May 25, 2010: Tofu Tuesday - Ginger Tofu Fa

After the last Tofu Tuesday's Mango Pudding, I wanted to make another sweet tofu dish.

The best tofu for this dish is silken tofu.

The following is my improvised recipe. Trying to keep it simple:

Silken Tofu in Ginger Syrup

1 lb Silken Tofu
1 C Water
1 11 oz Can Mandarin Oranges, drained with juices reserved
1 Chunk Ginger
1/4 C Sugar
3 Slices Candied Ginger, Julienned

1) 1 Cup of water and the drained syrup from the oranges gave me 1 1/2 C of liquid.


2) Peel and slice the ginger.
I picked up a tip on skinning ginger from all the cooking shows I watch.
Instead of using a vegetable peeler, you can use a spoon to scrape off the skin, which worked very well.


3) Simmer the tofu, sliced fresh ginger, liquid and sugar for about 20-30 minutes. Flip the tofu block after 10 to 15 minutes.

When done, I strained out the fresh ginger and chilled the tofu and syrup.


4) The chilled tofu fa was sliced and mixed with the oranges.
Garnished with the candied ginger.



The finished dish...
Slightly sweet and mildly gingery.
You can still taste the tofu, which is fine by me. I don't like overly sweet desserts.
However, if you want a stronger syrup, the sugar can be increased to suit your preferences.

I think this is a nice refreshing dish best served cold. :-)

Apr 20: Red Egg and Ginger Party

Baby CT had a Red Egg and Ginger Party.

A Red Egg and Ginger Party is a Chinese tradition where a baby is introduced to the world at his one month birthday. In our modern times, the party can be held at a later age.

Red represents happiness and good luck.
Eggs represent fertility and life renewing.
Ginger goes back to the belief that our bodies when in harmony contain a balance of male/female energy. Also, sometimes called yin and yang, or hot and cold energy. Our bodies can be rebalanced by the food we eat since foods have male and female energy, hot and cool, yin and yang. Giving birth is female energy and ginger contains hot/male energy that rebalances the energy in the body.

CT resting the night before the party. Awww.... cute chubby cheeks. :-)


CT at the Red Egg and Ginger Party.
Note: the red eggs and red ginger - doubly lucky.

Garlic Ginger Oysters

I had some oysters leftover from Mardi Gras.
These were jarred oysters, extra small size.

I decided to sautee the oysters with garlic and ginger.

The fixins'

Oysters - I had about 3/4 of a 10 ounce jar of extra small oysters
2 cloves of garlic chopped
1 green onion - chopped
1/2 tsp ginger chopped

Not shown - a corn starch slurry
1/2 tsp corn starch
1 to 1.5 tsp oyster sauce
1/4 tsp sesame oil
1/4 cup water

I usually don't use corn starch, but I figured the corn starch would thicken the juices which should help the flavors "cling" to the oysters. I believe some Chinese restaurants will lightly coat the oysters and quickly deep fry the oysters before adding to the final sauce. The coating also help the gravy cling to the oysters.



The cooking -
Heat a saute pan and add about 1 tablespoon of oil.
When the oil is hot, add the garlic, ginger and green onions to slightly brown and flavor the oil.
Add the oysters and saute for about 1 to 2 minutes.
Add the corn starch mixture and let it thicken - with corn starch as soon as it comes to boil, that's as thick as he mixture will get.

I had extra gravy and didn't want to waste it so I added white rice and let it soak up the flavors.

Garlicky, slight hot from the ginger, but I added an extra dab of chile paste.
Oysters may look odd, but they oysters are slightly sweet and the flavors are very nice.