♪ ♪ - Today's recipe is absolutely delicious, and I cannot wait to show this to you.

- And there we have it-- super quick, super easy Thai-style stir-fried vegetables with a garlic and black pepper sauce.

- A crispy, salty fried chunk of tofu will make a tofu lover out of even the most die-hard hater.

So let's get started.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - This week on Milk Street, we take a fresh look at stir-fries, and we start with a Goan-style chili-fry with beef, tomatoes, and potatoes.

This is a recipe that showcases Portuguese influence mixed with Chinese technique and local flavors.

Then, a flavor-packed Thai-style vegetable stir-fry made with garlic, black peppercorns, and cilantro stems.

Followed by a skillet cook, salt and pepper tofu.

Please stay tuned.

- Funding for this series was provided by the following: - That meal.

You sautéed, you seared, and you served, cooking with All-Clad, bonded cookware designed, engineered, and assembled in the U.S.A. for over 50 years.

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♪ ♪ - Today's recipe comes to you from the small western coastal state of Goa in India.

Goa is the land of beaches and yoga ashrams, trance parties, and all kinds of relaxation.

Today's recipe is also going to use influences from Chinese stir-fry, Portugal, and we're bringing it in to the American home kitchen.

I'm going to show you how to make Goan-style beef chili-fry.

It is absolutely delicious.

Reminds me of home, and I cannot wait to show this to you.

So, to begin, we're going to make a spice mixture.

And this spice mixture is a simplified version of garam masala.

We've taken our favorite flavors and added them in.

So what I have here is cinnamon, I'm going to add some of that.

And turmeric.

Some salt.

And pepper, which most people don't realize actually originated in India.

We're going to mix this together.

And add half of it to my beef.

Okay, let's give this a mix.

And I'm going to let the beef sit with those spices.

Okay, while the beef sits getting tender with the salt and flavored with all the spices, I'm going to move on to the potatoes.

Now, not all beef chili-fry recipes use potatoes.

We like them because they really absorb all that delicious flavor and add bulk to the recipe as well.

I'm using these potatoes and I'm going to microwave them, to parcook them beforehand so that the beef doesn't overcook.

Adding a little bit of water.

And then I'm going to cover these and cook them for six to seven minutes on high heat in the microwave.

So let's go and do that, and we'll be right back.

So my potatoes are parcooked.

They are tender, but not completely cooked.

I'm going to put them aside.

I'm going to start with the meat.

I'm using sirloin tips for this recipe.

They're very, very tender.

They don't need a lot of time to cook.

In fact, if they're a little bit rare on the inside, that is perfect.

So I'm going to add some oil to my pan.

That looks about good.

And the beef goes in in a single layer.

(sizzling) I'm going to curb my impatience and let the beef cook for two to three minutes, undisturbed, so it browns at the bottom.

So the beef has started developing some really nice color at the bottom.

I'm going to stir it and cook it for another two to three minutes.

(sizzling) ♪ ♪ So my beef is done.

I'm going to transfer this to a platter.

On to the rest of the dish.

Some more oil.

I'm going to cook my onions and potatoes.

(sizzling) In go the potatoes, and I've drained off the excess water before putting these in.

That's important.

I'm going to stir these and cook them for eight to nine minutes.

(sizzling) So my onions and potatoes are cooked.

Let's add back in the beef.

(sizzling loudly) That is a happy sound.

And then we're going to break from tradition a little bit.

I'm going to add some tomatoes.

(sizzling) Chilies, of course, a lot.

(sizzling) Some ginger and garlic, indispensable.

(sizzling) And the rest of that spice mixture.

Going to stir this all together for a couple of minutes.

This is smelling so good, I wish you were here.

Okay, my tomatoes are softened, and my dish is almost ready.

I'm going to move this off heat and add a little bit of cilantro.

And the final ingredient, some vinegar.

Now, in Goa, you would use coconut vinegar or maybe tamarind paste.

We are going to use apple cider vinegar.

This is looking beautiful.

Now, my favorite part, a bowl for me.

I am ready to serve myself some Goa beef chili-fry.

I cannot wait to taste this.

♪ ♪ A little cilantro to finish.

♪ ♪ Here it is.

It reminds me of home.

Reminds me of the beaches and the slow pace of life, where there was so much color and flavor, and you can have that in your kitchen so easily.

