Continuing with the quest for frugality and optimality in kitchen use, only now deprived from all forms of paid employ. I create another marinade using JB's Srichacha Seasoning / Rub, some trace of which is now removed from the internet at large. You can find a trace of it still present as of 2017.
The kaeng pa is one of my favourites from my local Thai restaurant.
I just freestyled on this marinade, cutting out the crusted-up seasoning, adding a ton of white wine vinegar and half-decent oil and blending it up in a jug blender. The marinade changed colour a lot as the blender chewed through the clumped together seasoning.
We prepare two large blocks of tofu by pressing, freezing then marinating, then deep-frying the contents until black.
Then the recipe itself is quite a normal stir fry with a Thai red curry paste.
It looks gorgeous in the pan. It's also fiery as all hell, with a deliciously full flavour. I found that it's actually the marinade that's doing this spice, which is a little counterintuitive, given that it had a really not insubstantial amount of curry paste inside it.
This met with round approval from vegetarian housemates, although it's somewhat cheating as it contains a fair amount of fish sauce (nam pla)