Tofu "butter chicken"
This is one of my signature recipes, directly inspired from La Cuisine de Bernard. I substituted chicken for tofu, and butter with vegan butter. The secret to give this recipe all its flavour is to nail the sauce, so it doesn't matter what kind of "meat" you use.
The tofu is first marinated overnight in yogurt, lemon, garlic, ginger and spices, and is then fried. The sauce comes next: it is capital to really caramelise the onions to pack the sauce with flavour. In Maillard's reaction we trust!
To be served with basmati rice, or (homemade) warm naans.
Ingredients
- 270 g firm tofu
- 65 g plain soy yogurt
- ½ tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 6 g neutral oil (e.g. canola)
- 14 g lemon juice
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp ground black pepper
- 3 tsp ginger garlic paste (you can substitute with 3 cloves garlic + 1.5 tsp ginger paste/ginger powder)
- 50 g good quality vegan butter (hard, palm oil free, and tasty)
- 2 brown onions (220 g)
- 1 tsp paprika
- 6 g white sugar
- 500 g passata
- 80 g cashews
- handful a of "kasuri methi" (dried fenugreek leaves), optional
Instructions
- Marinating & soaking
- Cut tofu in small cubes (not so small that they would get all mashed together, but small enough that they can absorb a lot of flavour from the marinade) and put it in the mixing bowl.
- Add yogurt, lemon juice, chili powder, garam masala, salt, pepper, and 1 tsp of ginger-garlic paste. Mix well with the tofu, and marinate overnight.
- Soak the cashews in water overnight in a small bowl as well.
- Cooking
- The next day, heat up oil in the frying pan over medium-high and add tofu. Fry the tofu on all sides until golden and until the marinade is evaporated.
- Remove pan from stove, and reserve tofu in the original bowl used to marinate it.
- Chop onions in a food processor, making sure you don't go all the way to puree, but you can chop to really small size.
- Put the frying pan back on the stove and melt vegan butter on medium-high heat.
- Fry onions in vegan butter, stirring constantly. It will take time for the onions to caramelise, but it is the most critical step in the entire recipe. Take your time to reach a nice amber color.
- Lower heat a little and add 2 tsp of ginger-garlic paste, cook another 2 min (I always add garlic towards the end of the cooking process to stop it from burning and giving a bitter taste to the dish).
- Add passata, paprika, sugar, a cook on medium heat for another 5 min (just long enough for the passata to cook). Turn off the stove completely.
- Pour the sauce in the blender. Strain the soaked cashews and add them to the blender. Mix to obtain a smooth sauce. A good quality blender is essential to reach a good consistency, and it is easier if the cashews have had time to soak beforehand.
- Put tofu back in the pan and cover in the sauce. Turn on the heat back to low to heat up the whole dish.
- Sprinkle with kasuri methi (optional).
- Eat with rice or warm naans.