This is little piece of Goa.

♪ ♪ Mmm.

I am so excited about how this tastes, how easily it came together.

The beef is super tender.

The vinegar adds that little splash of sour in there.

Beef chili-fry, from Goa and me to you.

♪ ♪ - Different cultures will use different bases to start stir-fries or core dishes in their cuisines.

And the Thai folk are no exception.

And one of the ones that we've seen more often is one of garlic, cilantro root, peppercorn and a bit of oil.

Now, unless you're growing cilantro at home, it can be a little bit difficult to find full-on cilantro roots to mash into your mix.

But you can use the stems here to impart a lot of flavor.

So, I'm going to get started by creating a little sauce for my stir-fry to hang out in later.

I've got a bit of fish sauce, a little bit of brown sugar, and a teaspoon of black pepper.

And I'm just going to mix this around until the brown sugar dissolves in the fish sauce.

And then I want to put it aside to hang out and mellow out until it's ready for my stir-fry.

So I'm going to start my pan over medium high heat, And we're going to add a bit of oil.

I want to use high heat to really bring out my flavors and also cook fairly quickly.

And we're going to add some garlic.

And our cilantro stems.

This is coming up to temp, I'm going to give it a quick stir.

I'm just going to let this hang out for two or three minutes and prep my cabbage while it's cooking up so that the oil absorbs and really enhances all of these fresh flavors.

(sizzling) So, I've got a head of Napa cabbage.

I'm going to halve it.

I'm going to cut it into about half-inch segments.

You don't have to be exact, but you don't want to go too big or too small.

Slice it somewhat thinly.

Not super, super thin.

I still want it to have a little bit of bite.

It's going to bring a lot of nice texture and crispness to my dish.

All righty.

So my cilantro stems and garlic have been browning for a couple of minutes here.

(sizzling) Now that my cabbage is prepped, I'm ready to go ahead and add it to my skillet.

(gentle sizzling) I'm also going to pull in some mushrooms... And some snow peas.

And this is going to give us a mixture of textures and flavors that will really go well with our cilantro stems, garlic, and our black pepper fish sauce mix.

So I'm just going to toss it a little bit to get it distributed, but I really don't want to stir it too much.

I know it's tempting with a stir-fry.

But for this, I'm keeping my heat on medium high, and not stirring actually encourages some browning on the bottom of the vegetables.

All right.

(gentle sizzling) And I'm just going to leave it alone for a few minutes so the bottoms of these vegetables can char up.

So it's been about five or six minutes.

I've only given this a couple of really quick turns because I want the char to stay on the bottom of my vegetables.

But I also want to make sure that all of my vegetables get properly cooked.

Now that we're at this point, I'm going to add the sauce that I made earlier, and this is going to give it some sweetness and some deeply savory notes.

I'm going to drop my heat to medium, give it a quick stir... And then, just cover my pan.

(sizzling) ♪ ♪ All I'm going to be doing to the skillet is just shaking it a little bit every once in a while to make sure nothing's sticking too much.

All right.

It's only been about two or three minutes, but my vegetables have let off enough water.

I'm going to turn up my heat back to medium-high and let this cook until it dries out a bit.

You're going to know that this is done when your pan is dry.

(sizzling) You don't want any residual moisture.

It should only take about two or three minutes.

All right.

I think this is at a good spot.

♪ ♪ So I'm going to pull this off my heat, and this is a good time to take a quick taste and check for your seasoning.

♪ ♪ I think it needs a little salt and pepper, so I'm going to add... Maybe about another half teaspoon of each.

Give it a quick stir.

And then this is also where I can add some fresh herbaceousness with my cilantro leaves.

I'm going to give this a good sprinkle.

You can use a lot or a little, totally up to you.

Give it a good toss.

Oh, man, this smells great.

I think we're looking pretty good here.

Time to plate.

♪ ♪ All right, I'm going to add just a little bit more of my chopped herbs.

Make this nice and bright.

And there we have it.

Super quick, super easy.

This is our Thai-style stir-fried vegetables with a garlic and black pepper sauce.

♪ ♪ - You know, everybody's wrong about salt and pepper.

Salt is a mineral, pepper is a spice.

Have you ever thought about why salt always goes with pepper?

There are lots of spices.

In a lot of places in the world, it's not salt and pepper.

