Tuna and tofu stir fry
January 11, 2006
Filed under Asian cooking, Cooking with Tofu
I had a small piece of tuna belly, a cake of firm tofu and some vegetables. I also had two choices. Stir fry everything without adding any sauce and, after they have been transferred on a serving platter, pour over them a sauce similar to tempura sauce. Or, I could stir fry them the usual way, adding an oyster-based sauce thickened with a little tapioca starch. I ended up doing neither. See, I was dying to open the bottle of cashew wine vinegar from the Christmas gift bag of Mama Sita products. That was what brought on the idea of pouring tempura sauce over the fish and veggies. But my kids like saucy stir fries. The easiest choice was to make some kind of sweet and sour stir fry. I could use the vinegar and the kids could have all the sauce they wanted. But, alas, we ran out of sugar. So, should the lack of sugar prevent me from cooking a sweet and sour dish? Of course not! Why should it when there’s a bottle of honey in the pantry? 
I know it sounds weird. But I’m not a very precise person in the sense that I don’t do anything by the letter and by the number. I improvise lots of times. Like… oh, okay, it’s not the first time we ran out of sugar in the house. And I’m a huge coffee drinker. But I never take my coffee black. I want my cream and sugar. Those times when I would crave for a hot of coffee only to discover there was no sugar… well, I poured pancake syrup into my coffee. Was it terrible? No. It tasted different but it was okay.
So, last night, I wanted to make a sweet and sour dish because I wanted to use the cashew wine vinegar. And I just knew that the honey would do just fine. Wishful thinking? Noooo… the cooked dish was great!
A little note about the cashew wine vinegar. It smells strongly of lambanog. It isn’t mellow like French and Italian wine vinegars. My kids didn’t notice because the aroma of ginger overpowered the smell of alcohol. The flavor and body are wonderful but the smell is a little strong.
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Hi sassy. This tuna looks good! I will try this with Abra honey.
For the church party last Christmas, I cooked ox tongue in mushroom sauce using your recipe that I found in your blog. The guests were raving about it and so i told them about your blog. But with the recent accident that erased the archives, I am wondering how to share the recipe with them.Please help.
Bingle, only a small percentage of the entries were erased. 90% are all here.
In my case i cant find tapioca starch will corn flour do as substitute?
anyway… honey instead of sugar well say creativity and experimentation wont harm at all.
Glad you like the broth.. wala vetsin yan ha!
Yum…
But, you can’t buy tofu in the Rural Philippines…guess I’ll have to move back to Rural Oklahoma:cool:
You get pork and chicken broth by boiling the meat and bones, how can i produce a vegetable broth?
Corn starch, sha. Pag flour, the sauce looks cloudy.
Re: vetsin. That’s why I love it!
Boinkie, in the wet markets, wala?
Roasted vegetables, Julie. Roasted garlic, carrots, leeks, onions, celery…
Enjoy, Malou.
And no more lurking, ha, chatting here is more fun!
i FOUND TAPIOCA STARCH not at the asian store but this small mini market i go to for some organic stuff,
yes tapioca starch!
hi sassy,
so sorry to hear what happened to your blog and glad that it’s back na..:grin:
anyways, will catfish fillet do? i have some in the ref and been trying to think of a creative way to cook it.
Uy, good, sha! Tapioca starch is nicer than corn starch. Corn starch just thickens the sauce but tapioca starch makes it glossy and malagkit. Very Chinese.
Olive, why not? We love catfish but catfish fillets aren’t available here. If they were, I’d probably stiry fry them too.
hi connie…what if walang chicharo ok lang? or can i use green peas? Toink! hehe.. am not sure kasi if meron yan dito atsaka wala ring quail eggs dito sa finland…sigh! ano maganda substitute? la pa kasi me maisip na vegetarian recipe para sa binyag eh kasi dapat dinner eerrr…:)) pls. help. (smile)