Impressed by his mom’s favourite dish of tofu with scallion sauce, chef Ni Nguyen of Sap Sua, certainly one of our Finest New Eating places of 2024, augments the unique with additional aromatics like mint, cilantro, and chiles. The dashi powder provides a savory depth to the scallion sauce. Make a double batch of the sauce; it retains effectively in an hermetic container within the fridge and turns out to be useful for extra than simply tofu.
“It’s the primary new dish I placed on the menu since we opened,” Ni recollects. “My mother would at all times make tofu, pan-fried till it was golden yellow. She would make a scallion oil to pour over and we’d eat it with rice. I wished to maintain the scallions however make the oil extra aromatic, so I grabbed every little thing within the walk-in that I may discover to spruce it up. I mashed all of it collectively in a mortar—our mentor, Nancy Silverton, as soon as mentioned that sauces at all times tasted higher when labored in a mortar with a pestle, which at all times caught with me. The employees cherished it.” —Shilpa Uskokovic, senior check kitchen editor
Editor’s Be aware: Agency tofu provides the best texture right here, sturdy sufficient to deal with being tossed in rice flour but sustaining a mild quiver post-fry. We like Nasoya or Home Meals manufacturers. Keep away from additional agency tofu.