It might be salt and cumin.

So, the idea of pepper always going with salt really came from about the 17th century.

La Varenne, a very famous French chef, put them together.

But the real reason pepper rose above all the other spices was price.

You know, by the 18th century, with the British East India Company traveling to Southeast Asia, Ceylon, and Java, et cetera, the supply grew and the price went down.

So pepper really was an inexpensive spice by that time.

Therefore, it was always paired with salt.

Now, the problem is black pepper is great, but there're lots of other choices.

You don't always have to use it.

So what are some other choices that actually make sense to us here at Milk Street?

Well, one of them is an Urfa pepper.

This has sort of a moist flakes to it.

It's a little chocolatey, it's dark, it's not that hot, but it's also a great alternative to black pepper.

This is a Turkish pepper.

I actually bought a huge bag of this in Istanbul a couple of months ago.

It's referred to sometimes as Turkish silk chilis, and it's very much like Aleppo pepper, which is here, very similar pepper.

It has some heat to it, but it's really fruity.

It's really a great all-purpose pepper.

In fact, I know a lot of chefs who have these big canisters of it and use it as their go-to spice for heat.

Now, in some places, paprika is actually what goes with salt, right?

So paprika can be an alternative.

In the Middle East, it's not salt and pepper, it's salt and cumin.

And they use cumin and salt together, because cumin is such a popular spice.

And, of course, you could use white peppercorns as well.

There are different types of white peppercorns.

Some of them, let's say in Thailand or in Vietnam, tend to be a little more aromatic and not quite as spicy.

But white pepper is a nice choice.

Finally, a little bit about salt.

As I said, salt's a mineral.

You have to understand a little bit about measuring salt.

So table salt weighs the most amount per teaspoon because it has very fine grains, right?

So it packs a lot in.

When you get into coarser salts like kosher salt or sea salt, for example, or Maldon salt, the grains of salt are bigger.

Bigger grains means they pack less salt by weight into a volume measurement, like a teaspoon.

So a really coarse salt, like a sea salt, you might have to use twice as much as the recipe indicates if the recipe calls for table salt.

So, what you might want to do, depending on the kosher salt or coarse salt you use, simply weigh a tablespoon versus a tablespoon of table salt, and that'll tell you how to make the switch.

So, do salt and pepper go together?

Sure, but you have lots of other options and use the option that makes the most sense for the recipe you're cooking.

♪ ♪ - So a crispy, salty fried chunk of tofu will probably make a tofu lover out of even the die-hard hater.

There's just something about fried tofu-- you're just crunching along before you realize, "Wait a minute, I'm eating tofu."

This salt and pepper tofu is sauceless, but does not lack at all in the flavor department.

We've got crispy chunks of fried tofu, generously seasoned with salt and pepper.

and then tossed with some really nice savory aromatics.

So let's get started by talking about tofu.

So, if you don't already know, tofu is made kind of like making cheese.

Curds and whey separate, and there are different types you might find in the supermarket.

I've got a few here.

So we have firm tofu, extra firm tofu, and then this little number in the middle is silken tofu.

Silken tofu, you might find it in the refrigerated section, sometimes on the shelf in an aseptic container.

It's way too loose for frying.

So instead you want to find a firm or extra firm tofu those have been pressed more and so, they're more compact and dense.

They really lend themselves a little bit better to frying.

Another benefit of this, is they've already pressed out some of the liquid.

But we're going to do a little more pressing because you really want this nice and dry before you fry it, otherwise you won't get that really crispy coating.

So I have some of that extra firm tofu over here.

I'm going to simply press it with some paper towels.

There are tons of different ways to press tofu, and depending on what you're doing, you might need to do it more or less.

This is a simple way to press it-- just press down with your hands pretty aggressively on the tofu.

(laughs) But again, we've used that extra firm tofu kind of for this reason, because once we press it, there's not going to be much liquid left.

Let's see how much I'm getting out.

So just make sure it's, like, dry to the touch on the top.

I'm just going to move it here and press it one more time.

Okay, now we can just slice this up.

I'm just going to cut it in half, lengthwise first.

And I'm just going to cut this into about half-inch slices.

So this is two containers of tofu for this recipe.

Give it one more press.

Okay, now we can slice up our aromatics.

I've got some scallions here and a Fresno chili.

