Food & Receipts

The secret to crispy and tender tofu: soak it in this marinade before frying

Crispy fried tofu with a soft and smooth interior is a beloved dish among many Vietnamese people. Here's a handy tip for you.

Administrator

14 December, 2023

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Fried tofu is not difficult to make, but many people struggle with keeping the inside soft and smooth while the outside is crispy. Some people end up with tofu that is crispy on the outside but dry and no longer juicy on the inside. Others fry the tofu and it becomes soggy after a short time. Or they fry it until it’s crispy but lose the sweetness of the tofu.

To achieve crispy and crunchy outer layer while maintaining a soft and smooth interior, here is what you can do:

Prepare the ingredients and choose good tofu

To have a soft and juicy interior, you need to select good quality tofu that is soft and smooth on the inside.

Tips for selecting good tofu: The color of the tofu should be creamy white, with a pleasant aroma and no sourness. When you touch the tofu, it should feel smooth and not hard or mushy. When you cut the tofu into pieces, they should be moist.

Cut the tofu into square-shaped pieces. Avoid cutting them too thin, as thin pieces will lose the smooth and sweet interior after frying.

To achieve a crispy and long-lasting fried tofu, you can fry it twice:

The first frying

Heat a dry pan over high heat. Add cooking oil or lard and heat it up. Insert a chopstick into the oil, and if you see bubbles forming around it, the oil is hot enough. This helps prevent the tofu from absorbing too much oil and becoming greasy.

Do not flip the tofu immediately. Let it sit for a few minutes until the bottom side is set before flipping. If the pan is deep and filled with oil, the tofu pieces will brown evenly.

Remove the tofu when both sides are golden brown, which is about 60-70% cooked.

Heat shock (a secret for achieving a crispy exterior)

Prepare a bowl of ice-cold water. After removing the tofu, immediately immerse it in this cold water to shock it with the cold temperature. This helps the tofu skin to quickly crisp up and keeps the interior soft and smooth. Heat shock is a cooking technique used in many dishes when you want to retain the sweetness inside while achieving a crispy exterior.

The second frying

After the heat shock, remove the tofu and drain off any excess water. Heat a deep pan with plenty of oil. Once the oil is hot, add the tofu and fry over high heat. This prevents the tofu from absorbing too much oil and becoming greasy. When cooking at home, make sure the cooking oil is hot enough by testing it with a chopstick – if you see large bubbles, it’s ready. Fry the tofu until all sides are golden and crispy. Look for a shiny and bubbly surface on the tofu, then remove it from the pan. Place the fried tofu on a plate lined with paper towels or a perforated stainless steel tray to drain off excess oil. Serve the tofu on a plate.

This crispy fried tofu requires heat shock, so it takes a little more effort. If you need to eat quickly, you can fry it using a high heat method to quickly achieve a crispy exterior, and then lower the heat so that the outside remains crispy while the inside cooks slowly.