Soy Squared Fried Rice

Update: our car is at the body shop and we should have it back next week! I can’t wait to see it all fixed!

Second update: In case you forgot how wonderful Santana is, here are some gorgeous pictures Matt took yesterday while he was working from home.  In the afternoon, the sun comes directly in the sliding glass door and Santana follows the sun for a warm nap place as it moves across the room. 

Food time!

Our somewhat-regular Thai restaurant makes this AMAZING fried tofu. I have tried fried tofu at other places and it is OK, but I haven’t found a restaurant with the same kind and it makes me sad.

So Monday night I took a leap and tried frying up some tofu for fried rice. It turned out GREAT! Next time, I’ll season up the flour mix a little more and fry at a higher temp for a little longer (the second batch turned out better than the first).

  Soy Squared Fried Rice

• Fried tofu squares
  • Extra-firm tofu, cut into squares and pressed between clean towels to remove the extra moisture
  • Dredged in a mixture of flour, salt, pepper, red pepper.
  • Fried on both sides in some vegetable oil until brown (about 10 minutes or so, depending on the heat of your oil)
• Round one: aromatics
  • Chopped Onion
  • Minced Garlic
• Round two: Veggies that need to be cooked a bit
  • Chopped red bell pepper
  • 3 carrots, peeled into long ribbons and roughly chopped
  • Frozen edamame (about 1 cup)
  • I feel like I’m forgetting something—you really can use any veggies you like.
• Round three: Veggies that only hit the heat at the last minute
  • Bean sprouts
  • Sliced green onions
  • (I often use baby bok choy or some cabbage here)
• Sauce options
  • Peanut Sauce
  • A tiny bit of broth or water
  • Soy Sauce (If you use soy sauce, that probably makes this a soy-to-the-third-power fried rice)
  • Hoisin
  • Thai chili sauce (only a tiny tiny bit!!)
  • Cayenne pepper
• 1 heaping cup of leftover rice (you can make fresh rice, but leftover is a little more dry and fries really nicely)
• 2 eggs, beaten

1. Prepare the tofu in a large frying pan, skillet or wok and set aside.  Leave a tablespoon or so of the vegetable oil in the pan.
2. Sauté the aromatics in the oil until translucent.  Using the leftover oil from the tofu works well because there will be a tiny bit of flour from the tofu coating, which will thicken as the sauce cooks.
3. Add in the round two veggies and let them cook until they are just starting to get tender. 
4. Toss the round three veggies in and stir.
5. Add your choice of sauce right after this and toss to coat.  I usually use a mix of the stuff listed above and sometimes try to make my own if I have the ingredients on hand.  You’ll want it to seem just a little more liquid than you like because you still need to add the rice and tofu.
6. Remove the veggies and sauce to a large plate. 
7. Fry the rice (sometimes I hold back the green onions and fry them with the rice instead) until it starts to get crispy.  This is where things can get smoky and burnt if you’re not paying attention!  This is also a good time to add peanuts if you want (an amazingly wonderful addition) or sesame seeds if you have them.
8. Make a well in the middle of the rice and fry the eggs quickly.  Once they cook through, mix with the rice.
9. Add the veggies, sauce, and tofu back into the pan and toss it all together. 

We served with some pot stickers from the freezer and a honey-cayenne-soy dipping sauce that Matt made! SO delicious!  Plus I have leftovers for lunch!

The other night, we also made some drinks with a fresh watermelon puree and some vodka….it was a liiiiittle too strong for us, but the watermelon was delicious (I have a giant bowl in the fridge with watermelon and cantaloupe and it is snacking heaven this week!) and I am mostly SO excited that it is almost summer! Hooray!

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 21st, 2009 at 4:39 pm and is filed under Fun, Leftovers, Life, Matthew, Puppy, Seattle, Yum. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.