by Abra Bennett
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Abra Bennett's Notes:
Expand1 tablespoon peanut oil, Chinese if possible Ask a question about this ingredient
2 shallots, sliced thin Ask a question about this ingredient
3 cloves garlic, chopped Ask a question about this ingredient
1 teaspoon Chinese chili-garlic sauce Ask a question about this ingredient
1/4 cup fish sauce Ask a question about this ingredient
1 tablespoon natural peanut butter Ask a question about this ingredient
1/4 cup hot water Ask a question about this ingredient
1 teaspoon sugar (optional) Ask a question about this ingredient
1 pound silken tofu, cubed Ask a question about this ingredient
4 green onions, sliced Ask a question about this ingredient
1/2 cup chopped cilantro Ask a question about this ingredient
1/4 cup basil chiffonade, use Thai basil if possible Ask a question about this ingredient
chili oil for drizzling Ask a question about this ingredient
Heat the peanut oil in a large skillet and saute shallots until golden. Add sliced garlic and sizzle briefly. Add chili-garlic sauce and fry until fragrant. Add fish sauce and sizzle until nearly evaporated. Stir in peanut butter, so mixture forms a rough paste. Whisk in hot water (and sugar, if using) - the consistency of the mixture should be between a thick sauce and a loose paste.
Ask a question about this stepGently stir in the tofu, trying to keep cubes intact as much as possible, Stir in green onions, cilantro, and basil and heat through. Drizzle with chili oil and serve with brown or basmati rice.
Ask a question about this stepOk, 1/4 cup fish sauce has got to be a miss print. I only used 4-5 shakes from the bottle, tablespoon at the most. Fish sauce is way to salty to use a 1/4 cup for this amount of ingredients. If you're using a good hot garlic-chile sauce the heat from that will make up for the salt. Add the water or chicken stock and use as much as is needed to make a sauce that will cover the type of starch you use...use rice or rice vermicelli. I used a squirt of lime at the end.
I made this and thought it was very tasty. I added a squirt of lime juice at the end.
I made this last night and really enjoyed it, except ... maybe my fish sauce was saltier than yours, but woof, was my dish salty. I'm going to make it again with less fish sauce and I'm sure it'll be fantastic (because, it was pretty great - despite the salt).
Thank you for sharing this! Oh so comforting! I added some Sichuan pickled vegetable too.
This is from your friendly editors at Food52.
Made this after reading the above comments, and cut back on the fish sauce. Still found the dish too salty, but flavors were great and silken tofu may be my new favorite food. I'm looking forward to experimenting with similar flavors for my next batch.