So after watching few documentaries on netflix (most recently Seaspiracy), Kieran and I felt like for when we are cooking at home, we should try our best to cook Veggie or Vegan meals. I think when we go round our parents’ house and they serve us Korean BBQ (from mine) and beef wellington (from Kieran’s), we probably will end up enjoying the food we get served. However, we will definitely try our best to come up with more veggie meals in our daily lives for sure. It is better for the environment and it is time for us to cook more conscientiously.
Hence, I bring us another tofu dish! (yay) This dish is just the right amount of spicy and it’s probably as healthy as you can get! No frying involved and it’s super quick.
Ingredients
- Tofu 300-350g! I recommend firm Korean tofu. Majority of British supermarket tofus are silken but as long as it’s firm it should still work like this one:
- Spring onions
- 1 Red chilli
- 1 tbsp Minced garlic
- Lee Kum Kee Minced Garlic 326g – they are cheaper in Asian supermarket! Normally cost around £2.50-£3
- 1 tsp minced ginger
- You can skip this tbh, I didn’t use any minced ginger and ended up just putting a slice of ginger in and you can take it out afterwards
- For those of you who want to buy minced ginger staple in the fridge to make it easy for you – Lkk Minced Ginger – 326G
- Water – 180ml
- Roasted sesame seeds – can skip this but looks cooler with it as garnish!
Sauce
- 1 tbsp Korean salted fermented shrimps
- Now this is something you can probably only get in Korean supermarkets. They normally come in a jar which you can easily keep it in the freezer and use it to make sauces and broth when needed – https://chiandfood.com/saltedshrimp
- 1.5 tbsp Korean soy sauce – make sure you get Jin soy sauce if you are going to get Korean one. Basically there’s lots of different soy sauce varieties and jin soy sauce is the one to use for nearly all Korean food
- 1.5 tbsp Korean chilli flakes
- Sugar 0.5 tbsp
- 1 tbsp Oligodang syrup – can skip this, you won’t find this unless you go to Asian/Korean supermarket
- 1.5 tbsp perilla oil – another Korean specific recipe, can easily be replaced with Korean sesame oil from ottogi for alternative. It is more expensive compared to sesame oil and you will be able to find it in Korean supermarket.
Step by Step
- Cut your tofu with about 0.7cm depth
- Cut the spring onions, chilli and get your minced garlic and ginger at ready (I totally forgot to include ginger so I added them at the end in panic so don’t worry if you’re like me)
- Layer them on nicely on the pan like below, you don’t need to add any oil at the bottom (no heat yet, just get it ready)
4. Now add all the ingredients you need for the sauce on top of the ingredients in the pan: 1 tbsp of saeoojeot (fermented salted shrimp), 1.5 tbsp of Korean chilli flakes, 1.5 tbsp of soy sauce, 0.5 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp oligodang syrup
5. Add water (roughly 180ml) – main thing is that it should not be overflowing. Remember it’s braising so you want half of the water to be evaporated anyway
6. Ensure the sauce is well mixed by just spreading it out gently with spoon/spatula – try not to break the tofu apart
7. Once you are happy that the volume of water has halved, add 1.5 tbsp of perilla oil on top. Then when you are ready to serve, add the roasted sesame seeds! (I also forgot to this oops)
Tofu has absorbed the sauce so well and it’s turned out delicious! Simple recipe and a rice thief! It’s a Korean phrase/idiom which we normally use for very delicious but easy dish you can easily finish your rice with.
Jalmukesumneda!