If you can't find Fresno, you could use the Serrano chili, also, or even a jalapeño would be fine here.

Use what you can find, really.

So we're going to use the whites and the green parts of the scallion separately.

So I'm just going to cut this around here.

And then we're going to slice these on a diagonal.

It looks really pretty that way, but if I'm perfectly honest with you, slice them however you feel like slicing them.

They look great sliced on the diagonal.

Don't feel like you have to do it this way.

And I'm just going to cut this down the middle.

So this is the point where you would take out any seeds or ribs if you don't want it too spicy.

I'm going to leave them in, but feel free to take it out.

You do you.

And we're going to chop this pretty fine.

Okay.

All right, so our tofu is all pressed.

Our aromatics are prepped and ready to go.

So now all we need to do is coat the tofu.

So we're going to coat the tofu with a little bit of cornstarch.

That's going to make it nice and crispy.

Because there's no sauce here to worry about.

just this simple coating of cornstarch is going to keep it really nice and crisp.

So, uh, to this... so I'm going to add a full two teaspoons of salt.

And a tablespoon of pepper.

Just whisk that in.

Now, lastly, we're going to add some Chinese five spice to this.

This is a really nice, warm spice, but if you don't have it, don't worry about it.

It's an optional ingredient.

If you want to put it in, great.

Okay.

I'm just going to throw some of these guys in here.

You don't need to be super particular about this.

You just want to get some of this cornstarch on both sides.

And really, the more important thing is to get some of that salt and pepper on here because that's going to really add a ton of flavor.

Okay, so now it's time to fry.

So I'm going to put a couple of tablespoons of oil in the pan.

Now, this would typically be deep fried because you're probably frying tons and tons of batches of fried tofu.

We're just doing two batches of this so we can shallow fry it in a skillet.

Now you want to make sure this is really hot before you add that tofu.

All right.

so you want to add this in two batches.

We don't want to crowd the pan because then these will not fry, they will steam, which is the opposite of crispy.

(sizzling) So these will take a few minutes on each side to fry completely You want to make sure they're really nice and golden brown.

So these are about ready to flip.

So I'm going to flip these over.

Don't worry if they get stuck to each other.

Just kind of separate them with your spatula.

You can see there are, like, little bubbles on the outside here.

Those are going to be nice, crispy little bites in your mouth.

♪ ♪ So these are ready to come out of the pan.

They smell amazing.

I can actually smell that Chinese five-spice.

I'm glad we put it in there.

I just want to drain these on a paper towel.

That's going to just soak up a little bit of that extra oil.

(gentle sizzling) Okay, so now I'm just going to add a little bit more oil to the pan and get started with the second batch.

Basically, just rinse and repeat.

I'm going to take these last few out of the pan, Going to add a little bit more oil here.

And then we can add in those aromatics-- so, again, we have the scallion whites, just the whites for right now.

That Fresno chili and then some garlic.

And this should cook pretty fast because the pan will be pretty hot from frying that tofu.

And I can already smell and feel the pepper here.

So that's going to add a ton of flavor to the top of the tofu.

And you just want to cook this until that garlic is starting to brown.

Oh, this smells so good.

It's just three ingredients in this pan, but it is filling the room.

Okay.

We can add the tofu back in now, toss it within these amazing flavors.

Okay, and then last the scallion greens.

Just give that a quick toss.

Look at how absolutely gorgeous that is.

I can't wait to eat this.

So I'm going to put it onto this platter.

Try not to make a mess.

♪ ♪ You want to make sure you scrape all of this amazing flavor onto the top of this.

♪ ♪ Just going to add a couple to a little plate here.

Maybe more than a couple I really, really like this.

(laughs) ♪ ♪ All right.

♪ ♪ Look at that, it's so nice and moist in the inside, but the outside is so crispy.

♪ ♪ It's so salty in the best possible way it can be.

There's heat from that pepper.

And then you've got all of those warm, kind of savory flavors from the scallions and the garlic.

So, salt and pepper tofu.

This is going to make a tofu lover out of you, too.

You can get this recipe and all of the recipes from this season of Milk Street at MilkStreetTV.com.

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You sautéed, you seared, and you served, cooking with All-Clad, bonded cookware designed, engineered, and assembled in the U.S.A. for over 50 years.

All-Clad: for all your kitchen adventures.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