VEGAN KKANPOONG TOFU SPICY AND CRUNCHY GARLIC TOFU!

Hey everyone, what's up? So today I am going to show you how to make kkampung dubu, or spicy and crunchy garlic tofu. This is my vegan take on kkampunggi, which is typically made out of chicken, but I made it out of tofu and I swear to God, guys, it tastes just as insanely delicious as the original. You are going to love this recipe. So we're gonna start out with one 16 ounce block of extra firm tofu and I have pressed it here, guys, and that's because I wanna get rid of the excess liquid. I want this to be super crunchy. Now I've used this really nifty device I found on Amazon. You can find the link for this in the description below, but if you don't have a nifty little device like that, you can just weigh the tofu down with some really heavy pots and pans and you'll get the same effect. So I've dried it off with a kitchen towel and now I'm going to chop up the tofu into chunky bite-sized pieces. I just love tofu, guys. I use it in so many different recipes, but here it turned out so well. I kind of amazed myself even. So as you can see, I have cut it up into bite-sized pieces, adding a pinch of salt, as well as two tablespoons of potato starch. If you don't have potato starch, you can sub in cornstarch or flour if you don't mind the gluten. So we're just gonna make sure all of the tofu is evenly coated and then of course, garlic. So guys, you know I use a lot of garlic, but if garlic is in the name of the dish, you best believe I'm gonna be using way more garlic than normal. I am using seven cloves of garlic here. That's right, seven. And I'm going to go ahead and give it a good mince. You might think that's too much garlic here, but once you taste this dish, you'll realize that that's exactly the right amount. So I'm gonna set this minced garlic aside in a prep bowl. I'm gonna wipe my countertop and then I am going to dice up one quarter of a red onion. You can use a yellow onion, white onion, whatever onion you got, but you guys know I like the red because of the zip and the extra antioxidants. So again, I'm dicing the red onion up and then I am going to slice up two Korean green chilies. You can sub in seeded jalapenos if you don't have green chilies. Then I'm going to chop up two green onions or scallions. And then you will see, as I get towards the green part of the green onions, I'm gonna cut them up at a bias there so I get more surface area. Now to make the sauce. We're gonna start with one tablespoon of gochugaru, one tablespoon of soy sauce, one tablespoon of white wine vinegar, two tablespoons of maple syrup, one half tablespoon of mirin, and one teaspoon of potato starch. I know that was a mouthful, but don't worry, you'll find the recipe in the description below. Now in a very large pan, we're gonna add four tablespoons of vegetable oil. And then we're gonna one by one place the tofu into the oil. Now you guys know I typically use extra virgin olive oil, but here I'm using vegetable oil because we need a very high, high heat. And as you can see, I placed the tofu in one layer and I'm turning them around one by one. They cannot touch each other because as you can see, they like to stick to each other. Now when they are beautiful and golden brown, I'm gonna take them off the oil and set them aside to drain the excess oil. And if you have to do this in two rounds, so be it. There is our crunchy tofu. Listen for the crunch. Oh yeah, that's what you're going for. Now we're gonna add the onions, the garlic, and the peppers, and the scallions to that very same pan with a little bit of extra oil. We're gonna also add some dried red chilies. If you can't find these, you don't need to add them. They just add a little extra heat. We're gonna add a pinch of salt to draw out the flavors there. My goodness, doesn't this look so beautiful and flavorful? Now we're gonna add the sauce that we made earlier. And once that potato starch that's in there hits the heat, you're gonna see it's going to turn into this beautiful, glossy, glazy, delicious sauce. So you can see it's thickening up right there. How beautiful. Now we're gonna dump in the fried tofu. That looks so pretty. And we're gonna gently stir the tofu so that it becomes coated with that amazing sauce. So it's important not to let this tofu cook and sit in the sauce for too long because then it's gonna lose that incredible, special crunchiness. So just coat it. You don't even need to have the heat on. Simply coat the tofu with that insanely delicious sauce. Now I'm gonna add 1 1⁄2 tablespoon of sesame oil and a tablespoon of toasted sesame seeds for a final garnish there. Wow, for extra flavor as if it needs any. Is your mouth watering? Because mine is totally drooling my face off right now. So I'm gonna dump it into a bowl. If you guys are serving this for friends or a dinner party, I highly recommend using a bright white bowl to offset that insane red color. Or you can just eat it out of the pan. That's what I'm gonna do later. Mm, that crunch is amazing. So again, I'm gonna eat this with some rice. It's super spicy, so you are gonna want some rice and probably a tall glass of water. And like I said, I'm eating it right out of the pan. I highly recommend that you do that if you don't have to share, that is. Anyway guys, if you like this video, please hit that like button below. And if you're interested in seeing more Korean vegan recipes, hit that subscribe button. Otherwise, I will see you soon.