I often get a hankering for some good Chinese food, but I stop myself from ordering take-out because of the cost and the fact that it is totally soaked in grease and fat. My problem with cooking it at home is being able to get it as “saucy” as they do at the restaurant. For this dish, I cheated a little using a stir-fry sauce from the grocery store.

If you have a little more budget, you can create an outstanding sauce using a mixture of the garlic, ginger, sesame oil, and all or some of fish sauce, hoisin sauce and oyster sauce.

Ingredients: (This made dinner for two with leftovers)

1 block of extra firm tofu

1/2 bag of rice noodles

veggies: 1/4 cup of red cabbage,  1 small red bell pepper, 1 small white onion, 2 carrots, 1/4 cup of broccoli, 8 baby bella mushrooms (chop all veggies – thin slices of pepper, finely chopped onions and carrots, bite-sized broccoli, sliced mushrooms)

several tablespoons of garlic and ginger (finely chopped – or put into a food processor)

small can of sliced water chestnuts

spices and more: rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seed, ginger, etc (basically, stick to using those ingredients you bought in the Asian section of the grocery store.) Plus, the element of cheating – a bottle of Stir Fry sauce.

Prepare the Tofu:

Tofu can be tricky to get non-vegetarians (and vegetarians) to eat. My husband will pretty much only eat it this way, so I stick with this system.

First, remove the block of tofu from the package.  Drain the water, and then wrap it in a few paper towels. Then, wrap that in a kitchen towel and let it sit for as long as you can (at least 15 minutes). You want to remove as much of that liquid as you can so that it can become firmer and soak up the flavor you cook your dish with.

Slice it into thin, uniform pieces. I usually go for about a 1-1/2 inch x 1 inch and probably about a 1/2 inch thick.

Heat up a large skillet on medium high with a couple tablespoons of olive oil to coat the bottom. (A non-stick is great, but not necessary. You can use sesame oil, but I find that olive oil is less expensive and coats a little more evenly.) Place the tofu in the pan and let it brown until a little crispy before flipping. Don’t stir – you want to flip each piece to make sure it all evenly coated. I like to drizzle a little more olive oil over the top before flipping to prevent sticking. Put on a plate when finished cooking. (If you added too much oil, you can put a paper towel on the plate to soak up the excess oil.)

I’ve tried to marinate the tofu before putting it in the pan, but typically the marinade makes everything more messy and the tofu sticks to the pan more. It soaks up the flavor just as much afterwards. My other favorite method is baking the tofu, because then you can bake it with the flavors soaking right in. This takes a lot more time and doesn’t get quite as crispy as hubby likes.

Prepare the noodles:

This was a first time for me, but rice noodles are ridiculously easy. Follow the directions on the back of the packet, which will probably tell you to soak them in a bowl of water until they are tender (about 10 – 15 minutes). Don’t over soak , or they will get gross. It said “cut in half when soft”, but I would recommend cutting them a lot smaller so that they mix together in the sauce better.

Prepare the veggies:

If you have a wok, you rock. (sorry) If you don’t, know worries.  A large skillet heated on medium high to high with a nice coating of oil works great. I like to use sesame oil for this. Throw in your onions, stir and toss around until they are tender. Add the carrot, and allow it to cook for a couple minutes before throwing in the rest of the veggies (except the cabbage).  I like to sprinkle with a couple shakes of rice vinegar. Then, saute on a high temperature, tossing around the veggies in the pan with a flick of your wrist or a fast stir with tongs or a spatula.  You don’t want to really “simmer” these veggies, because they are better when not over-cooked. By tossing them around, it keeps cooking them evenly all over without allowing them to get over-cooked and soggy.

Another quick trick is cooking your mushrooms separately. I do this because I like to make sure that they get evenly browned on all sides, and this can be hard to achieve with everything else in your pan. Use a small saute pan on pretty high heat, cover the bottom with some real butter, and then add the thin slices of mushrooms. Let them brown completely on one side before even thinking about touching them. Flip them over, and let them brown evenly on the other side. Voila.

After about 10 minutes, add in the cabbage,  water chestnuts and mushrooms – and toss. Stir in the tofu and the noodles and mix it all up. Toss in the stir-fry sauce. I used about a 1/4 cup, and it coated everything well. Add a little more or less depending on how many veggies you put in there, and how much you like!  A little more rice vinegar and soy sauce help to thin the sauce a bit. And a hit or two of hot sauce or hot pepper flakes gives it a great kick. Use tongs to transfer to a plate and sprinkle with a few sesame seeds for added flavor and texture!