Sri Lankan Hot Butter Tofu 

Sri Lankan hot butter dishes are a genre all their own: something crispy and fried, tossed fast in a glossy sauce of butter, garlic, dried chilli and spring onion until every piece is coated and glistening. This version swaps the usual cuttlefish or prawns for crispy tofu, and skips the fiddly sauce-balancing by leaning on two Chilli Chan's jars: Crispy Chilli Oil for the garlicky, aromatic heat, and Hot Honey for that sticky, sweet-and-spicy finish. Thirty minutes, one wok.

Prep 15 min   Cook 15 min   Total 30 min   Serves 2   Heat 🌶 3/5

What Sri Lankan hot butter tofu actually is

Hot butter cuttlefish is a Sri Lankan restaurant legend, born out of the island's Chinese-influenced cooking and a fixture on menus across Colombo. The formula is simple and loud: fry something until shatteringly crisp, then toss it in a wok of butter, garlic, dried chilli and spring onion so it comes out golden, buttery and just a little bit sweet.

We have taken that same wok energy and pointed it at tofu. Boiled in stock first so it is seasoned right through, coated and fried until crunchy, then tossed in a hot butter sauce built on our Crispy Chilli Oil and Hot Honey. It is comforting, punchy, properly more-ish, and every bit as good over rice as the original.

The two-jar shortcut

A classic hot butter sauce is a balancing act: butter, garlic, dried chilli, and then some combination of chilli sauce, ketchup and sugar coaxed into the right sweet-heat ratio by taste. Great when you have the patience. A lot of jars and guesswork on a weeknight.

So we shortcut it. Chilli Chan's Crispy Chilli Oil already brings the roasted garlic, Sichuan tingle and chilli crunch, Eyan's mother's Taiwanese recipe doing the aromatic heavy lifting. Crispy Hot Honey handles the sticky, sweet-and-spicy glaze in one spoonful. Two jars in, and the sauce that usually takes a cupboard of ingredients is basically done.

One trick worth keeping from the traditional method: boil the tofu in stock before you coat it. It seasons the tofu all the way through, so you never get that bland-in-the-middle bite.

What you need

The tofu

• 250 g firm tofu, cut into roughly 2 cm cubes
• 2 stock cubes

The coating

• 1 egg
• About ½ cup cornflour
• A small pinch of turmeric
• Salt and black pepper
• Sunflower oil, for frying

The sauce

• 3 tbsp butter or plant-based butter
• 3 to 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• A few dried red chillies, broken into pieces
• 1 tsp Chilli Chan's Crispy Chilli Oil, stirred from the bottom of the jar
• 2 tsp Chilli Chan's Hot Honey

To finish

• 1 banana pepper or capsicum, sliced on an angle
• 2 spring onions, white and green parts cut into large pieces
• Salt and plenty of freshly cracked black pepper
• Fried curry leaves, optional, to garnish

The method

1. Boil the tofu in stock first. Bring a pan of water to the boil and add the stock cubes. Add the tofu cubes and gently boil for 3 to 4 minutes, then drain well and leave to cool slightly. This seasons the tofu right through and keeps the middle tender.
2. Set up your coating station. Whisk the egg in a bowl and tip the cornflour onto a separate plate. Season the cornflour with a small pinch of turmeric, salt and black pepper.
3. Egg, then cornflour. Dip each tofu piece in the egg, then coat it thoroughly in the seasoned cornflour.
4. Fry until properly golden. Heat sunflower oil and fry the tofu until very golden and crispy on all sides. You can also air fry the coated tofu until crisp.
5. Start the sauce with butter and aromatics. Melt the butter in a wok over medium-high heat, then add the garlic and dried chillies and fry until fragrant.
6. In go the two jars. Add the Crispy Chilli Oil and Hot Honey and stir quickly until everything comes together into a glossy sauce.
7. Toss fast and hot. Add the banana pepper, spring onions and crispy tofu, turn up the heat and toss everything together quickly so the tofu stays crisp while it gets coated in the hot butter sauce.
8. Season hard with black pepper. Taste and adjust with salt and plenty of freshly cracked black pepper.
9. Finish and serve immediately. Add fried curry leaves if you like and get it to the table straight away, while the coating is still crunchy.

Vegan and vegetarian version

This is vegetarian as written and easy to make fully vegan. Use plant-based butter, and swap the egg for a quick slurry of 2 tbsp plant milk whisked with 1 tbsp cornflour as your dipping layer. Both Chilli Chan's Crispy Chilli Oil and Hot Honey are plant-based, so the sauce is already sorted. Fried tofu takes to this beautifully, so you lose nothing by leaving the egg out.

Hard-to-find ingredients, and what to use instead

Where to find the specialist bits in Europe: fresh or frozen curry leaves and banana peppers turn up at South Asian and Sri Lankan grocers, plus larger Asian supermarkets like Amazing Oriental and the many toko in the Netherlands, Go-Asia in Germany, and See Woo or your local South Asian shop in the UK. Frozen curry leaves keep for months, so buy a bag and stash it.

What goes wrong

• Not drying the tofu after boiling. Wet tofu will not hold the coating. Pat the cubes properly dry before you dip them.
• Crowding the pan. Too many pieces at once drops the oil temperature and the tofu steams instead of crisping. Fry in batches.
• Building the sauce too slowly. The glaze is meant to come together in seconds over high heat. Have everything prepped and move fast so the tofu stays crunchy.
• Letting it sit. Crispy hot butter tofu is a now-or-never dish. Sitting in the sauce softens the coating, so serve it the moment it is tossed.
• Pouring off the top of the chilli oil jar. The garlic, sesame and chilli sink to the bottom. Stir the jar and go in with a spoon, or the sauce tastes flat.

FAQs

What is Sri Lankan hot butter tofu?

It is a plant-based take on Sri Lankan hot butter cuttlefish, a favourite from the island's Chinese-influenced restaurant scene. Crispy fried tofu is tossed in a buttery, garlicky, chilli-spiked sauce with a sweet-and-spicy edge, here from Chilli Chan's Crispy Chilli Oil and Hot Honey.

How spicy is it?

About a 3 out of 5. There is a warm, building heat from the dried chillies and Crispy Chilli Oil, balanced by the sweetness of the Hot Honey. Use fewer dried chillies for a gentler bowl, or more chilli oil if you want it fierce.

Can I make it vegan?

Yes. Use plant-based butter and swap the egg for a slurry of 2 tbsp plant milk and 1 tbsp cornflour for dipping. Chilli Chan's Crispy Chilli Oil and Hot Honey are both plant-based.

Can I air fry the tofu instead of deep frying?

Absolutely. Coat the tofu as normal, then air fry until golden and crisp, shaking halfway through. Toss it in the hot butter sauce right at the end so it keeps its crunch.

Can I make it ahead?

Not really. This one is best cooked and eaten straight away, since the crisp coating softens once it sits in the sauce. You can boil and coat the tofu ahead of time, then fry and toss just before serving.

What do I serve with hot butter tofu?

Steamed rice is classic, and soaks up the sauce beautifully. For something with more bite, pile it over our knife-cut noodles. A cooling cucumber salad or a squeeze of lime balances the heat.

Keep reading

• Hot honey fried chicken, if you want more of that sweet-heat crunch
• 10-minute chilli oil noodles, the fastest weeknight bowl
• What is hot honey? (and 15 ways to use it)
• Chilli oil eggs, 4 ways

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