Korean tofu with gochujang sauce
5min
20min
25min
This side dish is inspired by one of my favorite dishes from one of my favorite cookbooks: Asia from Meera Sodha. From a Western perspective, adding pear to a savory dish seems crazy at first glance. But in Korea, it is much more common. For example, in the well-known meat dish Bulgogi, it is often used in the marinade, not only to give the meat extra flavor, but also to make it extra tender.
This sauce has distinct characteristics of the marinade for Bulgogi. However, the tofu in this dish is given some extra spice by the gochujang, a Korean paste based on fermented peppers. This combines very nicely with the fresh-sweet taste of the pear. Serve the Korean tofu with rice and broccoli for a complete meal. Or make it as part of a Korean feast, combined with various banchang.
Tips
- I like to prepare tofu in the airfryer. Partly because of the convenience. Instead, you can also fry the tofu in a pan. Then fry the tofu in about 8 minutes crispy in some oil. Drain it on kitchen paper, and use the same pan to prepare the sauce
- The original recipe adds 3 cloves of garlic to the dish. This is very tasty, but also quite a lot. In my recipe I just use 1 clove, but feel free to double or triple the amount.
ingredients
for 2 people
- 300 gtofu drooggedept en in blokjes van ca. 1,5 cm
- 2 tbspsoy sauce
- 1 tbspmaple or agave syrup
- 1 clovegarlic
- 1 cmginger peeled and grated
- 1pear peeled and grated
- 4spring-onion the white finely chopped, the green in rings
- 1 tbspsesame oil
- 1.5tspgochujang
- 1 tbspwater
- 1 tbspoil e.g. rapeseed
Preparation
Bake the tofu in the airfryer at 200°C in 10 minutes crispy
Meanwhile, make the sauce. Mix the soy sauce, honey, garlic, ginger, pear, the white of the spring-onion, sesame oil and the gochujang and the water in a bowl. Heat the oil in a pan over medium/high heat, add the sauce and cook for a few minutes through
Add the tofu , lower the heat and cook for another 5 minutes until the sauce has thickened
