Food: Spicy Dubu

Hazel Oh gives us sweet and spicy dobu fry up! (Dubu is the Korean word for tofu).

I’ve met so many people who tell me that tofu is gross. Sweetie: YOU’RE JUST NOT COOKING IT RIGHT! This recipe is for those people – it’s super easy, great for packed lunches and dinners, and delicious enough to scare away any tofu skeptic..

If you don’t have gochujang just go without it and flavour it with soy sauce (but you should really invest, especially if you like a bit of kick in your food). And do your wallet a favour – go to your Chinese grocers to buy the tofu, you don’t need to pay $4 for it.

Ingredients

750g of dubu (1 pack)

For the Sauce
1 tablespoon of gochujang
2 tablespoons of sugar (or sweetener of your choice)
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
1 teaspoon of finely diced ginger
3 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon of diced ginger (optional but ya should)
3 tablespoon of oil for pan frying tofu

The Sauce

1. Finely mince the garlic and set aside in a bowl

2. Spoon out the sauce ingredients in the same bowl and mix. Taste to see if the seasoning is right for you. If it is too spicy, add more sugar. You can always put less gochujang if you are worried about the spice.

Dubu – cutting and cooking

1. Drain the dubu. Slice the dubu into generous bite size pieces. If you have time, sprinkle coarse salt over the sliced dubu and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes or even over night. This helps to draw moisture out from the dubu, making the cooking time shorter and reducing the breakage of the dubu. This is purely optional.

2. Once that’s done, place a pan on high heat. Once it is hot, pour in a generous amount of oil – enough to cover the pan.

3. Gently place the dubu on the pan, being careful not to burn yourself.

4. Lower the the temperature based on how much water your dubu releases. If there is a lot of water coming out keep the heat high, if there isn’t much water lower the heat only slightly and keep shaking the pan to prevent burning.

5. Check to see if the bottom of the dubu is a nice golden colour, if so start flipping the dubu onto the other side and repeat the process.

6. When both sides of the dubu are golden and crispy around the edges lower the heat to about medium and pour the sauce over the dubu.

7. Swirl the sauce over the dubu so it gets covered, then let the sauce cook over medium heat without the lid for 8 minutes 

Serve with rice! Or, if you’re feeling adventurous, as a patty substitute in a burger.