hello hi everyone! Wesley here. Today we’re diving back into our growing series dedicated to actually decent vegetarian recipes with a shot at my personal favorite Chinese tofu dish, which is a deep fried and braised tofu stir fry known as hong shao tofu. As is often the case with this series, I frequently find myself on a mission to display the many wonderful ways that tofu can be highlighted in Chinese cuisine without being bland, floppy, crumbly, or chewy, as is so very often the case with bad vegetarian recipes that are trying to treat tofu as a meat substitute, which it is not.
A hong shao tofu on the otherhand, for those unfamiliar, is one of the many tofu centric chinese stir fries that iconically features a deep fried firm or medium firm piece of tofu that has been coated in a light egg and corn starch batter, then stir fried with veggies, and slow braised in a rich oyster sauce base. The slow braise to the fried tofu causes it’s thin batter to soften up during the cook, yielding a more tender and toothsome (rather than crispy) piece of tofu. For our version today I’ll be using some baby bok choy, thinly sliced carrots, and shiitake mushrooms, but depending on the restaurant, you’ll often see this dish served with a wide variety of veggies, including things like snow peas, gai lan, bok choy, baby corn, bamboo, or as always, whatever happens to be in season. Hope you try it.
Serves 2-3
INGREDIENTS
4 cloves garlic
1 inch (about 1 tbsp) ginger
1 lb firm tofu
6oz baby bok choy
3 medium carrots
6 shiitake mushrooms
peanut oil
48oz fryer oil
2 tbsp corn starch dissolved in water
INGREDIENTS (sauce)
4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp shaoxing wine
1 tbsp black vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp oyster sauce
INGREDIENTS (batter)
2 egg whites
1/4 cup soda water
1/4 cup corn starch
PREP
CRUSH and mince the garlic, set aside
FINE MINCE the ginger, set aside
SLICE the carrots thinly, set aside3
SLICE the baby bok choy in to quarters, set aside
SLICE the tofu into squares, set aside
COMBINE all sauce ingredients, set aside
COMBINE all batter ingredients until a smooth batter forms, then combine with tofu and set aside
REHYDRATE the shiitake mushrooms for 10 minutes, then remove and reserve the mushroom water, set aside
ON THE STOVE
HEAT 48oz fryer oil to 350F, then add the battered tofu 6-8 pieces at a time and fry for 5 minutes until golden
REMOVE fryer oil, wipe down, reheat, add 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao
ADD the garlic and ginger, then bloom for 15 seconds until fragrant
ADD the carrots and baby bok choy, toss for 2 minutes
ADD the shiitake mushroom, sauce, reserved mushroom water, and fried tofu, then braise for 10 minutes until reduced by half
ADD the corn starch slurry and toss to combine, then remove from heat and serve over rice