Silky tofu in ginger and spring onion sauce - featured at Dishfolio 17 Nov 2010

One common and refreshing dish that we always eat at home is bean curd in light soya sauce and garlic oil topped with fried shallots but I have never had bean curd made this way.  This recipe is largely adapted from Chef Sam Leong's recipe except I cut down on the amount of salt and baby anchovies and I use mirin in place of the cooking wine and I use garlic oil instead of just warm oil.  I served it cold instead of hot. This is so easy to make and the taste is so refreshing.

Serving: 2

Main Ingredients:
80 gm silky tofu
10 gm baby anchovies
1 cup diced spring onions (only the green part)

Ingredients for sauce:
(A)
30 gm young ginger, peeled
30 gm spring onion, cut into shorter stalks
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp mirin

(B)
2 tsp vegetable oil
1 tsp garlic

Method to prepare the sauce:
Put (A) into the blender. Heat the wok with vegetable oil and fried garlic till it is fragrant and put into the blender as well.  Pureed (A) and (B) and set the sauce aside.

Method to prepare the Main Ingredients:

Gently place the silky tofu in a deep serving plate and place in the fridge for about 2 hours.  Just 15 mins before serving time, diced the spring onion and set aside. Deep fry the baby anchovies till golden brown. Drain all the oil and place them on a kitchen towel to have all the oil absorbed and set aside.  Take tofu out of the fridge, pour the sauce over it and garnished with diced spring onion and deep fried baby anchovies and serve immediately.

I have submitted this entry to  Malaysian Monday.  Do check out 3 hungry tummies or test with a skewer for more information.

Steamed prawn with tofu glass noodles with plum sauce

I came across this dish in The Little Teochew food blog which she, in turn, had adapted from a recipe in the blog "3 Hungry Tummies", and I liked it. However, I wanted to try this dish with my own sauce.  I was wondering if this unusual combination would go well with the plum sauce that I use for my Lemon Chicken recipe. So, why wonder? Just try it out and we will know, so I did this afternoon.  SUCCESS!  They taste fabulous and I must say "3 Hungry Tummies" has done a beautiful job of combining tofu, glass noodles and prawn!

Serving: 2 - 3

Main Ingredients:

1 tube silken egg tau foo (or any type of tofu you like), cut into 8 equal pieces

8 medium size fresh prawns, peeled keeping the tails intact

10g glass noodle, soaked and drained
1 stalk spring onion, diced

Ingredients for the sauce:

2 tbsp plum sauce

2 tb water

1 ts chopped garlic

1/8 ts ground clove

1/2 ts sugar
½ ts fried sesame
¼ ts ground white pepper
¼ ts grated ginger

Method to prepare the plum sauce:

Heat wok with vegetable oil and add chopped garlic and stir fry till fragrant.  Add plum sauce, water, clove, sugar and pepper and let it simmer for about 2 mins.  Add the grated ginger and simmer for another minute and turn off heat.

Method to prepare main ingredients:

First, In order to have the prawn in the shape of a ball, I formed them into balls, pinning with a toothpick, and dipped each prawn into small pot of hot water to let it  half cook to "set" its shape.  I cut the tube of tofu into 8 equal pieces and lay them on the serving plate.  Next I boiled the glass noddles for 5 mins and drain it well before and arranged some onto each tofu slice.  On top of the glass noodles, I nested the prawns.  Spoon a little of the sauce on each prawn and put the rest of the sauce in a small bowl and set it in the center of the serving plate. Sprinkle some fried sesame seeds onto each prawan and the rest go into the sauce. When the water is boiling in the steamer, steam the dish for 5 to 8 mins. Garnished with spring onion and serve the dish hot.  

Tau foo "kang" (Smooth thick Tau foo soup) - Featured in Group Recipes

There are so many types of tau foo.  Tau foo has a high protein content and is rich in iron, calcium and B vitamins. Silken tau foo is the softest and is best for mashing, blending for dips, dressings and sauces, so for the following recipe, my mum used this type for the soup, or “kang” in Cantonese, which is thick and smooth. I remember the first time we had this dish, we had it in Bangsar Seafood Restaurant.  My hubby and I had lunch with my ex boss, Tony.  Tony is a foodie and he knew every little street and corner restaurant, small or large, for good food... especially Chinese food.  Every now and then I used to get a phone call from him asking me when I am going to be sick of being a "lady of leisure" and go back to work for him.  I was the Sales Manager for his firm back then. I told him that I am not what he thinks I am .  I am a “One Leg Kick” (a person wearing many hats).  Then, after a long while I never heard from him. I tried to call him on his handphone and there was no answer.  Just recently, I learned from  one of our common friends that Tony had a massive stroke, survived it but he is now bed ridden.  I am very sad to hear that my dear friend is in such a condition but on the other hand, he is a lucky man. His lovely wife is taking good care of him. So now, whenever Mum serves us tau foo kang, I think of Tony and what a great boss he had been to me.  I like to put my rice into the soup and eat it that way.  No other side dish is required because it taste so good. My husband agrees, and this is one of his favorites as well.


