Tofu Sambal

This entry of goes to JFI-Soya of Monsoon Spice.

Moving to Singapore I was always fasinated by the way Chinese(buddhists & Chrishtians) Malysian(Muslims) & Tamilians (Hindus) live together in one country with lot of peace. Also how Chinese could maintain a very slim figure, malaysians a very heafty one & tamilians mainly from India a moderate one. Malaysians have a wide range of specialities, but for them briyani (I didnt spell wrongly, its called briyani instead of biriyani as normal) is the main dish & all non-veg stuff, but one of the vegge delicacies that they make to go as a side dish to briyani is Sambal. This

Sambal is prepared by us on a weekly basis as soya is good for health(definelty in moderation) & we use this is the side dish for our normal Sambhar rice or chapati or biryani. One other important ingredient for this Sambal is the Sambal red chilli which is used mainly this part of the country, but we can use normal chilli powder instead of this also.

Ingredients:

Tofu cut in rectanular pieces
Sambal red chillies (around 6)
or chilli powder (kashmiri chillies)
Onion - 1 big
Garlic - 6 cloves
Tomatoes - 2 big


Method:
1. Fry the tofu with little oil & be careful that the tofu does not stick on the sides (Good to get silken tofu which is soft)
2. Immerse Sambal red chillies in hot water for some time & once soft grind it with garlic to a smooth paste (if you are using kashmiri red chilli powder saute them for some time in warm oil & grind with garlic)
3. Take some oil in the pan & fry the prepared paste nicely till all the dry smell is gone (if you are using sambal red chilies then you need to fry for more time for the dry smell to go)
4. Once nicely fried add onion & tomatoes to this & also saute for some more time to make a thick paste and oil leaves the sides of the pan.
5. Then add tofu to it to coat all the masalas to the fried tofu. Be careful not to break the tofu.
6. Dont add coriander leaves as it gives a different taste to it.

Note :- Fry the tofu's carefully since this makes then crumbled. We buy Silken Tofu available vaccuum packed here in local supermarkets.