I won’t lie – I love meat. I’m a big meat eater and I’ll have meat with most of my meals. However, I’m not a militant meat eater. I won’t eat something if it doesn’t have meat or proclaim it’s “not a meal” without it. I’ll happily eat vegetarian food, and I’ve eaten in a vegan restaurant and had some very nice food there.
With that being said, I’ve only had a tofu just the once, probably about ten years ago, and it was a bit… bland. I’ve not eaten it since then, but I wanted to rectify that and make it so that it can’t be bland, so I thought what better way to do that than take it and put it into two of my favourite things – curry and peanut butter!
This curry gives the tofu a rich and spicy flavour, and by adding cashews and mange tout gives an extra crunch and texture that it’d be lacking otherwise, and serving it with thick rice noodles completes this oriental-style curry. I tried it out on both my Mum – who no longer eats meat – and my Dad – who says he’ll never give up meat – and they both loved it, as did I, so despite your feelings on vegan food, this curry should please everyone who tries it.
Ingredients
- 375g Extra Firm Tofu
- 100g Cashew Nut
- 100g Mange Tout
- 2tbsp Peanut Butter
- 400ml Coconut Milk
- 50g Soft Brown Sugar
- 2tsp Salt
- 2 Shallots (or 1 Medium Onion)
- 5 Bulbs of Garlic
- 50g Fresh Ginger
- 1 Red Chilli
- 400g Rice Noodles
- 2tsp Chinese Five Spice
- 1tbsp Soy Sauce
- ½tsp Rice Vinegar
- 50g Cornflour
- Sesame Oil
- Peanut Oil
Instructions
Peel and chop up the shallots/onions, ginger, garlic and red chilli. It doesn't have to be finely diced, just chopped up enough to fit into a food processor. Blitz this up until it becomes a paste.
Add a little peanut oil to a wok over a medium heat, and then add your curry paste and brown sugar and mix together and gently cook for a few minutes.
Pour in the coconut milk into the paste, and add the two tablespoons of peanut butter, soy sauce and rice vinegar, stir together and turn the hob down to a low heat.
Take your tofu and place between kitchen towel and press it down to squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can. Now chop it the tofu into cubes.
Now, bring a pan of water up to gentle simmer and add the salt and the tofu and let it simmer for about five minutes to season the tofu from within.
While the tofu is simmering, add in the cashews and mange tout to the curry sauce and mix them in.
Return to the tofu, gently tip the tofu into a colander and drain of the water and leave to cool for five minutes.
Add the cornflower to a bowl, making sure all the lumps have been removed, and then gently toss the tofu in the cornflour so everything is completely coated.
Add a teaspoon of sesame oil and a teaspoon of peanut oil to a pan, and gently fry the coated tofu in the oil for 5 - 10 minutes until it gets crisp and golden, and then chinese five spice to the pan to season the tofu, coating it completely, and then add it into the curry sauce and cook for a futher 5 minutes.
Cook your rice noodles by following the instructions on the packet, and then serve them up with the curry and enjoy!