Tau Foo Kang (Mashed tau foo smooth thick soup)

Ingredients

1 box of white silken smooth tau foo

3 dried shitake mushroom (soaked, squeezed dry and sliced)

6 water chestnut (diced) 

½ a medium carrot (diced)

1 cup diced chicken breast meat or tigh meat

6 dried small scallops (soaked and water retained for use later)

1 ½ tb vegetable oil

100 ml water

½ cup parsley (chopped)

¼ spring onion (diced)

Salt & white pepper to taste

Method:

Marinate:

Ingredients

1 tb corn flour

1 tb oysters sauce

1 ts sesame oil

2 tb water

½ cube chicken stock

Sale and white pepper to taste

Mixed all the above ingredients and marinate the chicken for 15 mins or more. Lightly mashed the tau foo and set aside. Heat oil in wok and sauté marinated diced chicken meat and stir fry till meat turn whitish.  Add carrot, water chestnut and stir fry for 2 mins.  Add 100 ml water and let it boil.  Add mash tau foo and dried scallop and. mix well.  Let it simmer for about 2 mins and add salt and white pepper to taste. Turn off heat and add spring onion and parsley and transfer to serving bowl.

Stir fry 5 spiced dried tau foo with celery, potato and black fungus - Featured in Group Recipes

My Mum eats very little meat.  She eats more vegetables  and always introduces new vegetable dishes to us.  This is a recent one and, as such, not neccessairy part of the rich tradition of cooking knowledge I want to tap into and document here. Still, this preparation was very good and I decided to include it right away. The "five spiced" tau foo may not appeal to everyone's palette.  I think for many Westerners, it may be an aquired taste.  I like the contrast of the smooth tau foo with the crunchiness of the vegetables in this dish, especially the black fungus. From my research on black fungus, it is honored as "Meat in vegetables" because of its nutrients such as iron, protein, fat, vitamis, polysaccharide and other minerals.  Eating black fungus often gives you a similar result as taking an aspirin a day to lower the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.  Even modern Western medical science has proven that black fungus is very effective in moderating blood viscosity, thereby lowering blood pressure. Mushrooms and tree fungus hold a special pace in Chinese cuisine, especially among the Buddhist vegetarians. It's power pack of iron and protein makes it a naturla as a regular part of their diet. But it's flavors and subtle contrasts will call to anyone true lover of food.  

Stir fry 5 spices dried tau foo with celery, 

potato and black fungus

Ingredients:

1 cup dried 5 spice tau foo (this is avalable in most Chinese groceries)

1 potato

1 stalk celery

2 floret of black fungus (washed and soaked until the floret opens up)

1 tb vegetable oil

2 tb of water

Salt to taste

Method:Julienne all the vegetable.  Heat oil on wok and add potato, stir fry till for 2 mins then add tau foo and black fungus and fry for another 2 mins.  Add celery and water and stir fry

Another 2 to 3 mins.  Add salt to taste before serving.

We think we know how to julienne vegetables but are we doing it right? Here is instruction how to julienne vegetables the right way:

Step 1:

Make a length-wise cut. When using long vegetables such as carrots. potatoes or celery, the first cut you want to make is right down the middle length-wise. This will leave you with two long, slender pieces of a vegetable that will allow it to sit on the cutting board without rolling.

Step 2:

Slice the vegetable. Take each half of the vegetable and cut them into slender strips about 1/4 inch thick. They should look like matchsticks at this point.

Step 3:

Cut the pieces in half. After you have all the long strips of your vegetable, gather them together in a bunch and cut them in half to make shorter strips. For longer vegetables like zuchinni or cucumbers, you may have to cut them into thirds, but for vegetables such as carrots and potatoes, a slice in half will work fine. The end goal is a strip about 1/4 wide by 1 and 1/2 inches long.

The overall flavor of this dish, which I would call earthy and wholesome, is a wonderful accompaniment to rich and other dishes.