A few months ago, I posted a recipe that I tried to emulate from one of my favorite food places in Pittsburgh, Pho Minh. This is another that I have semi-successfully tried to adapt from a place in my neighborhood called Thai Me Up. This is one of my new favorite places in the city, because you can bring a 40 of malt liquor in there, and no one cares. In fact, if you linger over your 40 for long enough, the chef will bring you the most delicious almond-crusted cake you have ever eaten. Seriously.
Anyway, my favorite thing on Thai Me Up’s menu is Spicy Tofu with Basil and Rice Noodles. It is so good. So, I began searching the internets for a decent recipe, and ended up combining a few to recreate this deliciousness. It is certainly not as good as the original, but it’ll suffice.
The key to this recipe is absolutely Thai basil. I would suggest, if you can’t find Thai basil, that you substitute mint and go for an entirely different flavor—to use regular sweet basil wouldn’t do it justice. You can find Thai basil in most Asian groceries (for you Pittsburghers, I get it at Lotus in the Strip.) You can recognize it in a store or farmer’s market by its small, pointy leaves and purple stem. It tastes much stronger than sweet basil, with a slightly licorice-y flavor.

I also got some of these red Thai chilies for this recipe, the nice thin ones, but you could use regular red or green chili peppers from the grocery store for this as well.

You will need:
Oil (peanut would be great, I only had olive oil on hand)
1 shallot, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
Chili peppers, de-seeded and de-ribbed, as many as you’d like
Half a block of extra firm tofu, cut into 1-inch(ish) cubes
About 2 TBS soy sauce
¼ cup of water or vegetable stock (or slightly less)
Large bunch of Thai basil
Rice noodles, cooked according to package directions

Heat a bit of oil in a wok or large skillet. Add the shallot and cook 2-3 minutes. Add the garlic and chilies, cook another minute.

HEY! HERE’S AN IDEA! DON’T RUB YOUR EYES AFTER CHOPPING THE CHILIES. Because I did, and it hurt like hell. I threw myself on the kitchen floor, screaming like a wounded animal and frantically trying to…I don’t know…rub the chili pepper residue from my eyes? With my tainted hands? I screamed to Rob, “GET IN HERE AND TAKE A PICTURE OF THIS SHIT, I’M GONNA BLOG IT!”
He respectfully declined.

Anyway, once you’ve dried the tears, add the tofu to the pan and stir fry until browned on all sides, to your liking. Add the soy sauce and water, stir fry another minute or 2, until the sauce is thickened. Add a big handful of Thai basil leaves, either left whole or chopped once or twice (you want big pieces.) Stir to wilt the basil and remove from heat. Serve the mixture over rice noodles with a Thai basil garnish—it’s too pretty not to!

Now close up!

Now far away again!

This entry was posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 10:53 am and is filed under Asian, Main Dishes, Tofu, Vegan, Vegetarian. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.