Honey Chilli Tofu

For a lot of vegetarians in India, delicacy starts and ends with Paneer. It is very understandable - Paneer goes really well in Indian cooking, be it the butter masalas and kadhai paneers of the world or the ubiquitous paneer tikka. However, this doesn't always work well, when you try to adapt paneer for dishes of other cuisines. The simple reason is that paneer is not that porous and cooking it requires use of a lot of masalas, something seldom done in other cuisines.

This was our thinking, as we wanted to prepare a very simple vegan starter with only a few ingredients, primarily honey and sriracha hot sauce. We chose tofu over paneer to make it healthier and also enables it to absorb the subtle flavours.

Ingredients

250 gms tofu, cut in squares
1 big onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp sriracha hot sauce / 1 tbsp chilli garlic sauce
2 tbsp honey / maple syrup
1 tsp all purpose flour
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp white sesame seeds
Salt and white pepper

Method

1. Marinate the tofu cubes in 1 tbsp hot sauce, 1 tbsp honey, and a pinch of sea salt / normal table salt. Marinate for at least 30 minutes for the flavours to soak in

2. Add the flour to the marinated tofu and mix to coat well. 

3. Now pan-fry the tofu cubes till all slides are golden brown and starting to get crisp.

4. In a separate pan, make the onion mix. Saute ginger garlic paste in a bit of oil and add onions to it.

5. Once the onions start to brown, Add 1 tbsp each of hot sauce and honey, white vinegar, soy sauce, white pepper and salt to taste.

6. Serve the tofu cubes on the bed of onions. Garnish with hot sauce and sesame seeds.