Feb 23, 2010: Tofu Tuesday Silky Smooth

Welcome to the third edition of Tofu Tuesday!

Today's tofu of choice is silken tofu, which is sometimes referred to as Japanese style tofu.

Silken tofu is a soft, custard-like tofu that is often used in soups. Also, some vegetarians use mashed silken tofu as a replacement for mayo or sour cream.

For today, I'm improvising a soup using silken tofu. No recipe just flying by the seat of my pants. I do that sometimes since I am a wild and crazy guy. lol!

Started with homemade chicken broth and vegetables. Nappa cabbage, frozen peas and frozen corn, plus sliced green onions for added flavor.

Bring it all to a boil and add cubed tofu.

Earlier I had mixed some cold cooked rice with a little salt and sesame seed oil.

Baked in a 350F oven for 30 minutes. I'm trying to make sizzling rice soup without having to deep fry the rice.

The rice came out dried, but will it sizzle when added to the soup?

No. No sizzling from the rice, but the rice rehydrated in the soup and added a little nuttiness.
The silken tofu gave a pleasant smooth bite to the soup. A nice contrast to the rest of the soup.
Hurray for improvising! :-)

Feb 09, 2010: Tofu Tuesday - Fu Yung

Welcome to another edition (#2) of Tofu Tuesday!

I've been trying to come up with creative ways to add tofu into my diet.
I decided to try using it as an egg substitute in making Egg Fu Yung.
For me, egg fu yung needs onion and other vegetables, including bean sprouts. However, I forgot to buy bean sprouts so I used cabbage as a substitute.

Tofu Fu Yung
1 block of Firm Tofu, 14 oz
1/4 C Onion, thinly sliced
1/2 Zucchini, shredded
1 Carrot, shredded
1/2 C Cabbage, sliced thinly
1 Stalk Green Onion, chopped
1/4 t White Pepper
1/2 t Salt
1/4 t Sesame Oil
1/4 t Garlic Powder

Fu Yung Gravy
1 1/2 C Water
1 Chicken Bouillon
1 t Hoisin Sauce
1 t Oyster Sauce
2 t Soy Sauce
1 T Cornstarch, mixed with a little water to form a slurry.

1) Chop the veggies.


2) Mash the tofu, add the white pepper, salt and toasted sesame oil and mix.
Add the veggies and mix thoroughly.


3) Form patties and pan-fry.
I recommend making the size of your spatula for easier flipping.


4) Fry until nicely browned on both sides.
The tofu patties are quite soft so you may have to flip half a patty at a time. There's no eggs to bind the mixture. However, if I added more shredded cabbage or bean sprouts, the veggies would have intertwined to form a stronger patty.


5) Make the gravy - combine all the ingredients, except the cornstarch. Bring to a boil. Slowly add the cornstarch mixture until you achieve the thickness you like for gravy.

The Finished Dish - Brown rice, tofu fu yung with gravy and a few drops of hot sauce for added flavor.


The flavor was there. As I mentioned, to me, egg fu yung achieves most of it's familar flavor from fried onion and veggies. The tofu (like egg) doesn't really add flavor, but acts as a binder and a protein source.

I'm not sure if I really like the gravy. By itself, it's a bit salty, but when paired with the blander tofu fu yung it seemed to work.

In hindsight, I should have added more veggies (cabbage, bean sprouts, celery... etc) so the fu yung would have more structure.

Dec 08: Tofu Tuesday Today!

Tofu has been on my mind... a lot.

I think my long hours at work and eating out has got my body wanting something healthier. I suppose my body is telling me something. :-)

There are many types of tofu, but the common types are firm - great for stir fry and braised dishes, and silken/soft tofu. Silken tofu has a custard like texture and is typically used in soups.

Today, I cooked with fried tofu... also known as tofu puffs.


Tofu puffs are easy to use. You can leave them whole, but I decided to quarter into bite size pieces.


There are many ways to cook tofu, but I wanted to make something easy.

