Recipe for Tofu with hot and sour rhubarb sauce
Recipe inspired by Jamie Oliver’s Pork with Hot and Sour rhubarb sauce from Jamie at Home. There are three different sources of chilli in this recipe, so do miss one out if you want to.
Serves 4
The tofu and marinade
1 Tbsp honey (vegans substitute with agave nectar)
1 tsp five spice powder
Quarter tsp dried chilli flakes
1 Tbsp vegetable oil (plus a little extra for cooking)
1 Tbsp rice wine
500g plain firm tofu, cut along the horizontal and then into thin 1 inch strips
The sauce
400g rhubarb, trimmed and roughly chopped
A big thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled
A red chilli
3 cloves garlic
3 Tbsp honey
3 Tbsp soy sauce
The topping
1 red chilli, finely sliced
2 Tbsp cashew nuts, roughly chopped
4 spring onions, finely sliced
A small handful fresh coriander
2 limes, halved
The rice
Brown rice
Kale, sliced (as much as you can fit in your pan as it will shrink down massively)
Sesame oil
A couple of hours before you want to eat, marinade the tofu by mixing all of the marinade ingredients together and pouring the marinade over the tofu. Mix and leave aside in the fridge.
When you are ready to start, begin by getting the rice cooking (you can leave this part until a little later if you are using white rice or noodles).
Put all of the sauce ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth. Pour the resulting puree into a saucepan and simmer for about 20 minutes (the sauce will happily keep warm while everything else falls into place).
Heat a tiny splash of oil in a non-stick pan and sauté the tofu slices until golden. Put aside somewhere warm.
Just before you are ready to serve, use the residual oil in the non-stick pan (add a little more if you need it) to cook the kale until it softens a little and turns a brilliant green. Add the cooked rice to the kale along with a scant few drops of sesame oil.
To serve, dish out the rice/kale mix into warmed bowls, followed by the tofu and topped with a good dollop of the sauce. Finish by sprinkling over the topping ingredients, giving each person half a lime to add to taste.