Fried Tofu with Thick Mushroom Sauce is made of just vegetables, but it is surprisingly filling and satisfying. The flavour of the Asian mushrooms in the thickened sauce makes the plain deep-fried tofu so tasty. It is also a great vegetarian dish when you use a vegetarian dashi stock.
Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.
- 300-330g/0.7lb deep-fried tofu (note 1)
- 200g/7oz Asian mushrooms (note 2)
- 20g/0.7oz carrot cut into 3mm/⅛" wide, 4-5cm/3⁄16-2" long batons
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 200ml/6.8fl oz dashi stock (or 200ml /6.8fl ozwater + ⅓ tsp dashi powder, note 3)
- 1 tbsp cooking sake
- 1 tbsp mirin
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1⅓ tbsp soy sauce
- ½ tbsp corn flour diluted in 2 tsp water
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Cut deep-fried tofu into bite-size cubes/cuboids (note 3).
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Shiitake – remove the stem and slice thinly into 2mm/3⁄32" thick pieces.
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King oyster – cut in half (or into 3) horizontally to about 4-5cm/3⁄16-2" long, then halve each piece lengthwise. Slice each piece lengthwise into 2mm/3⁄32" thick pieces.
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Enoki - remove the clustering part at the bottom to separate each stem. Halve the length of the stem.
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White pearl – shred each mushroom with your hands into thin strips.
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Heat sesame oil in a frying pan over medium heat.
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Place the tofu pieces in the frying pan, facing the cut side (tofu side, not the fried side) down.
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Cook the tofu for 4-5 minutes, during which turn the pieces 90 degrees so that the other cut side faces down.
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Continue to cook for a couple more minutes, turning the pieces over so that all the sides are lightly browned. Transfer tofu to a serving plate.
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Add vegetables to the pan and sauté for 3 minutes or so until the mushrooms start wilting.
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Add all the Sauce ingredients, excluding corn flour/cornstarch, to the pan and bring it to a boil.
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Reduce heat to low and add the corn flour/cornstarch in a swirling motion and mix quickly. The sauce starts bubbling and thickens (note 4).
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Pour the vegetable sauce over the deep-fried tofu and serve while the sauce is hot.
1. There are different kinds of deep-fried tofu that you can buy, and the size of tofu also varies. The shape of my deep-fried tofu was 4cm x 5cm x 5cm/3⁄16" x 2" x 2" cuboid, and I needed 6 of them. You might find larger deep-fried tofu, like my Home-made Atsuage (Deep-fried Tofu). You can use either of them.
Deep-fried tofu is different from tofu puffs. Unlike the deep-fried tofu, the tofu inside the tofu puffs is not dense and mostly air bubbles. Although you could make today’s dish with tofu puffs, it will lack the tofu texture.
In general, a larger size of deep-fried tofu contains less calories.
2. You can use any combination of Asian mushrooms. I used shiitake, king oyster, enoki, and white pearl mushrooms.
3. My deep-fried tofu blocks needed to be quartered. If you are using smaller blocks of Chinese deep-fried tofu, you only need to halve each block. In the case of atsuage, halve it lengthwise, then cut the halved blocks into 1.5-2cm/⅝-¾" wide pieces perpendicular to the first cut.
4. The thickness of the sauce can vary slightly depending on the quantity of liquid left in the pan, which is impacted by the size of the pan and the strength of the heat.
It is a good practice not to add all of the corn flour/cornstarch at once. Add it gradually and check the thickness of the sauce. You may need less than the specified quantity. If the sauce is still watery after adding all of it, add more corn flour/cornstarch diluted in water to the pan.
5. Nutrition per serving. If you use atsuage, the calories will be lower.
serving: 241g calories: 527kcal fat: 38g (57%) saturated fat: 3.8g (19%) trans fat: 0g polyunsaturated fat: 2.6g monounsaturated fat: 10g cholesterol: 76mg (25%) sodium: 788mg (33%) carbohydrates: 8.9g (3%) dietary fibre: 4.6g (18%) sugar: 0.1g protein: 36.4g vitamin a: 0mcg (0%) calcium: 35mg (3%) iron: 0.3mg (2%) potassium: 104mg (3%)