Tasty Tofu

Yes tofu really can be tasty, I promise! Tofu has a really bad reputation as being very difficult to cook but this just isn't true, once you know what you're doing it's easy. I get my tofu from Longdan, Lewis and Dom's much proclaimed favourite supermarket, as it's super cheap at only £1.30 for an enormous slab of the stuff.

The mistake that most people make with tofu is to just fry it off lightly in a bit of oil and then marinate it. Sealing it with oil just stops the flavour of any marinade being fully taken up by the tofu and renders it slightly tasteless.

Tofu is of course pretty bland as is but it's real beauty lies in it's high absorbency - it will just suck up any flavours you soak it in. To ensure that it absorbs as much flavour as possible what you need to do is to simply fry it off lightly in it's own water.

Cut the tofu into the desired sized cubes and fry on a medium heat using a spatula to squeeze out as much of the water as possible.

Once all your tofu pieces are a light golden colour you're ready to add the marinade.

I make mine with lots of soy sauce, the juice of a lime (use only half if you don't like too sharp a flavour), some spring onion, 3 or so finely chopped garlic cloves, as much chilli as you like, fresh is best but dried chilli will do if you have nothing else, a little grate of ginger and a fair amount of soft brown sugar to sweeten it up. Leave to marinate for at least 30 minutes and simply add to your stir fry a few minutes before it comes off the heat to warm through.

And there you have it tofu that even Lewis and Dom will eat happily!