Pressing Garlic for Kung Pao Tofu

Video Transcript

"I've got my little thing, I'm just going to stir it. I'm going to add some garlic. I'm going to add six cloves, I like garlic. It's really easy, just put it through the garlic press--again, add more or less if you like. You could even saute--when you're making your tofu cubes--if you want, you could actually saute fresh garlic in that if you like. I just like to put everything in the sauce, because I think it's easier. We are going to blend the sauce ingredients, and cook it until it's thickened. And how does it get thickened? Very good question. We are going to thicken it with a natural thickener called arrowroot, which you can get in a natural food store. It's this white powder, it looks like cornstarch and it works exactly like cornstarch. This is three tablespoons, and this is going to make it thick. You don't have to mix it with anything beforehand, like--you may have seen techniques like that, but you don't have to do that. The thing about cornstarch, and that's fine to use, is corn is a very heavily genetically modified product, and unless it's organic and non-GMO, I wouldn't use it. But you can--it comes in a bag, it sometimes comes in a little spice bottle, arrowroot, and this is what's going to thicken it. And we basically just stir it--I'm going to turn the heat up a little bit. Now, a lot of times in Asian sauces there's some oil, and traditionally a toasted sesame oil, but since I flavored my tofu cubes with that oil, I--I'm not against using fat and oil, but I don't feel it needs that flavor in here, because it's already in the tofu cubes. And I like to keep my ingredient list as low as possible, make it as easy as possible. So when this thickens up, it's going to be nice and thick, and we're going to pour it over the tofu. Now, of course, you can serve this over any kind of rice. Brown rice, of course is the healthiest, and in my opinion, the most delicious. Jasmine rice is good too. But I want to serve it the way it's presented at one of my favorite Chinese restaurants--P.F. Chang's, and they serve it in a circle of broccoli, and it looks good, and it tastes good that way too."