Spicy Kadai Tofu

Whenever P finds out that we are having Tofu-something for dinner, his work day gets extended miraculously, from 7 pm to 9pm, and he is invariably half full by the time he comes home , on some random snack picked up on the way.

But a couple of evenings back, I decided to do a little number on him, when I told him that I am making kadhai paneer for dinner. And what d' you know, P is home at 7:00 sharp, full appetite in tow. I barely get time to take a few hurried pictures, when we begin to eat. Midway through the meal, I tell him that he is eating tofu but by now he is too involved with the dinner to care !

Finally,after we finish dinner, his verdict was : If this is so good with tofu, I can only imagine how awesome it will taste with paneer !

This has therefore become my goto recipe for any dish with the kadhai pre-fix. Kadhai-mushroom, K-gobhi, K- aloo..

My base recipe was Sanjeev Kapoor's kadhai paneer recipe, and the only change I have made is to cut down the quantity of oil mentioned, in addition to substituting pan fried tofu for paneer.

Firm Tofu 300 gms
2 medium sized Tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 capsicum (chopped into large chunks)
1 medium sized Onion-sliced
1 tsp each Ginger & garlic paste
2 Dried Red chillies
1 tbsp Coriander seeds -crushed
1 tsp each Coriander and red chilli powder
2 Cloves , one inch stick of Cinnamon and one bay leaf
Salt to taste
1.5 tbsp oil

1. Spray some oil in a wok and lightly fry the tofu, till it turns brown at the edges. Keep aside and heat the oil in the same wok. Add bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon, red chillies broken into two and f the crushed coriander seeds. Sauté for half a minute.
2. Add onion and stir-fry for thirty seconds and add ginger paste and garlic paste. Cook for another thirty seconds.
3. Add coriander powder, red chilli powder and tomatoes. Cook on high heat till tomatoes start to break down a bit. Add tofu, capsicum and salt. Add half a cup of water. Cook covered on low heat for five minutes. Garnish with cilantro, if you have any, I did not.

Update: Capsicum/Green Bell pepper, which is tofu's co-star in this recipe may qualify this for pooja's VOW-Bell Pepper. Will try my luck and send it across to her:)