I went to Bath recently to do an event at Topping & Company for my new book, Dinner, and fell so in love with the city that I seriously thought about moving there. I forced myself to think about what I’d miss about London, and Kingsland Road, with all of its Vietnamese cafes, immediately popped into my head. I’d miss walking past all those windows steamed up from the hot pots and pho, and the smell of lemongrass in the air. All that thinking made me very hungry, and today’s recipe is the result. Perhaps if I can recreate those smells and steamed windows in my own kitchen one day, I could move. We’ll see …
Lemongrass tofu with noodles
Lemongrass is always cheaper when bought from Asian grocery stores. It’s often sold in big bags, so freeze any that you don’t use. You’ll need a blender to make this.
Prep 10 min
Cook 45 min
Serves 4
300g flat rice noodles
Rapeseed oil
6 tbsp light soy sauce
6 lemongrass stalks (120g), woody and tough bits discarded, the rest roughly chopped
6 fat garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
2 banana shallots, peeled and roughly chopped
1 bird’s eye chilli, roughly chopped
1 tsp caster sugar
½ tsp ground white pepper
50g cornflour
280g tofu, cut into 3cm x 2cm pieces
35g fresh basil, leaves picked
45g fresh mint, leaves picked
40g fresh coriander, leaves picked
Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions, then drain, rinse under the cold tap to cool, and dress with a little oil and two tablespoons of the soy sauce.
Put the lemongrass in a blender with the garlic, shallots, chilli, sugar, white pepper, four tablespoons of oil and the remaining four tablespoons of soy sauce, then blitz to a smooth paste.
Put the cornflour in a large bowl, then add the tofu and toss until it’s all well coated.
Pour enough oil into a large frying pan or wok to come 5mm up the sides, and put the pan on a medium heat. When the oil is hot, shake any excess cornflour off the tofu pieces one by one, then add them to the hot oil (depending on the size of the pan, you may need to fry the tofu in a couple of batches, so they don’t stew rather than fry). Fry the tofu pieces, turning them around every two minutes, for four to six minutes, until they are golden all over and have a thin crust. As they are cooked, transfer the tofu pieces to a plate lined with kitchen paper to drain.
Tip out any oil left in the pan, then add the lemongrass paste and cook, stirring regularly, for eight minutes. Add 200ml water, return the fried tofu to the pan, then stir through to heat up and take the pan off the heat.
To plate up, put the noodles on a large platter, tip the lemongrass tofu on top, then sprinkle over all the picked herbs. Toss at the table until everything is well mixed, then divide between four plates and serve.
