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I like tofu so much and I’ll always stock up some different kinds of tofu in the fridge for cooking. They are so many varieties ranging from extra firm to extra soft tofu, including the fresh tofu, braised tofu, deep fried tofu or any other processed tofu. Tofu itself has no taste and many people think that they are plain and bland. One of my coworkers doesn’t even like tofu and I don’t understand why. I like the texture of tofu, it is so soft that just melts in your mouth. Most importantly when you cook it together with other ingredients, the tofu will absorb the taste and flavor of the dish.

You can see how the Korean people like tofu so much because the ‘Spicy Tofu Pot’ is one of their well-known cuisines. Tofu is beneficial to our health as it is made from soybean that contains calcium, iron and magnesium. As a matter of fact, Korean spicy tofu pot is a bit similar to Mapo Tofu dish that I am presenting today, they are both spicy tofu dishes but ingredients used are different.

Mapo Tofu (麻婆豆腐) is a famous dish in Chinese Szechuan or Sichuan cuisine. Mapo Tofu is cooked with ground beef or pork in spicy bean sauce that covers it completely in red and spicy sauce. One special ingredient used is the Sichuan peppercorns that will numb your tongue, this is added to create an extra hive to the spicy numbness (麻辣) of the dish. Here I substituted ground beef with ground pork based on preference, but the original dish uses ground beef. Having this dish especially in colder nights warms me up, I could gobble my bowl of rice with just the Mapo Tofu. See other Szechuan dishes for Spicy Egplant with Minced Pork, Kung Pao Chicken.

Ingredients:

1 block soft or regular tofu, not the silken (cut into 1/2″ cubes)
1/2 lb ground pork (marinate f0r 15 mins)
5 slices ginger (finely minced)
4 clove garlic (finely minced)
2 stalks green onions (chopped)
2 tsp Sichuan peppercorns (花椒)*

For pork marinades:
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp cornstarch

For the sauce:
1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
2 tbsp spicy preserved soy bean (辣豆瓣醬)
1 tsp Sichuan ground red chile
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp cornstarch (dissolve in water)

Instructions:

1. Heat some oil on medium low, add in Sichuan peppercorns and stir fry for 1 minute.
2. Turn heat up to medium high, brown ground pork, addd in ginger and garlic, stir fry together.
3. Add in the sauce, wine, follow by spicy preserved soy bean, ground red chile, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and some water.
4. Add the tofu, gently fold and combine well. Cook and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
5. Taste and adjust seasoning for extra salt or sugar.
6. Add in corn starch mixture, bring to boil to thicken the sauce.
7. Garnish with chopped scallions. Serve.

*Note: Becareful for the peppercorns while eating that will numbs and have a bitter taste. Optional method is to ground the peppercorns to powder and add into the sauce.



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Yong Tofu or Yong Tau Fu (釀豆腐) is a Chinese dish originated from Hakka cuisine. It is a soup dish uses tofu and a variety of vegetables to stuff with meat paste mixture of fish and pork. The dish originally uses tofu for stuffing, therefore it is called Yong Tofu,  which literally means “stuffed bean curd”. Ever since Yong Tofu gained its popularity, a variety of vegetables are used for stuffing such as the bitter gourd, green or red chilies, eggplant, okra and etc. Thus the name of Yong Tofu has been used to all foods prepared in such method.

The last time we prepared the dish was last year, when Sam made a big whole pot of Yong Tofu for New Year celebration, we ate that for lunch and dinner for a couple of days. This time we were so lucky as my good Hakka friend Heidi decided to make Yong Tofu for our small gathering a few weeks ago.  She mentioned that her mum makes traditional style Hakka Yong Tofu, she will buy fresh fish from the market and hand chop the fish into fresh and smoother texture. Also she will have to chop and beat the ground pork so they are smooth and juicy to combine well.

