Sweet & Sour Tofu

After having the tofu for the general Tao's tofu I had to try it with Sweet & Sour dish. So last night I finally pulled the tofu out of the freezer and made it. John and I loved it so I had to blog about it today. So here is the what I used...

Carrots
Sweet peas
Pineapples- 1/2 cup
Red sweet peppers= 1/4 cup
Sweet & Sour sauce recipe or Jar (I was lazy and use the jar last night)
Frozen tofu ( Has a great texture and works really well)
Corn starch
Egg replacer- 2 Tbsp
Water- 6 to 8 Tbsp
Oil
Rice

Start your Brown rice about 15 to 20 minutes ahead of time. If you are using white you could just add in in with your veggies to cook.

First defrost your tofu and let it drain. Piece it up. Mix water and egg replacer to a good consistency. Make sure its not lumpy and that it isn't thick but not runny. Right in the middle. :) Coat your tofu a little at a time and place in cornstarch. This takes a good amount of corn starch. Just start with a bowl full. Cover in corn starch and place in a hot skillet w/ a small amount of oil. These cook more even when you only do say 10 at a time. But you can do them all at once. They are just not a pretty. You can cook this and set it aside or cook it while you cook your veggies. You can steam or boil the veggies till carrots are soft but not mushy. The sweet peas should still have a slight crunch. Put all the veggies, tofu, and enough sauce to cover all in to the veggie pan.
Warm up the tofu and then serve over your rice.

Freezing tofu: Something I like to do with my tofu is freeze it in the size I will need later. When you freeze it in small pieces it freezes faster and thaws quickly. Break apart into bite size pieces and freeze in a single layer on a baking sheet. After it is totally froze place in a freezer bowl or baggy. Tofu after setting in towels for about 15 minutes. This is one package of Nori Tofu. The kind that has the water around it in the cooler section of the grocery store. This kind has a better texture then the tetra packaged tofu. I cut it in half. So that more water would come out faster. Take the tofu and break into pieces or cut into sections. Place on wax paper in a single layer. The tofu takes on a yellow color when it is completely frozen. Do not try to cut the tofu when it is semi frozen. The way the ice crystals form it will just kind of break up. Place it in you storage bag or bowl and you have it when you need it!

To use place frozen tofu on a towel to soak up the extra fluid that drains off. Just defrost in microwave or just let thaw on its own. Let water drain well. Then its all ready to use. I don't know how long it will stay good in the freezer. I don't leave mine in there to long. Probably about 2 months is the longest I have had the small pieces in there.