Stir Fry Veggies with Tofu Puffs.
1T Oil
1 Clove Garlic
1 Green Onion, sliced
1 Package of Tofu Puffs, quartered
1 Carrot, thinly sliced
3 C Raw Spinach
3 C Nappa Cabbage
1 to 2 T Oyster Sauce
1 T of Soy Sauce
1/4 C Water

Actually any veggies will do.

1. Over medium heat, sweat the garlic and green onions to flavor the oil. I also started cooking the carrots since they take the longest. After a minute or two, add the tofu.


2. After 3 to 5 minutes, add the veggies, soy sauce, oyster sauce and water.
Give it a stir and cover to steam for about 5 to 10 minutes... until the veggies are done to your liking.


3. A healthy meal served over brown rice.


There's something comforting about eating something healthy. Nutritious and delicious, at least perceived to be healthy... lol.

However, I still have tofu on my mind... What to do with the other packs of tofu? Hmm...

Sep 09: Ramen Cabbage Salad

During my college years, ramen was an inexpensive staple, but my repertoire was very limited to just cooking in water and adding a veg or meat. Ramen was a soup dish.

However, after college and pretending to be an adult, I went a potluck where a Japanese couple brought a cabbage slaw with ramen noodles. Interesting... I've never seen that before. The salad was delicious.

Here's my attempt at a Cabbage Salad with Ramen.

Since I was experimenting around, I kept the portions small. Just in case it didn't work out. Also, I kept the dish vegetarian by using fried tofu.

The Fixins'
-The Base
1 C Cabbage, thinly sliced
1/2 C Nappa Cabbage, thinly sliced
1/2 Package of Ramen, crushed

-The Topping
1/2 C fried Tofu (marinaded in soy sauce, toasted sesame oil and garlic powder)
2 T Waterchestnut, julienned
2 T Carrot, julienned
Lime Juice
Toasted sesame seed oil

Mix. I purposely kept the tofu topping lightly seasoned since I was adding a reduction on top.

-Soy Ginger Garlic Reduction
4T Soy sauce
2T Green onions, minced
1t Ginger, minced
1 clove Garlic, minced
Lime Juice (1 lime about 2T)

Lightly saute the garlic, green onion, ginger.
Add the lime juice and the soy sauce... mix and gently reduce the mixture.

-Dressing
Lime juice and Red wine vinegar... enough for 2T
1T Chive oil
1T Vegetable oil
1/4t Toasted Seasame Seed oil
couple pinches of sugar.

The Dressing - I like my dressing to be tart so I just used a couple pinches of sugar cut back on the tartness of the red wine vinegar.


The Dressing Mixed


The Salad
The Cabbage forms the base.
Uncooked ramen act as the croutons.
Tofu Salad topped with the soy sauce reduction.
Salad dressing drizzled around the salad.


The salad reminded me of a Chinese style chicken salad with a tart dressing. I think I smashed the ramen too much. :-)

The reduction is very intense. Has a strong garlic and green onion flavor. The soy is very present and pleasant. The lime juice adds the acidity that cuts through the strong flavors.

Mix everything together before eating makes for just the right amount of salt from the reduction.

Overall, not bad, but needs some more work. Next time I may add just a touch more sesame seed oil.

Using uncooked ramen!
Ramen is actually cooked before packaging. When made in the factory, the fresh noodles roll off the assembly line into a deep fat fryer. The deep frying dries the noodles for packaging. That's why a whole package of ramen is 400 or 500 Calories.

Mustard Cabbage with Braised Pork

A few days before my chili verde craving, I braised pork belly with fermented black beans and tofu.

Today, I was craving vegetables. I think it was my body telling me to eat some leafy greens.

What I did today was boiled some Chinese Mustard Cabbage (Gai Choy) and served it with the leftover braised tofu. The mustard cabbage has a peppery taste to it that's stronger than Boc Choy or Swiss Chard.

Braised Pork over Gai Choy.
(Note: You'll probably notice that there is no pork in the picture. The pork was eaten in previous meals. hehehe.)