This time, we skipped a couple of traditional steps and we made a very easy version of Yong Tofu (Next time I’ll try to make the authentic Hakka version). We only used the pre-made fish paste (no ground pork involved), you can get it in the frozen section of the Asian market; or get the fresh fish paste from the seafood section. Try to season the fish paste with pepper and sesame oil or chopped scallions. This will help to get rid of the fishy smell slightly. We picked up a couple of each vegetables such as bitter gourd,  eggplant, okra and tofu. You can also try red chili, tofu puff, tofu skin. This depends on your preference and also the number of people consuming.

Once we cut up the vegetables, all of us were helping out in the kitchen starting to create the piece of art – stuffing the mixture into the vegetables… fun and busy. When stuffed vegetables were almost ready, Heidi first pan fried them separately and followed by boiling. For this recipe, we only used plain water boiling, if you want a soup broth to go with the Yong Tofu, you can always make a pot of chicken stock, add in some crushed garlic, salt and scallions.

Serve the Yong Tofu with chili dipping sauce, we were totally satisfied! Thanks Heidi and the girls for making this delightful “Yong Tofu” gathering session came true.

Ingredients:

1-2 container Fish Paste
1 bittergourd (cut into round pieces, remove seeds)
1 eggplant (cut into diagonal pieces with 1″ thickness)
1 package okra / lady fingers about 12-15 pieces (cut a slit in the center)
1-2 packs of firm tofu blocks (cut into triangular pieces with 1″ thickness)

For fish paste seasoning:
3-5 dashes white pepper powder
1 tsp sesame oil
1-2 stalks scalliions (finely chopped)

For dipping sauce:
Soy sauce or Hoisin sauce
Grounded garlic/red chili sauce (sambal) or Siriracha chili paste

Serve 4-6 people

Cooking Methods:

1. Season the fish paste with seasonings of white pepper powder and sesame oil.
2. Cut the vegetables into smaller pieces. For eggplant, cut diagonally about 1″ thick pieces, cut a slit in the center. For okra, make a slit in the middle. For bitter gourd, cut into round pieces with 0.5″ thick pieces. For tofu blocks, cut into triangle pieces, each around 1″ thickness.
3. Using a bread knife, stuff the okra, eggplant, bitter gourd and tofu with the seasoned fish paste, dip in some water to smooth and curve the surface of the fish paste.
4. Heat up cooking oil on a pan, pan fried the bitter gourd, tofu, eggplant separately until golden brown.
5. Bring a pot of water to boil, add the okras and blanch about 2 minutes until they are cooked, set aside.  For others repeat the step, cook the stuffed vegetables in boiling water for about 2 minutes.
6. Note: If you want to serve with broth, add chicken stock, couple of crushed garlic, chopped scallions, salt and pepper. Add in the stuffed vegetables and cook for 2 minutes.
7. Serve with chili dipping sauce.

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Don’t know why I have been craving for this Bean Curd and Seaweed  Cold Appetizer, maybe because we haven’t got a chance to go the local Chinese restaurant that we usually have this lately. Also recently I read a forwarded email talking about a man having some cancerous disease and then he started to eat seaweed after an advise from a physician. After couple years later, the cancerous symptoms were completely gone. I know, why do I really believe, it’s a forwarded email.

However I have done some research on seaweeds. They are nutritious with high in fiber, calcium, magnesium and iodine. But always be safe not to consume too much of one food, we should always keep our diet balance with a wide variety.

This dish is really easy, just have to do some cutting. Plus the weather is so hot during the summer, I don’t cook a lot.

Cold appetizer is great.  I have tried two kinds of seaweed, they can easily be found in the Asian market. One of them is the fresh seaweed knot and the other one is a kind of salted preserved fresh seaweed I got it from the promoter in the store. You just have to soak or rinse the seaweeds, so they don’t get too salty, mix it up with the sauce you will get a great cold app.

