Smoked tofu and peppers 青红辣椒炒香干

[abcdefg]

I confess to not caring much about tofu prior to arriving in China about a decade ago. It wasn't that I actually disliked it, just found it insipid and boring. But over time, I've gradually discovered more and more of its uses and charms. One of the things which won me over was how varied it is: tofu comes in dozens of flavors and forms.

 

Today I'd  like to show you one kind of tofu that now has taken a front seat in my van. It's not puny and weak; it's not shy and retiring; it's actually rather forward and bold. I'm speaking of xiang gan 香干，which is tofu that has been cured, pressed, smoked and partially dried. In some parts of China you might find this called 熏豆腐干。

 

 

My neighborhood outdoor market has a couple dozen tofu shops, each selling eight or ten kinds of tofu. One might specialize in stinky tofu 臭豆腐, whereas another might specialize in hairy tofu 毛豆腐，and another's pride is their smoked tofu 熏豆腐。I haunt them all because I love diversity and appreciate the chance to continually challenge my taste buds.

 

 

 

Sometimes I just stop at one of these stalls where the vendor is friendly (not all are) and ask him or her to introduce me to a kind that I haven't used before. I tell them I would like to explore tofu, that it's something we don't have much of back in the US. I explain that I see tofu as something very Chinese and I would like to get better acquainted with its various forms. That's how I found smoked tofu, which usually goes by the name 香干, a couple of years ago here in Kunming.

 

Today we will stir-fry it with green and red peppers to make a balanced, flavorful, and nutritious main dish that pleases the eye as well as the palate. It's a dish that doesn't require any advanced techniques or special equipment; suitable for a beginner cook in a basic Chinese kitchen. Start with some fresh crisp peppers. I usually buy long ones that have a little heat 尖椒, but you can just as well use sweet bell peppers 甜椒 if you prefer. Today I was feeling playful, so I sliced them on a diagonal to turn them into rings instead of strips. Remove all the white pith and some of the seeds.

 

 

I found two young brothers at the market early this summer who sell the best sweet Bermuda-type onions I've ever tasted. They are sweet, juicy, and have absolutely no bite. They promote them for use as a raw ingredient in salads. I will occasionally sacrifice one to a stir-fry or use one to dress up scrambled eggs. When you cut them, they drip juice, but the fumes do not sting your eyes.

 

 

 

If you are not fortunate enough to have such premium onions, you could cut your onions smaller than I did and soak them for a few minutes in cool salty water. That would "tame" them a bit and prevent them from overpowering the other vegetables.

 

This smoked tofu is made by first brining fresh tofu in a solution of salt and several spices, the list usually including Sichuan peppercorns 花椒，star anise 八角，fennel seeds 小茴香，ginger and garlic 姜蒜。Then it is pressed to gradually flatten it and remove a third to a half of the water. Afterwards, it is smoked in an oven, using coals made from various local woods. Often an abandoned or second-hand refrigerator is used to provide the closed smoking chamber. The makers never tell you all of their secrets. Here's what it looks like. Slice it thin.

 

(Footnote: These six slices, enough for a meal for three or four people, cost me 4 Yuan, less than a US Dollar.)

 

 

The rice cooker just beeped to tell me the rice was done, so I'm ready now to fire up the wok. I've developed the habit of mentally rehearsing the cooking process before actually starting, so as to be sure I've assembled all needed ingredients and seasonings. Once the bullet train gets rolling at speed, it won't stop until it arrives at the station.

 

I've peeled, smashed, and minced some ginger and garlic. They are separate because the ginger needs a head start. If you put it and the garlic into the wok together, the garlic burns before the ginger is sufficiently cooked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fry the aromatics (onion, ginger, and garlic) over medium heat, stirring briskly until you can smell them. They don't need to brown, they just need to develop aroma 炮香。Add the tofu and flip everything over again and again 翻炒 for about a minute until the flavors have blended and the tofu is heated through. Then turn it out into a pan where it can wait off to the side 备用。

 

 

 

Add another spoon or two of oil to the hot wok and stir-fry the peppers over high heat. Notice the smoky fumes in my photo; this is a home-cook's version of that famous "wok hei" you have read about; the "breath of the wok ." It's fine if the peppers even develop a tiny bit of char in places to give them a full flavor. With proper technique, they do this without losing their original crunchy texture. The way to achieve this, if you can manage it, is to shake the wok with your left hand and toss the contents with the spatula/wok tool 锅铲 in your right.

 

Pretend you are a sweating line chef in a gray undershirt, an unlit cigarette tucked behind one ear, toiling deep in the bowels of some busy Chinatown dive, putting in 16 hours a day to pay back the Snakehead gang that smuggled you over from Fuzhou two and a half years ago in a freighter. Take a deep pull of beer from your recycled Starbuck's coffee cup and smell the aromatic smoke coming off that wok as you do your thing for the 50th time since you rolled out of bed early this morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add the tofu back to the wok.

