Looks good enough to eat...Korean sweet & spicy sauce

When I was a little girl I liked nothing better than sitting on the sofa looking at the pictures in my mum's cookbooks.  I still do it!  I love recipes with photos - it helps me imagine what the dish will taste like if that makes sense. 

Korean sweet & spicy tofu

I often go online and do a recipe search by image - that's exactly what happened a couple of days ago when I needed some inspiration for a tofu dish.  Not being a vegetarian, it's not something I have much experience cooking with and to be honest, I have had tofu that tasted more like a wet sponge than anything else, so I was a bit wary of what I might end up with. 
Well, this recipe for Korean sweet & spicy tofu (continuing yesterday's theme of world foods) was a revelation!  Before you recoil in horror, this would work equally well with chicken, pork or prawns :-)  The tofu was crispy thanks to a coating of cornflour applied before frying, the sauce was sticky, sweet and spicy and I demolished the lot in seconds.  The sauce is probably one of the best I have made - we will have this again soon with chicken and stir-fry vegetables! 

The recipe for this came from a lovely blog called "The Vegan & Korean" - please click on the blog name for a link.  I amended it slightly to the sauce recipe below:

Sweet & spicy sauce (serves 2)

Ingredients:
1 tbsp finely minced or shredded ginger
1 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp white or rice vinegar
1 tbsp white wine (optional)
4 tbsp sugar or agave syrup or maple syrup (I used maple)
1 cup water
1/2 - 1 tsp chilli flakes or fresh chilli
1 tbsp corn starch mixed with 2 tbsp water

Method:

1. Combine all the ingredients APART FROM the corn starch/water mix (see last ingredient) in a pan and slowly bring to the boil.
2. Reduce the heat and leave to simmer for a few minutes.
3. Add the corn starch/water mix and stir frequently.
4. The sauce should now be syrupy and thickened - if it is still a little runny, just add more corn starch/water mix to thicken further.
5. Leave the sauce to cool slightly, then use to liberally coat your cooked tofu/chicken/...