General Tao's Tofu
1 (12 ounce) box firm tofu, in 1" cubes (frozen and thawed, if desired)
1 egg equivalent (e.g., EnerG Egg Replacer), prepared
3 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons water, divided
3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon cornstarch, divided
vegetable oil for frying + 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
3 green onions, chopped
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2/3 cup vegetable stock
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon sherry, optional
red pepper, to taste
steamed broccoli, to serve
1. Mix the egg replacer as specified on the box and add an additional 3 tablespoons water. Dip tofu in egg replacer mixture and coat completely. Sprinkle 3/4 cup cornstarch over tofu and coat completely. Watch out that the cornstarch doesn't clump up at the bottom of the bowl.
2. Heat oil in pan and fry tofu pieces until golden. Drain oil. Heat 3 tablespoons vegetable oil in pan on medium heat. Add green onions, ginger, and garlic; cook for about 2 minutes. Be careful not to burn garlic.
3. Add vegetable stock, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, sherry, and red pepper.
4. Mix 2 tablespoons water with 1 tablespoon cornstarch and pour into mixture stirring well. Add fried tofu and coat evenly.
Serve immediately with steamed broccoli over your choice of rice.
SO HOW'D IT GO?
Just finished making this recipe. Next time I'll freeze the tofu overnight. I baked it, using no egg mixture, just shaking it with some cornstarch and spices, and when I shook it, the cubes sort of...fell apart and mushed together. This is my first time cooking with tofu, so I wasn't surprised. But when I baked it, the mush held together pretty well after a few flips. Just a greased cookie sheet with the oven on broil, as per another reviewer. I'll probably use more tofu next time, too, because it didn't make much.
I couldn't find enough vegetables, but I found a bag of frozen stir fry vegetables that included onions, peppers, broccoli, mushrooms and I forget what else. I added pineapple, too. :)>>>
Doubled the sauce recipe as per suggestions of other reviewers. I didn't have any vegetable stock, so I substituted water and added some sesame oil and keyanne pepper for spice, since all the General Tao's dishes I've had in restaurants are a bit spicy and a lot of reviewers commented on how it was too sweet.
The sauce wasn't thick enough, but that's probably because I ran out of corn starch. I added a small mixture of flour and water, and that thickened it right up.
Served over orzo pasta. It ended up being really spicy, but delicious, because that's how it's supposed to taste, in my opinion. ;)b
So good recipe!! Very tasty. My meat-eating dad even liked it. My mom'll try some when she gets home from work. It might be too spicy for her, but I guess we'll see. :)
this was really great! we order it all the time from our favorite chinese place, and this definitely rivaled it.
like everyone else, i doubled the amounts and am so glad i did. it fed 4 w/ some leftovers for tomorrow!
i added some hoisin sauce to the sauce, and i'd prefer next time to add more spice, with more hot pepper or cayenne.
;)b
I love, love, LOVED this recipe (and so did my non-vegan friends!!) I made it twice, the first time with bigger pieces of tofu, the second time with smaller ones. The bigger pieces definitely worked better. I also added a variety of veggies, etc. like baby corn, water chestnuts, and bamboo shoots. Delicious!!!! :) ;)b
i made this the other night for dinner & oh my but it was yum! :)>>>proly the best stir fry sauce i've come across took the advice to double the sauce & very glad i did, also i loved the way the tofu came out & so did my bf....& he is like way picky
this is def as good as everyone says.. but my real fav is the orange tofu
:D O.M.G! This was the best vegan recipe that I've ever had! I mixed the egg replacer (per recipe with the extra water) in a covered container, added 1/2 block of extra firm tofu cubed, 1/2 bag of MS Chik'n Strips and cornstarch, mixed and then fried in oil. I doubled the sauce and served it over fresh steamed broccoli and basmati rice. WOW! That was awesome! I will probably try to cut back on the sugar next time and also bake the tofu for a healthier version.
the tofu was a bit too much of a hassle for me to bother with on a regular basis. also, i had my well-meaning boyfriend watching the tofu while it fried, and he kind of STIRRED it rather than flipping it, so the coating pretty much ALL fell off in a big blob. lol. i think, for the future, that maybe i'll make the sauce ahead of time and marinate the tofu in it, then bake it? either that or just use some kind of fake meat stuff.. and just make the veggies and rice right when i want to eat it.. it took me waaay too long doing it this way, and i'm lazy.
the sauce was great. no complaints about the flavor. i even just used garlic and onion POWDER rather than minced, and it came out great. doubling it was a good idea.. plenty left over for lunch today! i'm dying to try this sauce over like, udon or chowmein noodles.
Wow, this was delicious! I used a half a yellow onion instead of green onions, didn't have any sherry, added a bit of sesame oil, used Bragg's instead of soy sauce and doubled the sauce. Even though it took forever to make (I baked the tofu for 55 minutes on an oiled pan at 350 degrees) with the pressing and baking of the tofu, it was well worth my time and effort.
Ok, i've made this recipe so many times and yes the healthiest way to make this is by baking the tofu. I use conrstarch and add garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, white ppeper and black pepper. Mix all in container with lid, add tofu cubes and shake, no need to use egg or nothing like that and the flavor is amazing. I grease cookie sheet and then place tofu a bit apart from eachother and bake at broil (the highest my oven can go) and just check on it and flip and toast the other side. For the sauce i love onions so I add about 2 medium french onions, dice em up and sautee on peanut and sesame oil until just before browning then i add the garlic and fresh ginger as well and cook like recipe says. I've tried this with fresh pineapple as well as other veggies and it always turns out great, the only thing is that you should do the veggies on another pot with one sauce recipe for every 2 cups of chopped veggies.
Don't fry the tofu, just bake it, makes sense ;)
Awesomeness. In the form of a stir fry.
Ok, first off, I didn't find any egg replacer, but I had veganaise.. :-D
So i took about 3 tablespoons of that and just whipped it with about a tablespoon or less of water, just to smooth it out, but keep it thick too. Then I did what the recipes said and cooked that bean cake like nobodies biz... yeah, it was delicious! DUH!!! :P
Then, the sauce was delicious with sugar in the raw. That stuff in the brown packet that you can get 1/2 tablespoons of at Starbucks, if you wanna. I used extra rice vinegar instead of sherry and white vinegar. It was the bomb diggedy doo dah!
One last mod that was, perhaps, the most delicious...put about 1/4-1/2 cup of crushed pineapples in the sauce. Stir fry and pineapples just make sense.
one more thing! Pure sesame oil make the tofu go down in the most delightful way. oh yeah. mushrooms if you like them ...ok I'm done!
;)
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