You will definitely surprise yourself with this one. It is an extremely delicious dish that's quick and straightforward to make, but looks as if it's been prepared at a top Chinese restaurant. It is fiery, both from the chiles and the black pepper; you can moderate this by reducing their quantity a little. However, the whole point is spiciness so don't go too far.
Ingredients
Serves 4
Step 1
Start with the tofu. Pour enough oil into a large frying pan or wok to come 1/4 inch up the sides and heat. Cut the tofu into large cubes, about 1 x 1 inch. Toss them in some cornstarch and shake off the excess, then add to the hot oil. (You'll need to fry the tofu pieces in a few batches so they don't stew in the pan.) Fry, turning them around as you go, until they are golden all over and have a thin crust. As they are cooked, transfer them onto paper towels.
Step 2
除去石油和任何沉淀物的锅,然后put the butter inside and melt it. Add the shallots, chiles, garlic and ginger. Sauté on low to medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the ingredients have turned shiny and are totally soft. Next, add the soy sauces and sugar and stir, then add the crushed black pepper.
Step 3
Add the tofu to warm it up in the sauce for about a minute. Finally, stir in the green onions. Serve hot, with steamed rice.
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Reviews (57)
Back to TopHuge hit at my house. It’s a saucy, very strongly flavoured dish that definitely needs to be served with a lot of plain rice and some simple vegetables (I made an undressed ‘slaw’ of grated cabbage, carrots and red bell pepper and that worked great). A little goes a long way.
Anonymous
Toronto
2/4/2022
Peut-être la meilleure recette de black pepper sauce que j’ai jamais essayé. Elle est, bien sûr, très très épicée et pimentée, mais vous pouvez jouer avec les quantités selon vos envies - ça reste un accompagnement parfait pour le tofu frit, les viandes ou pour un bol de riz blanc et légumes. Personnellement, j’en prépare une double dose presque chaque mois.
Anonymous
Geneva CH
2/8/2021
This is the worst recipe I’ve ever cooked. How anyone could enjoy it is a mystery to me. Everything about it is awful. Took ages to make, far too oily, and all that pepper and chilli makes it inedible.
Gav1n
London, UK
1/28/2021
I'm a skilled cook but with little Asian cooking experience and really appreciated this recipe, particularly for its use of tofu. Hence the four stars. However, some caveats are due. Butter- no necessary. I felt with all the oil absorbed by the tofu in frying no other fat would be necessary, and in fact the dish was delicious without. I may add a pat as others have done next time. Three soy sauces- may be great but I didn't have any and used Golden Mountain Sauce. No problem. 5 TABLESPOONS black pepper?? I ground about three but used only about 1.5 and that was still a bit much, though everyone inhaled the final dish. I also added zucchini and green bell pepper which I'd sautéed separately and a little extra liquid to make the dish a bit saucier and the whole thing was a huge hit with the carnivores.
szqueue
Marinbbn
12/25/2017
I halved this recipe and didn't have light soy sauce so used some mirin with regular soy sauce. The tofu was crispy on the outside and creamy in the middle. Used 1.5 jalapeño to use what I had in the fridge. Absolutely delicious and will definitely make again.
kirstenkk
Truckee, CA
9/16/2016
My husband loved it. The butter makes it a nice sauce with the wilted shallots; I used 4 tablespoons. I substituted jalapeños because that's what I had and added black pepper to taste and will turn that up next time I do this. Be not afraid: make it as hot as your palate wants, which is the lovely freedom of this yummy recipe.
marciaznelson
Chicago area
1/26/2016
What an utterly delicious recipe! I used 2 red chilies and 6 serranos. Did not have kecap manis, so substituted with soy sauce and molasses instead. Also used only 3 tbsp of butter. And it still turned out to be wonderful with the sweet-peppery-spicy mix coating those crispy tofu nuggets.
hungrymarina
San Francisco, CA
1/22/2016
What an utterly delicious recipe! I used 2 red chilies and 6 serranos. Did not have kecap manis, so substituted with soy sauce and molasses instead. Also used only 3 tbsp of butter. And it still turned out to be wonderful with the sweet-peppery-spicy mix coating those crispy tofu nuggets.
hungrymarina
San Francisco, CA
1/22/2016
This is a variation on a common pepper sauce recipe from Indonesia and probably many other Asian cuisines. I don't like tofu but I can tell you that the basic pepper sauce (pepper, soy sauce, ginger and sugar) is simply fabulous with shrimp, beef, and chicken. The trick is to get the right balance of sweet and pepper for your own palate. Experiment with small batches of sauce. The sugar takes the edge off the pepper which means you can get a full bodied pepper flavor but minimize the harshness. Great multipurpose sauce. Don't avoid the recipe just because you are not a fan of tofu. Substitute shrimp or beef .
orourke2
Boston
12/3/2015
I love this recipe and have made it repeatedly, but it is very hot and peppery so it isn't good for anyone who doesn't like really hot, strong flavours. You can make it easier on yourself by using a food processor (eg my Magimix minibowl) for the bulk of the chopping and you can make and refridgerate the sauce easily in advance and warm it up when you need it. You have to make the tofu fresh though and serve it straight away. I use firm silken style, which is harder to handle than some firm tofus but gives a good texture, crispy on the outside and slightly melting in the middle.
mj_morris
London
12/3/2015
Worst recipe ever save your money hate it!
dinos656
Rochester Hills, MI
7/21/2015
I forgot to add a few notes for next time: - I found after a couple of batches that the tofu works best if you cube & dry the tofu and then toss in the cornstarch immediately before frying (i.e. in small batches). If you try and do all the tofu in the cornstarch at once, it just makes a gloopy mess. - The chopping of all of that garlic, ginger, shallots, etc is a pretty significant undertaking. If you don't have a mandoline. Next time, I'll just pulse all of that stuff in the food processor to make the process go a lot faster. I don't think it will have an impact on the eventual deliciousness of the meal. I agree with whoever said this reads more "sweet & peppery" than spicy. But, we love hot food around here.
Jounce
2/5/2015
Made exactly as written and we loved it! The ingredient list is daunting, but I'd encourage you to at least try it as written. Truly inspired. Much like mapo dofu. Will try adding sezchuan peppercorns next time. Oh, I couldn't find kecap manis so I just used some molasses with some additional light soysauce mixed in. Will continue to look for the kecap manis. We'll definitely make this again!
Jounce
Seattle, WA
2/5/2015
This recipe is absolutely not worth making - a complete waste of time and products. And here is my reasons why: 1) tofu, being dusted with cornstarch and then cooked in oil just turns into hard, plastic-like cubes; even after being soaked in the sauce, it still had crunchy edge to it and the cornstarch was sticking to the teeth. 2) the amount of peppers is so unreasonable, that it simply overpowers the taste of other ingredients: FIVE tablespoons of crushed pepper corns TWELVE garlic cloves EIGHT red chillies ginger... I mean, I love hot and spicy food, but this is just insane (you might as well have a bowl of thermogenic pills for dinner). 3) So, the final result was absolutely inedible, but because I didn't have time to make something else, I had no choice but to edit this disaster as much as it was possible. Only after adding cabbage, green paprika, some miehoen noodles and shrimps it became BARELY edible (but still, NOT ACCEPTABLE to be on a table). What can I say - the author of this recipe is out of his/her ****ing mind!
arekkushii
Denmark
1/9/2015
Simply scrumptious! I have made this 5 times and each time it's a winner. I omitted the butter and added green peppers, perfect.
bluebells1002
North west england
11/2/2014
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