutes until each piece releases on its own, then turn and continue until most faces are golden. Ten to twelve minutes total.
5. Bloom the garlic. Push the tofu to one side, drop the heat to medium, and cook the garlic in the clear space for 20 to 30 seconds until it smells sweet. Garlic burns in about forty seconds at frying temperature, which is why the heat comes down first.
6. Sauce off the heat. Take the pan off the burner entirely, pour in the sauce, and toss for 45 to 60 seconds. It will thicken from the residual heat and the starch on the tofu, and cling to every piece. Do not let it simmer.
7. Finish. Sesame oil, the last of the salt, then green onions and sesame seeds. Serve straight away.

Air fryer version

Toss the pressed, dried cubes with two teaspoons of oil, then the cornstarch and salt. Air fry at 390F for 14 to 17 minutes, shaking at the halfway point.

Meanwhile cook the garlic in a teaspoon of oil in a small pan over medium heat for 20 seconds, add the sauce, and let it bubble for 30 seconds until slightly thick. Take it off the heat, add the hot tofu, and toss. The air fryer guide covers timings for other cut sizes.

Where it goes wrong

It went soft. The sauce was on the heat too long, or it simmered. Off the burner, under a minute, then out of the pan.

The garlic tasted burnt. It went in at frying temperature. Drop the heat before the garlic and count the seconds.

Half the pieces stayed pale. The pan was crowded. Two batches with visible gaps beats one full pan, and the crisping guide explains why.

The coating came off. The tofu was still wet when the starch went on, or you turned it before the crust set. Wait for the pieces to release themselves.

It tastes flat. More salt, then more vinegar. The sauce carries a lot of sugar and needs the acid to cut it.

Serving and keeping

Rice, noodles, or a plain crunchy salad. Something bland underneath is doing useful work here, because the tofu itself is loud.

It keeps two days in the refrigerator but the crust does not survive storage. Reheat in a hot dry pan for two minutes to bring some of it back. If you are cooking deliberately for leftovers, fry a plain batch and sauce only what you are eating now.