Hoisin Tofu and Almonds

Another tofu recipe! This one is similar to ones I've made before, but uses lots of hoisin (as the title indicates) and has the crunchy addition of almonds. I found this recipe on a vegetarian blog, which I will now be frequenting quite often, veggienumnum.com

This was a good dish, but I would bake the tofu first. Normally that is what I do, but I thought I'd try it again in a pan, and it just proves to be too soft and mushy, often breaking apart and not staying in chunks. It also didn't get as crispy as I had hoped. So from now on- bake that tofu!

Ingredients:

10 1/2 oz. firm tofu
1 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 red and 1 green bell pepper, sliced
5 shallots, sliced
5 1/4 oz. button mushrooms, sliced
1 garlic clove, diced
2 1/2 oz. almonds

Sauce-

1 T cornstarch
1 T soy sauce
1 T hoisin sauce

Batter-

1 egg white
1 teaspoon salt
1 T cornstarch
1 T hoisin sauce


1.) Cut the tofu into chunks and soak in the stock for 30 minutes. Strain, reserving the stock, and drain the tofu well on paper towels.

2.) To make the sauce, blend the cornstarch with the reserved stock, hoisin sauce, and soy sauce in a medium pot. Bring the sauce to a boil, stir, until it turns dark in color and has thickened; 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

3.) To make the batter, lightly whisk the egg white, then mix in the cornstarch, salt and hoisin sauce to form a light batter. Toss the drained tofu in the batter to coat well.

4.) In a large frying pan, add oil and fry tofu til crisp and golden. Drain the tofu. Add the veggies and fry. Add the tofu and toss til heated through. Add the sauce and combine well. Finally, add almonds.

*You can serve this as is, or over rice or noodles.