SHA CHA TOFU W/ GREEN BEANS AND ONIONS

Steps:

• At least a day before preparing, drain tofu and wrap each block in 2 paper towels. Place them in a zippered bag side by side, with a weight on top of them. I used an unopened half gallon carton of OJ laid on its side. Over the course of the 24 hours, I discarded the wet paper towels and re-wrapped the blocks of tofu 4 times. The last paper towels were only damp when I discarded them.
• Cut the brick of tofu once along each of its two longer faces, splitting each face in half. Then cut the largest face five times (perpendicular to your first cut on that face). You should yield 20 blocks from each brick.
• Heat a pot of oil or preheat your deep fryer to 400°.
• While your oil is heating, slice onions into 1/4" thick half rounds, and in a bowl combine the sha cha sauce, soy sauce, rice wine, sugar & salt. Stir until the salt and sugar are dissolved. NOTE: The sha cha sauce I use settles in the jar, so I must stir it before measuring to have a consistent sauce.
• Heat your wok and add your oil. Depending on how hot your wok is, and how quickly you can add all the ingredients in the next step, you may want to vary the order in which you add them. At the same time, in your deep fryer, begin deep frying the blocks of tofu.
• In the wok - add the garlic, onion then red pepper. If the oil is too hot or if I don't think I can get to the onions quickly enough, I add the onions first. The reason being that the garlic burns very quickly in very hot oil and ruins the dish once it burns, but the quick addition of the onions will lower the temperature enough as not to burn the garlic. So, add those ingredients according to your situation. Adding the red pepper first to hot oil may create a smoke that will close off your air passageways. Don't ask me how I know this. Suffice it to say that the last time it happened, people arriving at my house and walking up the driveway were gasping for air once the smoke hit them. It was far worse in the kitchen.
• Stir the onion/garlic/pepper mixture. Remember to check in on the tofu and shake the basket of tofu so that the blocks don't stick together while frying.
• Once the onions begin to become translucent (after 5 minutes or so), add the frozen green beans and water. Cover and steam for 2-4 minutes.
• Ideally, the tofu will be a light golden color by the time your beans have steamed for a couple of minutes. Remove the tofu from the deep fryer and shake off the excess oil.
• Add the deep fried tofu to the wok, along with the mixture of sha cha & soy sauces.
• Toss to mix and coat. Cook for a minute or two to heat the sauce. Serve over rice (optional). Without the rice, this dish would serve 3-4, not the 6 listed.