• Weekend experiment

    From JIM WELLER@1:135/392 to ALL on Sun Oct 24 21:27:00 2021

    Firm tofu was on sale for $7.00/kg and we hadn't had any for some
    time so I bought a 500 g block of it. I also had some cauliflower
    on hand so I started looking up East Asian ways of preparing it.
    After reviewing a handful of recipes I went to the kitchen to wing
    it, following all of them in spirit but none on them precisely.

    Dish one: the tofu

    I drained the tofu, reserving the liquid, and pressed it for 20
    minutes to extract more liquid which I also saved. I then made a
    coating mix of cornstarch, onion and garlic powders, Five Spice and
    fine toasted bread crumbs. After I cut the tofu block into half inch
    cubes I very gently coated them by slowly turning a plastic bag full
    of the coating mixture and the tofu upside down, over and over a few
    times. Sort of a slow motion shake and bake toss.

    They then got shallow fried in hot oil in a flat bottomed wok for 12
    minutes, turning with a spatula every 2 minutes to ensure that all
    six sides got browned and crispy. After spooning them out onto a
    plate covered with paper towels to soak up the excess oil I gave
    them a sprinkling of cayenne.

    Dish two: the cauliflower

    In advance I sliced a small onion into crescents, minced up some
    garlic and ginger, broke the cauliflower into small florets, sliced
    their stems thinly, and shaved half a carrot using a vegetable
    peeler. The shavings got rough chopped after that. Finally I cut a
    half an Englich cucumber in half lengthwise, scooped out the seeds
    and cut the sections into quarter inch slices.

    Also in advance I made a cooking sauce with cornstarch, the tofu
    liquid, a splash of prepared mustard, soy sauce and oyster sauce and
    set it aside.

    As the tofu was cooking, I oiled up a second wok and stir fried the
    onion 6 minutes, the ginger 5 minutes, the garlic 4 minutes, the
    cauliflower 3 minutes, the carrots 2 minutes and the cucumber for
    a short 1 minute. Then I poured in the sauce and served the
    dish just as soon as the sauce came to a boil and thickened up.

    Dish three: rice

    Previously I had made a rice dish with chicken broth, fresh herbs
    and green peas. It wasn't a Chinese dish by any means but I figured
    that it would go well with the first two things so I merely
    microwaved the leftovers for two minutes to re-heat.

    Serving: In a large bowl I layered a scoop of rice, then a scoop of
    the cauliflower mixture with lots of sauce and finally sprinkled the
    crispy tofu over the top.

    I was quite pleased with the results and will make similar things in
    the future. I wasn't previously aware that a lot of cauliflower got
    eaten in China but it is the largest grower of it in the world.
    (India is second.) Braising it in flavourful liquid with ginger and
    oyster sauce is a common method of preparing it. Also the Chinese
    eat a lot of cucumbers but almost always cook them briefly with the
    skin on.

    Cheers

    Jim

    ... I enjoy long walks down the aisles of Chinese grocery stores.

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