hello hi everyone! Wesley here. Today we’re kicking off a brand new series inspired by the MANY requests that I’ve gotten for vegetarian and/or veggie friendly recipes, particularly those involving the use of tofu. If you’re like me, I have always been really frustrated with how tofu is used in most American vegetarian recipes, mostly because they involve using tofu as a meat substitute. There ARE many many uses of tofu throughout Asian and Chinese cuisine in particular that are built around tofu as the central ingredient (rather than a substitute), which means that the approach involved is much more conducive to creating a tender, toothsome, and tasty piece of tofu. 

More specifically today we’ll be taking a shot at a Chinese stir fry classic “wu siu tofu” or a braised firm tofu that has been shallow fried with veggies, and tossed in a dark soy sauce and oyster sauce braise. It’s one of my absolute favorite tofu dishes because the fry and braise method gives us a toothsome but also deeply flavorful piece of tofu. To add to this, it’s also a little bit more approachable than the similar “hong shao tofu” that recipe we did a little while back, since this involved a light breading and deep fry, which is a little bit more labor intensive. Hope you try it.

 

Serves 2-3

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 cloves garlic

  • 1 inch (about 1 tbsp) ginger

  • 14 oz (1 block) firm tofu

  • 6-8 shiitake mushrooms

  • 2 medium carrots

  • 3-4 green onions

  • 2 tbsp corn starch

  • water

  • peanut oil

INGREDIENTS (sauce)

  • 4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)

  • 1 tbsp dark soy sauce

  • 1 tbsp black vinegar

  • 1 tbsp oyster sauce

  • 2 tbsp shaoxing wine

  • 2 tbsp chile crisp oil (lao gan ma)

  • 1 tbsp brown sugar

  • 1 tbsp sesame oil

PREP

  • CRUSH and mince the garlic, set aside

  • FINE MINCE the ginger, set aside

  • SEPARATE the whites and greens of the green onions, then slice the whites thinly, and the greens into planks, set aside

  • SLICE the tofu into squares, set aside

  • SOAK the shiitake mushrooms in boiling water until tender, then reserve 1 cup of mushroom water and set aside

  • PEEL the carrots, then slice into coins on a bias

  • COMBINE all sauce ingredients, set aside

  • COMBINE corn starch with water into a corn starch slurry, set aside

ON THE STOVE

  • HEAT a wok as hot as possible, then add 1/2 cup peanut oil and long yao

  • ADD the tofu 6-8 pieces at a time and shallow fry for about 4 minutes per side until crispy, then remove and repeat with the remaining tofu

  • REMOVE the tofu from the wok, then add 4 tbsp peanut oil to the wok and long yao

  • ADD the garlic, ginger, and whites of the green onions and toss until fragrant for about 15 seconds

  • ADD the carrots to the wok and toss for 2 minutes

  • ADD the shiitake mushrooms, greens of the green onions, and tofu back to the wok, then toss to combine

  • ADD the sauce and reserved mushroom water, toss to combine and let simmer for 10 minutes (add additional water if needed)

  • ADD corn starch slurry, and toss to combine

 

tagged with woo can cook, chinese food, wusiu tofu, wu siu tofu, braised tofu, crispy tofu, hong shao tofu, stir fry