Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking (12 page)

Remove the tofu from the hot water with a perforated spoon, shaking off excess water, and lay it gently in the wok. Push the tofu tenderly with the back of your ladle or wok scoop to mix it into the sauce without breaking up the cubes. Add the stock or water, the white pepper and salt to taste and mix gently, again using the back of your scoop so you don’t damage the tofu.

Bring to a boil, then simmer for a few minutes to allow the tofu to absorb the flavors of the seasonings. Add the leek slices (if using) and nudge them into the sauce. When they are just tender, add a little of the flour-and-water mixture and stir gently as the liquid thickens. Repeat once or twice more, until the sauce clings to the seasonings and tofu (don’t add more than you need). If you are using spring onions rather than leeks, add them now and nudge them gently into the sauce.

Pour the tofu into a deep bowl. Sprinkle with the ground roasted Sichuan pepper and serve.

PIPA TOFU
PIPA DOU FU
琵琶豆腐

The pear-shaped pipa (pronounced pee-par), or Chinese lute, is one of the best-known Chinese musical instruments. This Cantonese dish derives its name from the resemblance of the tofu puffs, scooped out of spoons like French quenelles, to the instrument. It’s a little complicated to make, because the tofu puffs have to be shaped and deep-fried, but it’s a richly rewarding dish and one of my favorites. The golden “lutes,” their pale flesh speckled with color, are sumptuously juicy in their savory sauce.

Some cooks add a little raw minced shrimp to the tofu mixture to enhance its flavor, and use pork stock and oyster sauce for the gravy, but I prefer to make a completely vegetarian version, because it’s one of those dishes that really doesn’t need meat. You can, if you wish, fry the tofu puffs a day in advance and keep them in the refrigerator. Another suggestion is to double the mixture for the tofu puffs, serve half of the finished puffs immediately with a spiced salt dip (see variation) and use the rest to make the main recipe the following day.

The puffs may also be served in a fish-fragrant sauce to sumptuous effect. Simply substitute them for the fried
eggplant
.

For the tofu puffs

1 dried shiitake mushroom

9 oz (250g) plain white tofu

2 tbsp very finely chopped carrot (about 2 oz/50g)

1 tbsp finely chopped cilantro

1 large egg white

3 tbsp potato flour

Salt

Ground white pepper

At least 1½ cups plus 2 tbsp (400ml) cooking oil, for deepfrying

For the sauce

2 dried shiitake mushrooms

1 spring onion

A few slices of peeled ginger

A few slices of carrot, for color

A few slices of fresh red chilli

1 cup (250ml) vegetarian stock or mushroom soaking water

1 tbsp Shaoxing wine

1 tbsp light or tamari soy sauce

⅛ tsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp potato flour mixed with 1 tbsp cold water

1 tsp sesame oil

Soak all the mushrooms in 1 cup plus 2 tbsp (300ml) hot water for at least 30 minutes. Drain, reserving the water. Discard the stalks. Finely chop one mushroom and thinly slice the other two. Blitz the tofu to a paste in a food processor. Mix in the chopped mushroom, carrot, cilantro, egg white, flour, ¼ tsp salt and some pepper. Slice the spring onion white on the diagonal and cut the green into 1¾ in (4cm) lengths.

Rub a couple of dessertspoons with oil. In a wok, heat the oil to 375°F (190°C). Scoop up spoonfuls of tofu mixture and slide them gently into the oil. (Slide each into a different area of the wok, so they don’t stick.) Do not fry more than five spoonfuls at a time. Leave for a couple of minutes until golden, then flip over for another minute or two. Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Continue until you have fried all the mixture, skimming the oil between batches. Pour off the oil and wipe out the wok. Return it to a high heat with 2 tbsp fresh oil. Add the ginger, spring onion whites, carrot, sliced mushrooms and chilli and stir-fry until they smell wonderful. Pour in the stock or mushroom water, bring to a boil and add the Shaoxing wine, soy sauces and salt and pepper to taste. Add the puffs and simmer for a minute or two. Give the potato flour mixture a stir and add, stirring as the liquid thickens to the consistency of heavy cream. Throw in the spring onion greens, stir, then, off the heat, mix in the sesame oil and serve.

VARIATION

Tofu puffs with salt and Sichuan pepper

Instead of the sauce, serve the puffs immediately after frying with a little dipping dish of three parts salt to one part ground roasted Sichuan pepper, a classic “salt-and-pepper” dip for deep-fried foods.

