Szechuan Peppered Tofu

Hello Fellow Nom Seekers!

I am feeling rather proud of myself, I made this one up as I went.  All I had in the fridge was a sad block of tofu about to hit expiry and I turned it into something wonderful which everyone ate!  It's tofu - so it's healthy and the Szechuan pepper gave a spicy kick to an otherwise bland tofu.  It also had a crunchy exterior which was a lovely contrast to the soft interior of the tofu.

You really only need 5 ingredients. The rest are just seasoning such as salt and soy sauce (if you want to).

Ingredients:

• 1 block of firm tofu.  Mine was already pre-cut into blocks
• 2 tablespoons of potato starch
• 1 teaspoon of Szechan pepper (grounded)
• Oil for frying
• Salt or soy sauce to season
• Optional - pan toasted dry shrimp skins for sprinkling.  I must credit this to my Mum.  She gave me the idea of pan toasting a heap of dry shrimp skins and putting them in a jar in the fridge.  I use it for garnishing and it leans a lovely seafoody flavour and it looks pretty too.  

Method:

• Mix potato starch and the ground Szechuan pepper on a plate.
• Coat each side of the blocks of tofu with the dry mixture.  There should be enough inherent moisture in the tofu to make the dry mixture stick.  
• Heat oil in a pan and gently pan fry each block of tofu of each side.  Use medium to low heat.  
• Serve with either seasoning of salt or soy sauce.  Sprinkle dry shrimp skins as an optional extra.  

Enjoy!  I had this with rice with other dishes.  Will definitely put this one on rotation.

Until next time...

(This post is shared at The Healthy Happy Green & Natural Party" blog hop.  Great site - go check it out for plenty of inspirations!)