Ingredients:
4 pieces of dry five-spiced tofu (sliced) 五香豆腐干
1 big bowl of fresh seaweed knots/ preserved seaweed 海帶結/鮮海帶

For the sauce:
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 handful of cilantro (chopped)
2-3 stalks scallions (chopped)
1 tbsp soy sauce paste
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tbsp chili oil (老乾媽辣椒油)
1/4 tsp sugar
few drips of sesame oil
dashes of sesame seeds

Serve for 2-4 ppl

Cooking Method:

1. Cut the dry five-spiced tofu into slices.
2. If using fresh seaweed knots, rinse and blanch with boiling water. Rinse under cold water, drain. If using the salted fresh seaweed pieces, rinse off the salt and soak for 1-2 minutes, till tender and not too salty.
3. Mix up the sauce and all ingredients, you can adjust based on preference. More garlic or not spicy is up to you.
4. Combine the five-spiced tofu, seaweed and sauce. Top with toasted sesame seeds and serve.

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I craved for something light and not heaty after gobbling too much of barbequed and fried foods over the long weekend. Cooking something like congee, tofu and veggie would be pleasing. I made my mind up to prepare myself a tofu dish (after I saw Bel’s Steamed Tofu with Pork Ribs 豆腐蒸排骨).

Tofu has a plain structure with very little flavor on its own. So normally it is paired with other ingredients to make a dish. This time I just cooked the tofu with ground pork. Quick and easy! On the other hand, tofu is low in calories and only little fat. It also features high protein and calcium. These gave me another reason for cooking it. Add this humble dish to your recipe library now. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 block of silken tofu (cut into small cubes)
3-4 oz ground pork (marinated for 30 mins w/ 2 tbsp soy sauce)
2 tbsp dried shrimps (washed)
2 tbsp minced garlic
1 stalk scallion (chopped)

Seasonings:

1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp shaoxing wine
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
2 dashes white pepper powder
1 tsp corn starch
little water

Cooking method:

1. Make the sauce by mixing all the seasonings in a bowl and set aside.
2. Heat up a wok / pan with 2 tbsp cooking oil. Sauté the garlic until fragrant.
3. Add in the ground pork and dried shrimps and stir-fry. Break the ground pork into tiny pieces.
4. Add in the tofu and sauce. Stir gently until the sauce is boiled.
5. Finally, add in the scallions and do a few quick stirs before dish up.

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I was looking for some easy recipes that don’t require a lot of efforts and works, maybe even some magical spells will make the food ready by itself in no time. Enough of imagination. The truth is it’s summer and fun time, I just got lazy to cook :p.  But I found some recipes that would help out — steaming using a rice cooker or on the stove.  Bah, this is just an easy way to cook the food and you can be off to do your stuff. In fact there are many recipes that can be cooked by using the rice cooker, which it is an efficient cooking style for more nutritious and healthy meals.

Steamed tofu with pork ribs provides you an excellent source of calcium and protein. Plus steaming makes it less oily and super fresh, the sweet broth absorbs the nature juiciness from the pork.  You can steam it with your rice cooker, or on stove top. Preferably for 30 up to 40 minutes, then the pork ribs will be much softer and tender.

Ingredients:

1/2 lb cut Pork Ribs
1 pack Soft Tofu
1 red chili (chopped)
1 green chili (optional)
3 slices ginger (minced)
3 clove garlic (minced)
1 stalk Green onion (chopped)

For the Seasoning:
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp rice wine
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch

Cooking Method:

1. Rinse the pork ribs, drained, slightly wipe it with paper towel to dry. (This is to let the pork ribs marinate more flavorful)
2. Marinate the pork ribs with seasoning of soy sauce, rice wine, salt, sugar and cornstarch, up to 1 hour.
3. Cut the soft tofu (not silk) into 1″ cube, lay it on a platter.
4. Top with chopped garlic, ginger, green or red chilies.
5. Put 2 cups of water into a rice cooker and steam till it is “cooked”, let it rest or warm fbefore serving. Alternatively, steam on stove top on medium high heat for 30-40 minutes preferably till pork ribs are cooked and tender.
6. Garnish on top with chopped green onions and some remaining red chilies.