 

Hit it with a tablespoon or two of light soy sauce 生抽 and a teaspoon or two of sesame oil 香油 poured over the back of your wok tool 锅铲 and stirred in. A sprinkle of salt, but not too much because the tofu is pre-seasoned to some extent as it is cured. Stir in a small amount of 水淀粉, corn starch slurry. Mine had a half teaspoon of corn starch mixed with a tablespoon of water. And finally a pinch of MSG 味精 sprinkled in at the last minute. Toss it and sir it for all you are worth now. Smile as you see how nicely it has all come together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Serve it up 装盘, steamed rice on the side. This can easily be a main dish or it can accompany a separate meat and a vegetable if you are serving more people. I usually make it for only one or two. If you have leftovers, they will reheat well.

 

 

 

Give it a try next time you crave something quick and delicious! It will put a smile on your face without breaking the bank.

[Alex_Hart]

2 hours ago, abcdefg said:

Pretend you are a sweating line chef in a gray undershirt, an unlit cigarette tucked behind one ear, toiling deep in the bowels of some busy Chinatown dive, putting in 16 hours a day to pay back the Snakehead gang that smuggled you over from Fuzhou two and a half years ago in a freighter. Take a deep pull of beer from your recycled Starbuck's coffee cup and smell the aromatic smoke coming off that wok as you do your thing for the 50th time since you rolled out of bed early this morning.

 

Is there a novel coming out soon? Or is this how abc pictures himself while cooking?

 

Love the recipe. Smoked tofu is one of my favorites. Do you have access to it year-round down there? My favorite tofu shop has around 15-20 different kinds of tofu made in a small room right next to the window where they sell the tofu, but they only have smoked tofu in winter. When I don't have access to smoked tofu, I do a similar recipe with 酱油豆腐 or 豆腐干.

 

The best smoked tofu I've had was in a tiny 农村 by the border between 江西 and 浙江 on my way back from 三清山. The buses had all left and we hitched a ride with a guy going the same way (found using 顺风车) who insisted he had to treat us to dinner. While I fought and swore that I wouldn't eat anything (feeling guilty and full from my instant noodles), I predictably gave in once the food was laid out in front of us. The town was famous for tiny lake fish (the size of a pinky) dried and stir fried, as well as smoked tofu. If I understood correctly, the town's name in dialect was something along the lines of 小鱼村 (the dialect in Western Zhejiang is impossible to understand). Wowzer, that tofu was awesome. I could have ordered five more plates of it. The stir fried dried fish was also great. I came back to Hangzhou and went hunting for smoked tofu for the sake of comparison, but it was already too late in the season and the tofu masters had largely ceased production.

[abcdefg]

22 hours ago, Alex_Hart said:

Is there a novel coming out soon?

 

Absolutely! Book being launched in the first quarter of the coming year. Kindle version first. It's about cooking in China as a way to gain insight into the culture and weave oneself into the fabric of non-foreigner daily life.

 

It will introduce a selection of foodstuffs and seasoning ingredients, explain key preparation techniques, and present recipes that one can follow at home. I have written it with an eye towards helping expats who would like to learn how to "cook in Chinese." So I have made an effort to include Chinese names for ingredients, spices, kitchen tools, cooking techniques and so on.

 

This should make it easier for people living here to use Chinese recipes that they find on-line, and make them better able to shop for supplies. A side-mission of this slim book is to give people living in China a better set of tools for understanding restaurant food, to help them become better able to order intelligently from a Chinese-only menu when dining out.

 

I would like it to be a convenient entry point into how to make regional Chinese food in an authentic Chinese way. It is heavy on Yunnan cuisine, offering a substantial sampling of glorious ethnic minority dishes.

 

And even if one doesn't want to cook, one will still find the book interesting and useful, I hope, as a way to appreciate authentic Chinese food. Hope to provide a bridge for venturing beyond the usual three or four "Laowai-in-China" staples.

 

Will keep you all posted as the project progresses.

[Alex_Hart]

Great to hear, abc! Looking forward to it!

[dtcamero]

i too must have this book lol

[abcdefg]

@dtcamero and @Alex_Hart -- Wonderful! I will be sure to let you know early on when it is released.

[ChTTay]

I would want a copy too, although prefer a paper copy, signed by ABCDEFG. 

 

:-)

[abcdefg]

Thanks, @ChTTay-- If I had unlimited funds, I would enjoy making a large-format, glossy "coffee table" edition with lots of illustrations. Would do it just for fun.

[ChTTay]

Make a colour PDF version, print that out, ring bind it, kuaidi it to me. I’ll wechat you the money! 

 

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