Fried Tofu with XO Sauce & Shrimp Skin

Fried Tofu with XO Sauce & Shrimp Skin

• January 08, 2015

It's been ages since I posted a recipe. There's not been too much action in the kitchen for the past 6 months, but now with my new kitchen (my dream kitchen!) in full working order, things are back to the normal.

We were a bit scarce of food in the kitchen right after Christmas day but the scraps I managed to pull together were pretty good. In fact, so good that I am going to make this into a staple dish in our household. The recipe is easily adaptable too as long as you have the sauce and shrimps skins. If you can't find the shrimp skins in your local Chinese supermarket, you can use a bit of shrimp paste in place or omit it completely. 

The leeks were a random addition but really added another dimension of flavour and texture so I recommend using it in this recipe. Once you've tried this sauce, I bet you'll use it on anything. Trust me on this. 

The best part of the sauce mixture is my mum's homemade XO sauce. XO sauce is a chilli sauce traditionally made from dried chillies, dried scallops and dried shrimps. My mum's version is made from dried chillies, dried prawns and dried shrimps. XO sauce is also available in most Chinese supermarket, but I can't promise it will be as good as my mum's!

All the ingredients you see in this recipe can easily be found in Chinese supermarkets. It took around 15 minutes to chop, cook and dish up. I love a fast meal. Happy cooking.

Ingredients:
2 tsp shrimp skins
1 packet/220g deep fried tofu, cut into strips
2 leeks, sliced
2tsp oil

For the sauce:
1tsp XO sauce
1tsp chilli bean sauce
1tsp oyster sauce
1tsp soya sauce
4 tsp water


Directions:
1. Combine the sauce ingredients together in a bowl
2. Dry fry the shrimp skins in a hot frying pan/wok without any oil. This will toast it and release the flavours some more but be careful to not burn it! Once toasted, set aside
3. Add oil to the pan on high heat, and then add the leeks and tofu. Stir for 5 mins until golden. 
4. Shake the toasted shrimp skins over the leeks and tofu and then add sauce
5. Stir fry for a further 5 mins, ensure sauce is evenly distributed and dish up
6. Enjoy your dish with some fluffy white rice!

Here's a similar recipe I used for Dry Fry French Beans