Last week I made J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s Simple Panfried Tofu with Soy-Garlic Sauce recipe from his The Wok cookbook.

This is more of a technique than a recipe, making the recipe itself pretty simple.

The sauce is a mixture of soy sauce, water, sugar, garlic, sesame oil, scallions, roasted sesame seeds, and a bit of chile sauce.

For the tofu, Kenji instructs to slice into 2x1½x½ inch slices. I cut the firm tofu slab into half lengthwise and then into ½ inch slices. That got me pretty close to the recipe dimensions. These tofu slices are placed in a colander and then boiling water is poured over them. They are then left to air dry.

Leading into this recipe, Kenji discusses this technique of using boiling-hot water seasoned with salt to dry out the tofu exterior.

In the lead-in to this subsection of panfried tofu recipes, Kenji discusses the need to dry the surface of the tofu. He says the “goal is to get the surface nice and dry while still leaving the interior moist,” and his most reliable method is pouring hot salted water over it:

It may seem counterintuitive to add water to something you’re trying to dry out, but boiling water will actually cause the tofu to squeeze out more moisture, bringing it to the surface and making it easier to blot off, while the salt gently seasons the slices. Hot water also evaporates much faster than the cold water on refrigerated tofu.

Notably, the recipe omits the salt from the boiling water. In the recipe, Kenji says to let air-dry “for a few minutes” until the surfaces feels “slightly tacky and dry to the touch, like a cat’s tongue.” I let the tofu dry for longer than a few minutes, and it never reached that stage of dryness. I ended up blotting the pieces with a paper towel before continuing.

The surface-dried tofu pieces are then pan fried in a single layer in the wok in a couple tablespoons of oil. Kenji says the slices should “come up the sides of the wok a little.” They came up the sides of my wok a lot. I did use a 16oz block of tofu while Kenji calls for a 12oz block, and from my deep frying experiences, I’ve concluded that my wok is smaller. I should’ve pan fried in batches instead of all at once.

After the pieces have crisped on the first side, they’re transferred to a plate, flipped, and then returned to the wok to crisp on the other side. Once done, they are sprinkled with scallions to garnish.

We found the tofu itself to be bland, and that’s not due to an unfamiliarity with tofu. We eat tofu pretty regularly. The tofu needed some salt. With the sauce it was better. The tofu was also much crunchier than I expected. I thought it would be crispy exterior, soft interior. Maybe I sliced the pieces too thinly.

I am cooking my way through J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. Read more about it.