General Tso's Tofu

Found lots of places including vegweb.com, which mysteriously dubs it "General Tao's Tofu."

1 pound firm tofu
1 egg
3/4 cup cornstarch
vegetable oil for frying
3 chopped scallions
1 Tablespoon minced ginger
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
2/3 cup vegetable stock I used water + bouillon powder
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
4 Tablespoons sugar
red pepper to taste I used dried red pepper flakes. they definitely don't mean red bell peppers, which some people seem to use in this recipe.
1 Tablespoon sherry (optional) it was better when I omitted it
1 Tablespoon white vinegar
steamed broccoli just let some frozen broccoli defrost. it gets soft enough when you coat it with the sauce and heat everything through.

I double the amount of all the sauce ingredients so as to make double as much sauce.

Drain, dry and cut tofu into 1 inch chunks. You can freeze tofu the night before to get a more chicken-like consistency, but it isn't necessary. Beat the egg and add 3 tablespoons water. I found that it's hard to beat the egg if you add the water first, for some reason. Dip tofu in egg mixture and coat completely. Sprinkle 3/4 cup cornstarch over tofu and coat completely. Watch out that the cornstarch doesn't clump up at the bottom of the bowl. If the cornstarch is clumpy, sift it or push it through a strainer. After three tries, the least frustrating way I've found to execute this is to coat a large surface with cornstarch, dip each piece of tofu into egg (making sure not too much egg is on the tofu) and then set it down onto the cornstarch-covered surface. Sprinkle cornstarch over the tofu through a strainer, and then kind of roll each piece around on the surface (which should still have a good layer of cornstarch on it) before putting it into the oil. Or, y'know, just don't use the cornstarch at all. I tried that once, and it wasn't awful. I need to experiment with non-cornstarch coatings, which I suspect will be much easier.

Heat oil in pan and fry tofu pieces until golden. Drain oil.

Heat 3 Tablespoons vegetable oil in pan on medium heat. Add green onions, ginger and garlic, cook for about 2 minutes. Be careful not to burn garlic. Add vegetable stock, soy sauce, sugar, red pepper and vinegar. Mix 2 Tablespoons water with 1 Tablespoon cornstarch and pour into mixture stirring well. Add fried tofu and coat evenly.

Serve immediately with broccoli over your choice of brown rice.

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 30 Minutes (wishful thinking; it takes much longer)