Yay another successful adaptation of a traditional meat dish. As a child I use to love the Chicken and Almonds from our local and very good Chinese restaurant. We would often eat there with our grandparents and I still remember fondly the beautiful traditional Chinese food and the great atmosphere. Inspired by a recipe I recently came across in an old Women’s Weekly cookbook I decided to try and adapt the dish using tofu. I’m not sure how close the following recipe is to a traditional chicken and almonds but this is none the less an incredibly tasty dish.

I am really pleased at how well this turned out and will be attempting more Chinese style dishes from now on. If you don’t like the flavour of Hoisin try a plum sauce or water it down a little. As it is, this dish is rich, colourful and tastes wonderful. Serve on a bed of steamed rice and get your Chinese food fix from your very own kitchen!!

Hoisin Tofu and Almonds
Preparation time: 30mins // Serves 4

• 300g (10 ½ oz) firm tofu
• 1½ cups no-animal content ‘chicken’ stock or vegetable stock
• 1 red capsicum (bell pepper), sliced
• 1 green capsicum (bell pepper), sliced
• 425g (15 oz) canned baby corn
• 5 shallots (spring onions), sliced
• 150g (5 ¼ oz) button mushrooms, sliced
• 1 garlic clove, diced
• 70g (2 ½ oz) whole blanched almonds

for the sauce

• 1 tbs cornflour (cornstarch)
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tbs hoisin sauce

for the batter

• 1 free-range egg, white only (omit if vegan)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbs cornflour (cornstarch)
• 1 tbs hoisin sauce

Shred the tofu into chunks and soak in the stock for at least 30 minutes. Strain, reserving stock, and drain well on absorbent paper.

To make the sauce; blend the cornflour with the reserved stock, hoisin and soy sauce in a medium pot. Bring the sauce to the boil, stirring, until it turns dark in colour and has thickened; about 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

To make the batter lightly whisk the egg white; mix in the cornflour, salt and hoisin sauce to form a light batter.

Toss the drained tofu in the batter to coat well.

In a large fry pan add a small amount of oil and toast the almonds in the pan over a medium heat; tossing the pan until golden on both sides. Remove from the pan and drain on absorbent paper.

In the same fry pan add a little more oil and fry the tofu in batches until crisp and golden; about 3-4 minutes. Remove from pan and drain on absorbent paper.

Heat a little more oil in the same pan and add the vegetables; fry for 4-5 minutes until mushrooms are tender and the vegetables still crisp.

Add the tofu and toss until heated through. Add the sauce and combine well; add the almonds and stir through.

Serve immediately with plenty of steamed rice this is a wonderful meal for entertaining or as a great family dinner.