Hey, guess what? I made some spicy crunchy garlic tofu. Wow, it was Korean, vegan, and delicious.
Let me tell you how it came about. I semi-accidentally watched a cooking video on youtube. Recipe looked delicious and very possible to make. Lately I’m studying Korean language a lil bit, and google gods or youtube gods or whatever know I lean vegan. So the algorithm did well, showing this recipe to me!
Then the recipe included this link to the Korean vegan, so I could see the ingredients list. Yes, cool! I’m glad I saw the video, because I could grasp of how to cook the tofu. First you dredge it in salted potato starch, which helps it get really crisp. And it’s no joke that they stick together, if they touch.
spicy crunchy garlic tofu
I made it for breakfast. Ming helped me. First I made rice. Then I worked on the sauce and chopped veg. Peeling and chopping seven cloves of garlic went well.
I used a fork to turn the tofu, but next time I would like to use long tongs. The oil popped a lot, which was not nice to my hands, which got many brief, intense ouchie feelings. The second half of the tofu, I was getting jumpy, from the many small pains. Tofu trauma!
It will go faster the next time. I just need to make it again before I lose the memory of my experience with the first time. It’s all pretty easy. Just maybe don’t make it for breakfast when you’re really hungry. Maybe you could make it for lunch, like prep the veg mid-morning and do the cooking just before lunch time. That would be my advice to you, dear reader.
The sesame seeds are a nice touch, and I wanted to lick the spoon. I did lick the spoon! I erred on the side of less hot, so I could be sure to be able to eat it. Next time I’ll use more chiles and red ground chile powder. It’s hard when we pick chiles from our garden and are not sure how hot they are.
I used apple cider vinegar rather than rice vinegar, just because that’s what we have. I used Ethiopian bereber spices rather than the korean red pepper because that’s what we have. Skipped the wine. Made sure to cook the onion well because raw onion is probably the worst thing I can do to my stomach.
It was fun to make Korean food for the first time. I feel more capable than I knew–great feeling.
