what's for dinner tonight: mango tofu

I recently went to Encore on Mass St. in Lawrence and ordered their mango tofu-- fell in love. It was absolutely delicious, so I thought I'd try out my own recipe, to try to re-create it. I came pretty close!

Ingredients: 

1/4 cup of white vinegar

1/4 cup of ketchup

1/4 cup of brown sugar

2 tbsp. of soy sauce

1 tbsp. of Worcestershire sauce

1 can of pineapple juice, from a 15 oz can of pineapple chunks

1 1/2 tbsp. of potato starch 

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 inches of ginger, minced

2 tbsp. of chili flakes

1/2 red bell pepper, sliced

1/2 green bell pepper, sliced

1 mango, slightly ripened

1 container of firm tofu, sliced

Olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Take your tofu out of the container and pat dry with paper towel. Slice up your tofu into long, 3 inch pieces.

In a skillet, heat up a few tablespoons of olive oil on medium-high heat and pan fry the tofu until they are golden on all sides.

Line a plate with a paper towel, and let it soak up any additional oil.

Mince both the garlic and ginger. Thank goodness for my mini food processor!! Such a time saver.

Slice up the red and green bell peppers.

Skin off the first two layers of the mango, using a vegetable peeler. When you pick out your mango, you want to make sure it's ripe, but that it's still relatively hard. Using a very ripe mango will end up a mushy mess after it's been cooked.

For those who have little to no experience with mangos, the pit is directly in the center, so be careful when slicing the mango. Slice it in thirds and throw the pit away. I was able to get a little bit of mango meat from the sides, since the pit is an oval shape. 

Slice up the rest of the mango into long strips.

In a skillet, on medium-high heat, saute the garlic, ginger and chili flakes in a few tablespoons of olive oil.

Combine the vinegar, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar and soy sauce.

Put the liquid into the skillet.

Add the pineapple juice.

And lastly the potato starch. I made the mistake of forgetting to mix the starch with some room temperature fluid, which ended up clumping together in the sauce. It took a while for that to separate, so I'd recommend mixing it into the pineapple juice before putting it into the skillet.

Mix well, and let the sauce simmer, it will begin to thicken.

Once the sauce begins to thicken (about 2-3 minutes), add the red and green bell pepper and mango. Toss well, and let this cook for about 5-8 minutes, or until the vegetables begin to soften.

Add in the tofu (we add the tofu last, or the skin of the tofu will begin to soften from the sauce and cooking).

Serve on some rice!

Enjoy! Nom, nom, nom..