Tofu and Green Beans With Chile Crisp

I've been using jars and jars of Trader Joe's "Chili Onion Crunch" that I now realize is a knockoff of the chile-crisp described here. There's nothing better on eggs, tofu, shrimp, rice....

“Best tofu I’ve ever had!” declared hubby, and I agree: it’s perfection! Instead of fussing with towels and plates and weights to drain the tofu, I took another reader’s tip (from a Japanese cooking show) and microwaved the sliced tofu in a bowl for three minutes on high. Amazing how much water drained out, leaving the tofu with perfect texture to soak up the delicious marinade.

Bon Appetit has a great recipe for chile crisp, you can make it at home yourself without any special equipment and it's not behind a paywall. It takes around 30 minutes to make and lasts for months.

Sifton mentions in the accompanying article (which you should read if you don't know about the chili crisp), that he includes ginger, but it's not listed in the recipe on 4/17/20. I almost left the ginger out, but as I was assembling the marinade, decided to mince about 2 tablespoons and included it. I'm so glad I did. It adds a sweet floral and necessary dimension. Also, be sure to pile the chunky marinade on top of the tofu as it will just burn on the baking sheet. Amazing and simple recipe!

As a long-time user of Lao Gan Ma chili crisp, I was curious to try the Trader Joe version. For anyone who knows the full, rich, umami-laden flavor of LGM, the TJ stuff is far inferior and not worth buying.

Not at all. I've been using Lao Gan Ma chili crisp as my COVID coping food (I'm actually pretty distraught to see it here! It's already hard enough to find family size jars on Amazon!!!) and I consider it milder than all my other hot sauces. I put it on stir fried veggies (esp asparagus), freezer dumplings, and --best of all-- on top of a sunny-side-up egg on sprouted grain toast.

This might work for you? For years I've used a clean, dry cotton kitchen towel to wrap up my tofu and leave it on the drain board. Then into the wash and no waste, no trash.

Wonderful recipe, but a 450 degree oven is too hot! Twenty minutes at 400 is plenty. You can use firm tofu instead of extra firm. Also, replace the string beans with broccoli tossed with a mix of vegetable and sesame oil.

I cooked this and thought it was really good but could use some ginger. Then I read through it again and noticed that he mentions ginger in the introduction but it didn't get into the recipe, Add ginger!

Note: I am a huge Bittman fan and trust his advice to use what you have on hand. 1. I used Chile Crunch (Chile crunch.com). 2. I used an Indian mash-up of Ginger and Garlic paste - I noticed that many chiefs have moved to pastes. 3. Not having Chinese black vinegar, I used red wine vinegar. 4. I used Blue Agave in place of the honey. (lower glycemic). 5. Since cilantro tastes like soap to me I used a combo of parsley and basil from my aero garden. It all turned out really well. Very tasty.

I love the Fly By Jing chili crisp condiment Sam describes in his condiment review. I was given a jar of it as a sample and it's now a staple in my kitchen. I just had it on my egg & avocado toast this morning!

How fiery is fiery - does the condiment burn your mouth? Now for me then.

Cheap balsamic vinegar. Do NOT use your good stuff as it will be too sweet. If not that, then Sherry vinegar.

I made this almost exactly as written, except I didn’t have cilantro. A couple notes: 1. I used tofu that had been previously frozen, which gave it a nice spongy texture to absorb the sauce 2. The green beans needed some flavor - salt or a splash of soy sauce after they come out of the oven would be really helpful. 3. Even though the chili crisp sauce is fairly spicy when raw, the final baked product had almost no bite to it. This was great. Will probably make another version of it again.

Chili Crisp is amazing! Cooks Illustrated posted a fabulous recipe for chili crisp this Feb - as soon as I finish one jar (max ~3 weeks) I make a new one. It doesn't need MSG, and you can doctor it as you like. https://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/12400-chili-crisp-lao-gan-ma It's easy to make and adding it to just about anything (Alison Roman's spicy noodle soup with mushrooms and herbs, for example) takes your meal to a completely different level.