Sweet and sour dishes are common. But sweet chili fish and tofu? Nothing irritatingly sweet, don’t worry. It all starts with the basic sweet and sour sauce but there’s less vinegar and more sugar.
Why not just fish? Why add tofu? Well, you can interpret the inclusion of tofu in three ways: as an extender, as a way to turn a dish into something closer to the no-meat category or simply to add variety in texture. Me? I just love tofu.
Ingredients
- 500 grams fish fillet (cream dory or tilapia are recommended)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
- 300 grams firm tofu
- 2 to 3 cups cooking oil for deep frying
- 1/2 cup flour plus 2 tablespoons of cornstarch
- 3 cloves garlic finely sliced
- half a thumb-sized piece of ginger cut into matchsticks
- 1 onion finely sliced
- 1 bell pepper cored, seeded and cut into fine slivers
- 2 finger chilis trimmed and cut into fine slivers
- 1 cup sweet chili sauce
Instructions
- Cut the fish fillets into bite-size pieces. Season with salt and pepper.
- Cut the tofu into 2-inch squares.
- Heat the cooking oil to smoking point and fry the tofu until golden golden (see tips for frying tofu). Drain well.
- Dredge the fish in the flour and cornstarch mixture and fry in batches in the hot oil. Drain well.
- Take 2 tbsps. of the hot oil and pour into another frying pan or wok. Saute the garlic and ginger until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the onion, bell pepper and finger chilis. Cook, stirring, for another 30 seconds.
- Place the fried fish and tofu on a platter. Arrange the sautéed vegetables on top. Pour in the sweet chili sauce. Drizzle with sesame seed oil and garnish with onion leaves and cilantro.
- Serve the sweet chili fish and tofu at once.
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Hello and welcome! I'm a retired lawyer and columnist, wife for 28 years, mom of two, and a passionate cook. What is this blog about? Recipes for dishes 
Hard boiled eggs with chili tomato sauce
This is one of my favourite dishes, and fast becoming a favourite for my partner too. My version of the sauce is a lot closer to a classic sweet and sour sauce – tomato sauce (ketchup), a little bit of oyster sauce and chilli sauce. I omit the sugar and add some pineapples for a sweet-tart taste.
I use prepackaged deep fried tofu just to make the recipe a lot lazier too! I do wish I have the patience to deep fry fish though…
Reading through the recipe made my mind eat it already :)
The other day I had Tokwa’t Fried Tawilis. I can just have deep friend Tokwa in that chili soy sauce.
what’s a bird’s eye chili?
Labuyo.
You are such a good cook, I can tell, just by the way you make your recipes. Thank you. I keep coming back to your site to try new recipes. Keep it up!
Ms. Connie,
Hi po, medyo stupid ata un tanong ko pero un po bang cilantro is un kinchay din? magkaiba po ba un sa wansuy? may mga nakikita po kasi akong recipes na wansuy pero feeling ko base sa mga pics pareho lang. Iba pa din po ba un flat leaf parsley sa mga to???
thanks po…
Cilantro is wansuy. Kinchay is thicker and more pungent.