Vegan Mofo #25 - Donna’s Sesame Crusted Tofu with Spicy Pineapple Rice Noodles...

Vegan Mofo #25 - Donna’s Sesame Crusted Tofu with Spicy Pineapple Rice Noodles 

The Region - China
The Book - The Chinese Vegan Kitchen
The Author - Donna Klein
The Recipe - Sesame Crusted Tofu with Spicy Pineapple Rice Noodles
Page # 119
Difficulty - Easy
Duration - About 35-40 minutes

From the Caribbean we move back to China with a dish that Donna claims hails from Yunnan Province. Yunnan province is in the extreme southwest of China bordered by Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam, because of it’s diverse ethnic population Yunnan cuisine is an eclectic mix of local ingredients and outside influences. Most of the dishes tend to be spicy, though this is complimented by what Donna says is their liberal use of sweet, cool, pineapple.

Personally I really love pineapple, after all I practically grew up gorging myself on the tropical fruits, but as much as I love it fresh and raw, I also love it in savory and sour cooked dishes. I’ve eaten a lot of sweet and sour in my time, and so for me pineapple with vegetables or a protein just works, it’s like comfort food to me, you know? Needless to say I was pretty stoked to try out this dish when I first saw it in “The Chinese Vegan Kitchen” as I also love sesame and rice noodles. Can there be any greater combination of flavors?

What I really love about Donna’s dish is that it’s simple, and easy to throw together but the flavor is so powerful that you don’t feel like you’re compromising or wussing out when you make this on a busy workday evening. All that’s required is a few minutes of saute time and a little chopping. The noodles are made with garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes, snow peas, pineapple juice, fresh pineapple, soy sauce, cornstarch, sesame oil, salt a little pepper and that’s it. For the tofu you simply press out the water slice it and bread it in a mixture of salt, cornstarch and sesame seeds then fry it till golden brown. Voila! Dinner! And as an added bonus if you make the tofu first, then wipe out the pan to make the noodles next you only need to use one pan! Also it’s very handy to make the rice noodles in advance to make this dish even easier!