hello hi everyone! Wesley here. Today we’re diving back into our series dedicated to the Bay Area restaurant scene with a part 2 of our Spices 3 episode. For those unfamiliar, Spices 3 is a Bay Area local legend in downtown Oakland that sports a variety of both creative and traditionally classic Chinese and/or Sichuan dishes. More specifically today we’re taking a shot at their chou doufu or “stinky tofu,” which is a firm tofu that has been fermented in bean curd, then shallow fried and served with a dipping sauce.
At Spices 3 (as well as most stateside restaurants), you’ll often come across this dish as a shared plate, typically ordered with family style meals. But outside of the states, you’ll more often find them at Chinese and Taiwanese nightmarket stalls, where you can order this dish on the go, and eat it with kabob skewers (and no, i have no idea why you wouldn’t just eat it with a fork). The dish (as the name implies) is quite stinky and pungent coming from the 48 hour soak in fermented bean curd, and for what it’s worth, definitely ranks pretty high on my list of more adventurous dishes to try in Chinese cuisine, up there with chicken feet and pig’s blood popsicles (please don’t ask me to make those. I regret mentioning these already). Hope you try it.
Serves 2-3
INGREDIENTS
1lb (1 block) firm tofu
2 tbsp Chinese baijiu
2 tbsp rice vinegar
6-8 cubes stinky fermented bean curd
4 cloves garlic
1 inch (about 1 tbsp) ginger
sesame seeds
corn starch slurry (1 tbsp corn starch dissolved in water)
peanut oil
INGREDIENTS (sauce)
4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp doubanjiang
PREP
CRUSH and mince the garlic, set aside
FINE MINCE the ginger, set aside
SLICE the tofu into large squares, set aside
COMBINE all sauce ingredients, set aside
COMBINE the baijiu, rice vinegar and fermented bean curd with water in a tall, narrow container, then whisk until the bean curd is fully dissolved
ADD the tofu to the brine mixture, then cover and refrigerate for 24 hours, or up to 48 hours
REMOVE the tofu from the brine, then press dry with paper towels and place on a drying rack
ON THE STOVE
HEAT a wok as hot as possible, then add 1 1/2 cups peanut oil and long yao
ADD the tofu to the wok 10 pieces at a time and fry for 5 minutes until the edges begin to brown, then flip and fry for an additional 5 minutes until golden brown
REMOVE the tofu, reheat the wok as hot as possible, add 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao
ADD the garlic and ginger, and toss until fragrant for about 15 seconds
ADD the sauce mixture plus 1/4 cup water, then let reduce for 2-3 minutes
ADD the corn starch slurry and toss to combine, then remove from heat
FINISH with sesame seeds and sauce on top and/or on the side