Pineapple Sweet and Sour Tofu
Do you want to bring a novel and delicious dish for your family? Sweet and sour tofu with pineapple is a good choice. Its production process is full of fun. Let's make it together.
Why do I like this dish?
I like sweet and sour tofu with pineapple because it has an excellent taste. The tofu is fried until the skin is crispy and the inside is soft and tender. With one bite, the crispness and tenderness are perfectly combined. Pineapple is sweet and sour and juicy. Its taste complements the tofu well, resolving greasiness and creating a unique taste. Green and red peppers are bright in color and add a slight spiciness, making the taste of the whole dish more rich and layered.
The production process is also very interesting. Although there are many steps, it is not complicated. When making it by oneself, one can feel the joy of cooking. After completion, there is a great sense of accomplishment. The combination of ingredients is novel and unique. Whether it is for daily meals or entertaining relatives and friends, it can impress people at a glance and also receive a lot of praise.
Required raw materials and substitutes
Main ingredients
Tofu: Provides a soft and tender texture and is one of the main components of the dish.
Accessories
Garlic: Enhances fragrance and flavor, giving a unique garlic aroma.
Seasonings
Ketchup: Gives a unique flavor, rich in sweet and sour.
Salt: The basis for seasoning, stimulating the original flavor of ingredients.
Sugar: Increases sweetness and balances the taste.
Sesame oil: Adds aroma and makes the dish have a long aftertaste.
Starch: Used to coat tofu and help it be fried and formed.
Starchy water: Used for thickening to make the soup thick.
Cooking oil: Used for cooking and provides heat transfer.
Substitutes
Tofu: Soft tofu has a more delicate and smooth texture and a slightly higher water content. It is easy to break during cooking and needs to be handled with care.
Ketchup: Tomato sauce has a more delicate and smooth taste, slightly lower acidity and prominent sweetness. It is often used as a dipping sauce for Western food.
Starch: Corn starch has better viscosity and a slightly lower gelatinization temperature, with high operational convenience.
Starchy water: Starchy water made of potato starch has high transparency and strong viscosity and can create a brighter and thicker thickening juice.
Pineapple: Pineapple has a slightly higher sweetness and finer fiber. There is no need to dig out the eyes. It is more convenient to eat. The flavor is similar but slightly different.
Green peppers and red peppers: Colored sweet peppers such as yellow peppers have rich colors, slightly higher sweetness and lower spiciness, and can bring a different flavor to the dish.
How can we make tofu crispy?
First of all, we have to choose the right tofu. Old tofu is relatively firm and has low water content. It is easy to become crispy when fried. If we want to use tender tofu, we should freeze it in the refrigerator for a few hours before taking it out and frying it.
The cut tofu should have its surface moisture dried. Otherwise, it is not easy to form a crispy shell when frying. You can coat the tofu with a thin layer of starch or flour. You can also make a batter and put the tofu in it to be coated.
When frying, first heat the oil to 60% heat and fry slowly over low heat. When the surface is slightly yellow, take it out. Then heat the oil to 80% heat and put it in for re-frying for a while. In this way, the outer skin will be very crispy.
The frying time must be well controlled. It cannot be too short or too long. Otherwise, it will either not be crispy or too hard. You can also add a little baking soda to the powder or batter to make the outer skin looser. Or you can directly use an air fryer and set the temperature and time to fry crispy tofu.
What should we do if the pineapple is too sour?
The pineapple can be soaked in warm water with one spoonful of salt for 10 minutes, or soaked in warm water with one spoonful of sugar for 5 minutes. Both methods can reduce the sourness.
When cooking sweet and sour tofu with pineapple, the amount of sugar in the recipe can be increased to 10 grams and the amount of pineapple can be reduced to 80 grams. If the already cooked dish is too sour, 2 grams of sugar can be added for seasoning, but be careful to add it little by little to avoid being too sweet.
When buying pineapples, choose those with golden skin and a faint sweet fragrance. This kind of pineapple usually has moderate sourness. If the pineapple is left at room temperature for 2 to 3 days before eating, it will be sweeter than when it was just bought.
INGREDIENTS
Main Ingredients
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·250g tofu
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·100g pineapple
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·20g green pepper
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·20g red pepper
Accessories
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·10g garlic
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·10g scallion white
Seasonings
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·20g ketchup
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·5g salt
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·5g sugar
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·5ml sesame oil
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·Appropriate amount starch
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·Appropriate amount water starch
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·Appropriate amount cooking oil
COOKING STEP
Step 1
Cut 250 grams of tofu into long strips.
