General Tso’s is a pretty popular item on the Chinese takeout menu. Called by different names such as General Tao etc., it is doubtful if there was ever any such general in the Chinese army. But this General is pretty favored by one and all when they order their favorite takeout.

We had a weekly lunch thing at one of the places I worked where we always ordered Chinese food, and general tso’s chicken was always my favorite. I later found a few places that had General Tso’s tofu on the menu. Some joints were obliging enough to substitute tofu for meat in the sauce by special request.
I had no idea of the nostalgia the thought of this would evoke, while I was down with a cold for a week, unable to taste anything, in a land far away without access to my usual speed dial for Chinese Express or City Lights. A little bit of standard browsing via google revealed a few recipes for the sauce.

Interestingly enough, I found hardly any food blogs that had posted this recipe. At least, none of my usual ‘favorites’ of vegan/vegetarian blogs seemed to feature this.

I particularly liked the recipe for the General Tso sauce by Tyler Florence given on the Food Network website. Not that I used it verbatim, but I took it as a broad guideline.

I wanted this to taste like American Takeout Chinese, and not like ‘Indian Chinese’. Surprisingly enough, to my delight, I found that I did get the taste and flavor I wanted. I have often wondered what makes these two adaptations of Chinese cuisine so different, since most of the sauce ingredients are the same. I think its the particular soy sauce and also the dash of sesame oil that makes all the difference.

I spent the big bucks on a small bottle of Kikkoman soy sauce, but it was worth it. I would really have preferred to use Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, because I have come to love its flavor much more than any ordinary soy sauce. But finding a bottle of Bragg’s here is as impossible as seeing orange groves on the South Pole. The recipe follows without further ado.

 

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This is by no means a ‘healthy’ recipe, since it is high in sodium and oil. The only solace is that it has a lower calorie count than what you would get in a restaurant, and I know what ingredients, esp what kind of oil went into it. And hey, vegetable/sunflower oil is better than cheesy or creamy sauces anytime, right? ;). As mentioned above, this can be modified to be slightly more figure friendly by baking the tofu and using a low sodium soy sauce.

It certainly hit the spot for me, and more Chinese takeout style recipes are coming up soon.