Vietnamese style tofu and tomato sauce

This dish adds a nice tomato sauce to favor the tofu. My husband is a big fan of tomato and tonight for dinner I decided to cook up this dish to cut out on some carbohydrates. My mom makes a similar tomato dish and it is usually serve with rice. However, since my husband and I ate too much carbohydrates over the weekend, we decided to just eat the dish a la carte.

Typically this dish is serve with pork stuffed inside it. I didn't have any pork in my refrigerator, nor any mushroom or noodles to stuff the tofu with this time. I haven't experiment much with stuffing the tofu, however if you love stuffed tofu and live in the San Jose area, I recommend trying the Fried Stuff Tofu from Gombei in Downtown Japan Town.

If you can I would recommend Asian store tofu rather than your typical supermarket. At an Asian market you can usually buy fresh tofu. You can also buy pre-fry tofu that you would just lightly fry to get it crisp. Also, if you can't find tapioca starch you can replace it with cornstarch.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb block of medium-firm tofu
• 1/8 c. tapioca starch
• ~1 Tbs vegetable oil
• 1 c. tomato, chopped 
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 inch ginger, minced
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 Tbs and 2 tsp fish sauce (nuoc mam)
• 2 Tbs sugar
• 1 Tbs shrimp sauce
• Pinch of salt

Frying Tofu

1. Cut the tofu into squares about 1 cm. thick. Cover lightly with tapioca starch.
2. Place enough vegetable oil to cover the bottom of the skillet over medium high heat. Fry the tofu for about 5 minutes until lightly brown on each side.
3. Remove the tofu from the skillet and place the pieces on a paper towel to drain excess oil.

Prepare the Tomato sauce

1. In the same skillet, add the chopped tomatoes. Saute until the tomato liquid is reduced.
2. Add the chopped garlic and shallot to the skillet.
3. Turn heat down to medium-low and let tomato stew.
4. Add the fish sauce, sugar, and salt.
5. Cook until the sauce is reduced and thicken. About 8 minutes