Tofu stir fry with broccoli

Ingredient: TOFU-FIRM
I believe this tofu was bought a long time ago. It's been sitting on the shelf of the fridge for months, and since I had a great dish at a restaurant in Providence, RI that was tofu, veggies, and curry. Great stuff. The tofu was fried, kind of spongy, and really good. My thought was to do something similar, not curry, but an asian type of thick sauce. I found a few recipe references, and then got to work.

Ingredients:
Stir Fry:
Olive oil to sautee
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 package Tofu-firm cut into 1" squares
1 head broccoli cut into bite size pieces
3 cloves garlic minced
1/2 onion small onion cut chunky
Ginger, 1x1" piece minced
1 carrot chopped into match sticks
2 celery stalks chopped
6 green onions-roots cut off and white stalk cut in half
-save the green ends chopped for your final garnish
8 oz chopped white mushrooms
1 jalapeno or green chile diced
1/4 c chopped cilantro


Sauce:
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup chicken stock
A few drops sesame oil
1 tbsp sherry vinegar or apple cider vinegar in a pinch
1 1/2 tbsp corn starch

Process:
First thing to do is fry the tofu. What we want to see is golden little pillows of tofu, not crispy, but with more integrity in structure than tofu in the raw. On my first attempt, they stuck to the pan and didn't work out. It still tasted good, but you need hot oil to make this work and don't crowd them in the pan.

Mix your sauce in a separate bowl and set it aside. With the tofu ready and draining on a paper towel, the next step is to start your veggies. Start with some medium high olive oil and sautee the garlic and ginger quickly. This is one minute tops, and stir it the whole time. Next add the onion, broccoli, and chile. From here on out, I put the lid on to steam the veggies as well as fry. Give these a few minutes, and add your mushrooms, carrots, green onion stalks and celery. Toss this all around and give it a few more minutes to steam. Once your veggies are cooked but still firm, you can add your sauce. It should thicken while still on the heat. Once this happens, you can turn it way down. It's done.

Suggestions:
Try this on some white rice. You could also use rice noodles or another soft grain. Throw some cilantro on top with the chopped green onion for some fresh kick at the end and enjoy.