Fried Bean Curd in Black Bean Sauce

Chinese New Year around the corner and it's expected that lots of dishes will be meaty.  A simple dish like this would be better for our tummy before CNY.
Surprisingly good and tasty dish with simple ingredients - soft tofu and fermented black beans.

This is a homey dish, good with rice and easy to cook. The original recipe uses fish balls [I don't buy fish balls especially the springy and pure white coloured ones] so I replaced it with tofu puffs which soaks up the sauce.  You can cook this dish just with tofu.

Recipe Source - Hawker Fair Simplified [modified]

Ingredients

2 pieces soft beancurd [tofu] - cut into thick slices

a few tofu puffs - rinsed and sliced [optional]

1 tbsp chopped garlic

1 tbsp chopped ginger

1 tbsp fermented black beans - rinsed, drained and chopped

1 red chilli - seeded and chopped

1 stalk spring onion - chopped

some oil for frying

Seasoning

1 tbsp each of oyster sauce and light soy sauce

1 tsp sugar

100 ml water

1 tbsp cornflour water for thickening

1. Heat oil in a non-stick pan, pan fry tofu slices until golden on both sides. Dish and drain.
2. Use the same pan,saute chopped garlic, ginger and red chilli until fragrant. Add in black beans.  Stir to mix.  Add in tofu puffs.
3. Add in seasoning and water.  Bring to boil.  Return the fried tofu pieces to mix with sauce.
4. Thicken with cornstarch water.  Dish up to serve with rice.  Garnish with spring onions or chopped Chinese celery