I’m kind of terrible with tofu and thick sauces; even with extra firm tofu that I’ve pressed and frozen/unfrozen, I manage to make it crumble about 90% of the time, so this is always wizardry to me.
Granted, I don’t deep fry it because it’s such a huge pain to deep fry so that’s probably my problem…
Do you think that seitan would hold up well with this? I’d think it’d mimic chicken well, while the tofu is moreso the paneer replacement.
If you’re worried about consistency, what I’d do is get extra firm tofu, press out as much fluid as I can, season it separately, and then fry it separately on a pan. Then just add the tofu in at the end to prevent it from crumbling while the curry cooks and thickens.
I’d say you don’t need to deep fry it, but you should try to crisp up the edges to help it all keep together. So pan fry or even baking would be fine if you don’t want to deep fry.
I find medium firm tofu holds together better when cooking in sauces like this. It’s less brittle than firm tofu and has some give under pressure so it bends/squishes instead of crumbling.
Tofu/Paneer is usually added at the end of the cooking process exactly for the reason you described, not making it crumble. And instead of deep-frying, you can shallow fry the tofu cubes on a frying pan, just so the sides are browned. You could also air-fry the cubes instead to achieve similar browning. And since the tofu is already cooked after frying, you can add it at the end and give it a gentle stir to mix it in :)
I do a couple things differently, like I skip the sieve and am super thorough with the immersion blender instead. A couple dry red (arbol?) chiles from the Mexican foods section of the grocery store work well.
My dad and I are both omnivores (him being less adventurous than I) and I made this one time. When I told him what I was making, he joked about going to McDonald’s instead. He had 3 helpings.
I also have a friend from India. I’m sure it’s not authentic, but he really likes this one (to be fair, he says that about everything I make. I don’t think it’s out of pure politeness, but I try not to get too arrogant about it either 😉 )
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