Step 2
Cut 100 grams of pineapple into small pieces.
Step 3
Cut 20 grams of green pepper and 20 grams of red pepper into diamond-shaped pieces.
Step 4
Crush 10 grams of garlic and mince it. Cut 10 grams of scallion white into sections.
Step 5
Put an appropriate amount of oil in the pot. Heat it to seven layers hot. Put in the tofu coated with starch and fry until golden, then take it out.
Step 6
Then fry the green and red pepper slices and take them out for standby.
Step 7
Leave oil at the bottom of the pot. Add minced garlic and scallion sections and stir-fry until fragrant.
Step 8
Then add pineapple pieces and stir evenly.
Step 9
Pour in 300 milliliters of clear water.
Step 10
Then add 20 grams of ketchup, 5 grams of salt, and 5 grams of sugar and stir evenly.
Step 11
Then add the fried tofu, green pepper, and red pepper and stir evenly.
Step 12
Finally, pour in an appropriate amount of water starch for thickening. Drizzle 5 milliliters of sesame oil and take out the pot after thickening.
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Recipe Variations
For fruits: Replace pineapple with mango. The mellow fruity aroma and soft texture of mango can bring unique flavor to the dish. Or add an appropriate amount of strawberries and put them in before taking out of the pot. Use the sweetness of strawberries to enhance the overall taste.
For tofu types: Replace ordinary tofu with lactone tofu. Due to its high water content, it needs to be frozen first and then processed. Japanese tofu can also be selected. Coat it with egg liquid and breadcrumbs and fry it to make its shell crispy and the inside tender.
For honey mustard flavor: Add 10 grams of honey and 15 grams of mustard sauce. Mix well first and then put it in the pot and boil it when making the sauce.
For curry flavor: Add 20 grams of curry powder. Stir-fry it until fragrant and then cook to give the dish a rich exotic fragrance.
Serving Suggestions
For staple food:
It can be paired with soft white rice. The sweet and sour sauce of sweet and sour tofu with pineapple, when mixed with rice, can make every grain of rice covered with a rich taste. One mouthful of rice, one mouthful of tofu and fruits, with a rich and satisfying taste.
Or it can be paired with pasta, such as thin noodles or macaroni. Pour the sauce of sweet and sour tofu with pineapple on the cooked pasta. Tofu, fruits and pasta are intertwined with each other, presenting an interesting fusion of delicious food.
For side dishes:
Stir-fried seasonal vegetables such as garlic broccoli and stir-fried pea sprouts are good choices for side dishes. The freshness of broccoli and the tenderness of pea sprouts can neutralize the rich taste of sweet and sour tofu with pineapple, making the whole meal more balanced.
For serving method:
Sweet and sour tofu with pineapple can be served on the table in a hollowed-out pineapple shell. Not only is the shape beautiful and unique, but it can also add a strong tropical atmosphere, making diners have more appetite and novelty.
FAQs:
If it is really necessary to eat, it is recommended to store tofu and pineapple separately. When heating, only heat the sauce and tofu. Finally, add pineapple at room temperature. Refrigerated storage should not exceed 24 hours, and room temperature storage should not exceed 4 hours.
Dishes with this sweet and sour taste are best cooked and eaten immediately. Each time, you can make an appropriate amount according to the number of people eating to avoid leftovers.
More experienced chefs usually soak pineapple chunks in salt water for 10 minutes in advance. After draining, they use high temperature for quick stir-frying. This way, it can not only reduce water production but also keep pineapples crisp and tender.
Before frying, place the tofu on kitchen paper and press for 10 minutes to absorb moisture. Sprinkle a layer of starch on the surface. This can not only reduce oil splattering but also make the outer skin of tofu crispier. When putting tofu in, use long chopsticks to gently place it along the side of the pot. Don't throw it in directly. Control the oil temperature at 70% heat.
During the frying process, wear long-sleeved clothes. It is best to wear heat-insulating gloves and operate at a distance. These protective measures can prevent being splashed by hot oil.
During the frying process, pay attention to observing the color change of tofu. When you see the bottom turn light golden, you can turn it over. Don't wait until it turns dark brown before turning it over, otherwise it is easy to over-fry. If you find that the color changes too quickly, it means the oil temperature is too high and you should appropriately turn down the heat.
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