Press the tofu in your preferred way, remove the excess water as much as possible, and cut them into cubes. Heat the oil for frying. In a mixing bowl, add the all-purpose flour, corn starch, salt, and baking powder. Mix well. Add water little by little and make the batter. It should not be too runny or too thick.
Dip the tofu cubes in the prepared batter and slowly drop them into the hot oil. Deep fry them till they turn golden brown. Flip them as required while deep-frying.
Fry them in batches, place the fried tofu on parchment paper or tissue paper and drain the excess oil. Set them aside.
Prepare the sauce and make kung pao tofu.
Heat a pan or wok. (As you can see, I am using my Dutch-oven here) Add the peanut oil and when the oil is hot, add the black peppercorns, cloves, and dried red chilies. Saute until the red chilies slightly bulge and change color. Add the roasted peanuts and cook for 30 seconds.
Now add the green onions and cook for a couple of minutes.
At this stage, add the sauces - soy sauce, vinegar, chili sauce, sugar, and salt. Let the sauce simmer for a minute.
Now add the fried tofu and mix well. Make sure you coat the tofu well in the sauce and cook for a couple of minutes.
Suppose you have any leftover batter that you used for deep-frying the tofu. In that case, you can use that to thicken the sauce, or you can mix 2 tbsp of corn starch with 2 tbsp of water and add it to the tofu mix to thicken it. You can skip this step entirely if you prefer slightly runny sauce.
After adding the slurry, cook the tofu for a couple of minutes and turn off the heat. Garnish it with green onions and serve warm with rice or noodles.
Notes
I highly recommend extra-frim tofu for this recipe.
We did not include any ginger or garlic. But you can add finely chopped 2 cloves of garlic and 1-inch of ginger.
Adjust the salt and chili sauce/dried red chilies as per your taste.
After adding green onions, you can add some veggies as well.
I used store-bought roasted peanuts. If you are using raw peanuts, roast them first.
Pressing the tofu - I don't have a tofu presser. I just wrap the tofu in a towel and place a heavy object on top and let it sit for 30 to 40 minutes. You can check my homemade paneer post for the same.
If you want to skip deep-frying and making this dish free of all-purpose flour, you can coat the tofu with corn starch and shallow-fry the tofu.