BEAR’S PAW TOFU
XIONG ZHANG DOU FU
熊掌豆腐

This exotic-sounding dish is actually just a version of the everyday Sichuanese dish “homestyle tofu” (
jia chang dou fu
). It takes its name from the fact that the fried slices of tofu have a puckered appearance like that of bear’s paw, a legendary (and now notorious) banquet delicacy. Most Sichuanese cooks would add a little pork to the dish, frying it off in the oil before they add the chilli bean sauce, but it’s equally delicious without. You can shallow-fry the tofu slices if you prefer: they’ll be equally tasty, but may disintegrate in the sauce. With a dish of leafy greens and plenty of rice, bear’s paw tofu makes a very satisfying supper for two.

1 lb (450g) plain white tofu

¾ cup (200ml) cooking oil, for deep-frying

2 tbsp Sichuanese chilli bean paste

3 garlic cloves, sliced

An equivalent amount of ginger, also sliced

3 baby leeks or spring onions, sliced diagonally into “horse ears,” white and green parts separated

¾ cup (200ml) vegetarian stock

½ tsp sugar

½–1 tsp light soy sauce

½ tsp potato flour mixed with

2 tsp cold water

Cut the tofu into 1¾ –2 in (4–5cm) squares or rectangles, about ⅜ in (1cm) thick. Heat the oil in a seasoned wok over a high flame to 350–375°F (180–190°C). Fry the tofu slices in a few batches for a few minutes until golden, then set aside.

Pour all but 3 tbsp of the oil into a heatproof container. Reduce the heat to medium, then return the wok to the stove with the chilli bean paste. Stir-fry until the oil is red and richly fragrant. Add the garlic, ginger and leek or spring onion whites and fry until they, too, are fragrant. Then add the stock and the tofu and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat slightly, season with the sugar and soy sauce and simmer for three to four minutes until the liquid is reduced and the tofu has absorbed some of the flavors of the sauce.

Add the leek or spring onion greens and stir briefly until just cooked. Finally, stir the potato flour mixture, scatter it into the center of the wok, and stir until the sauce has thickened. Turn out on to a serving dish.

SPICY FIRM TOFU WITH GARLIC STEMS
SUAN TAI CHAO XIANG GAN
蒜薹炒香乾

In my experience, vegetarians adore this swift stir-fry, which is based on a Sichuanese supper dish that would normally be made with
pork
. It takes just a few minutes to prepare and a few minutes to cook, and is almost a meal in itself with a bowlful of rice. If you’d rather, substitute green or red bell pepper—or a mixture of both—for the garlic stems.

6 oz (175g) garlic stems

4 oz (100g) firm tofu (spiced or smoked)

2 tbsp cooking oil

1 tbsp Sichuan chilli bean paste

½ tbsp fermented black beans, rinsed and drained

¼ tsp sugar

Cut the garlic stems into 1¾ in (4cm) sections. Cut the tofu into strips of similar dimensions.

Heat the oil in a seasoned wok over a medium flame. Add the chilli bean paste and black beans and stir-fry to release their flavors. When the oil is red and fragrant, add the garlic stems and tofu.

Increase the heat to high, then stir-fry for about three minutes until everything is piping hot and the garlic stems have become sweet and tender. Stir in the sugar towards the end of the cooking time. Serve.

SUZHOU BREAKFAST TOFU
SU ZHOU DOU HUA
蘇州豆花

In the old part of Suzhou, where the boatmen sing as they ply the canals and the landscaped gardens offer a refuge from the clamor of city life, a sprawling mansion is home to the Wumen Renjia restaurant, which specializes in traditional Suzhou cuisine. At breakfast time, the restaurant serves a vast array of congees, pickles, sweet pastries and dumplings, and, best of all, this classic street snack: warm, custardy tofu served with a delectable selection of savory garnishes. If you have silken tofu on hand, it takes about 10 minutes to prepare, if that. And if you’d rather not eat it for breakfast, serve it as an appetizer.

The same garnishes can be served with warm soy milk to delicious effect. At the Dragon Well Manor restaurant in Hangzhou, fresh stone-ground soy milk is offered at the start of a feast, like a soup or an aperitif, to calm the spirits and refresh the palate. Many local guests are moved to sweet nostalgia by this old-fashioned treat, which reminds them of the street vendors of their childhoods, who rose early to grind their soaked beans and simmer their milk. To try it, simply warm up unsweetened soy milk and season it to taste with the garnishes listed here.

This is best eaten with a spoon, either on its own or with rice.

Salt

11 oz (300g) silken tofu

1 tbsp finely chopped Sichuan preserved vegetable (
zha cai
)

2 tsp paper-thin dried shrimp

1 tbsp dried laver seaweed, torn into tiny pieces

1½ tbsp finely sliced spring onion greens

2 tsp light or tamari soy sauce

1 tsp sesame oil