Black Pepper Tofu

Cooked by Mark a couple of times at our family holiday in the Lake District in the Summer of 2016. Made much easier if you whizz up all the aromatics in the food processor. Not a recipe for those scared of butter....... I'm sure you could do the same thing with chicken breast with the same technique if you wanted to feed carnivores. I haven't had sweet soy sauce to hand on any occasion that I have cooked it, and have also been cautious with the peppercorns, as 5 tbsp seems like an enormous amount. Basically just taste it to balance the sugar and salt and how peppery you like.

800g firm tofu (such as Tau Kwa brand)

vegetable oil for frying

cornflour to dust the tofu

150g butter

12 small shallots (350g in total), thinly sliced

8 fresh red chillies (fairly mild ones), thinly sliced

12 garlic cloves, crushed

3 tbsp chopped fresh root ginger

3 tbsp sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)

3 tbsp light soy sauce

4 tsp dark soy sauce

2 tbsp caster sugar

5 tbsp coarsely crushed black

peppercorns (use a pestle and mortar or a spice grinder)

16 small and thin spring onions, cut into 3cm segments

Start with the tofu. Pour enough oil into a large frying pan or wok to come 5mm up the sides and heat. Cut the tofu into large cubes, about 3 x 2cm. Toss them in some cornflour and shake off the excess, then add to the hot oil. (You’ll need to fry the tofu pieces in a few batches so they don’t stew in the pan.) Fry, turning them around as you go, until they are golden all over and have a thin crust. As they are cooked, transfer them onto kitchen paper.

Remove the oil and any sediment from the pan, then put the butter inside and melt it. Add the shallots, chillies, garlic and ginger. Sauté on low to medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the ingredients have turned shiny and are totally soft. Next, add the soy sauces and sugar and stir, then add the crushed black pepper.

Add the tofu to warm it up in the sauce for about a minute. Finally, stir in the spring onions. Serve hot, with steamed rice.