Silken tofu dish within 10 minutes | Vegan | Easy and quick | Authentic Chinese Recipes (蒸豆腐)
►This is a very easy but super flavorful steamed tofu dish that you can find pretty much in every Chinese household. The extreme smooth soft tofu soaked in super tasty sauce just melts straightaway in your mouth! So delicious! Usually Chinese like to put minced pork in this dish, but I’ll show you how to make a totally plant based version.
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►Here is my full recipe:
Ingredients:
1. 1 block (300g) Silken tofu or soft tofu
2. ¼ cup (50g) Vegetable mince (Soybean product, optional)
3. 2 Shiitake mushroom
4. 1 Green Onion
5. ¼ tsp Ginger, minced
6. 3 Cloves of garlic
7. ½ tsp potato starch or corn starch
8. ¼ tsp Dark soy sauce
9. 1 tbsp Light soy sauce
10. ½ tsp Sugar
11. ½ cup water (or vegetable stock)
12. Pinch salt (if needed)
13. Pinch white pepper
14. 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
Instruction:
Step 1.
Prepare a whole block of silken tofu or soft tofu. Silken tofu is extremely delicate, so it’s very easy to break apart when you take it out from the package. What I usually do is, flip it over, use your knife to cut a very little slit at each corner and the center, to let the air go in evenly around the tofu block. Then flip it over again, remove the cover gently. Get your serving plate, cover the tofu on the top upside down. Then hold on to the tofu and plate at the same time with 2 hands, then invert both of them. So the tofu should come out very easily as a beautiful whole block. Don’t worry about if there’s a bit water in the plate, because as it steams later the tofu block will sweat and more water will come out. Then steam it on boiling water for between 5 to 10 mins.
Step 2.
While waiting for the tofu, prepare ¼ tsp of minced ginger, put in a little dish. Dice 3 cloves of garlic, smash it with one side of your knife to bruise it a bit, it’ll make it so much easier to peel and chop, at the same time, lots of the juice has been squeezed out of the garlic, so later when we saute it in the oil, we can extract most of the garlicy flavor in to the sauce. Put it together with ginger. then chop 1 green onion. Remove the root, give a cut in the middle before dice it, so I can get some finely diced green onion. then put it into the same dish. 2 shiitake mushroom or any type of mushroom you like, dice them up as well. ¼ cup of pre-marinated vegetable mince, which made from soybean, so its flavor goes along very well with tofu which is also a soybean product. If you don’t have it or don’t like it just omit it or put a bit more mushrooms in. The last thing we need to prepare is a starch water, ½ tsp of potato starch or corn starch, and 2 tsp of water. mix it well.
Step 3.
Cook the sauce. Add 1 and half tbsp cooking oil in a hot sauce pan. I use rice bran oil because its neutral flavor and relatively higher smoke point, a very good option for Chinese cooking. Then add in the ginger, garlic and green onion, saute for about 1 mint or until they barely turn golden brown. Then add in the mushroom and veggie mince, saute for another 1 min, then add in ¼ tsp of Dark soy sauce and 1 tbsp of Light soy sauce, ½ tsp of Sugar, pinch white pepper, keep on stirring until the sauce all mixed up evenly, then add in ½ cup of water or vegetable stock if you want. keep on cooking. when it’s boiling or you can see it start to bubble up, add in the starch water to thicken up the sauce. Give a taste text to add in a bit salt if needed. I didn’t because there’s enough salt from my soy sauce and the pre-marinated veggie mince. Then turn the heat off and add in 1 tsp of toasted sesame oil to enhance the flavor.
Step 4.
When the tofu is ready, take it out from the steamer carefully with your oven gloves. Then drain the water out, as you can see there is so much more water in the plate, it’s mainly from inside tofu itself. And most of the weird off-flavor witch stop you liking tofu has also been taken out with the water at the same time. Steaming is one of many tricks that Chinese usually use to make tofu taste better.
Step 5.
Pour the hot sauce all over the tofu block. Let the tofu dipped or berried in the tasty sauce completely. Garnish with some fresh chili rings if you like an extra spicy kick, and some coriander(cilantro). Then it’s ready to serve.
►If you still think this recipe’s too complicated:
Some restaurants serve this dish without steaming the silken tofu, because it usually has a milder taste than firm tofu, some people don’t mind have it raw. They just directly pour the hot tasty sauce over chilled soft tofu block. Can you imagine what a mouth feeling is that? So you can absolutely also cook your tofu dish in that way.
Credit: YouTube/Witty Tui’s Chinese plant-based kitchen
