Tofu
Pan fried tofu with soy sauce (FODMAP friendly, gluten free option, vegan)
When I was growing up in China, tofu was the cheapest protein and it was always plentiful. At the fresh food market they sold tofu on a large timber slab, carefully cutting out the required portion for each customer – 10 cents, 20 cents…
My grandmother loved pan frying tofu with load of cooking oil. She cut the tofu into little triangles then fried them until golden brown. She then finished cooking with a splash of soy sauce. What a mouth watering aroma!
Tonight I pan fried some tofu with soy sauce for dinner – the tofu was soft and heart warming.
* Use plain tofu for a FODMAP friendly recipe; use gluten free soy sauce for a gluten free option.
It was so easy to make: Read the rest of this entry »
Stir fried tofu skin 腐竹 with Chinese mushroom 香菇 and capsicum (gluten free, vegan)
My favorite Northern Chinese restaurant makes this lovely tofu skin dish, with Sichuan pepper infused oil and loads of garlic. I tried to replicate it a few times but without success.
So here is my own version. It is actually tastier than the one in the restaurant (grins) !
Recipe is as follows:
Tofu knots, enoki mushrooms and wood ear fungus salad 冷拌
Yesterday it was the 15th day of Luna New Year (元宵节, YuanXiao), which is known as the day of lantern festival. There was no lanterns for us. After all, it was too hot to even go outside in the scorching weather in Sydney.
So I made a few simple dishes to enjoy with a few of our friends, who came over to cool down in our pool. One of the dishes I made was a ‘liangban’ salad with chewy tofu knots (百页结), tasty enokitake mushrooms (金菇), crunchy wood ears fungus (木耳), green shallot and coriander.
Recipe is as follows:
Rice paper rolls with tofu, bamboo shoot, bean sprout and sesame (low FODMAP, gluten free, vegan)
FODMAP vegan can be delicious too – tofu recipe #5.
A couple weeks ago I set out to see how many tummy friendly tofu recipes I could made. So far I have a rice noodle soup, an entree (pan fried tofu with chili & tomato salsa), a main (tofu chop suey) and a dessert (with ginger, pumpkin & tapioca). Perhaps the next dish would be a healthy snack that can be packed into a lunch box?
Vegetables can be quite plain, so the bamboo shoot will give the dish a kick of flavor.
Recipe is as follow:
Tofu, pumpkin, ginger & tapioca dessert (low FODMAP, gluten free, vegan)
FODMAP vegan can be delicious too – tofu recipe #4.
Have you tried the silken tofu at a yum cha restaurant, the one that’s served with ginger flavored syrup? It is one of my favorite.
Silken tofu is unfriendly for FODMAPpers. So I created this dessert that uses soft plain tofu and ginger. To add softer texture, I added pumpkin and tapioca. Pumpkin is infrequently used for dessert in Southern China (if they have the sweet variety we have here in Australia I bet they will go wild with it)! Palm sugar and tapioca pearls bring all the ingredients together to give it a lovely semi-pudding like texture. Served slightly chilled, it will pleasantly surprise you with its refreshing taste.
Tofu and noodle soup (low FODMAP, gluten free, vegan)
FODMAP vegan can be delicious too – tofu recipe #3.
Try this hot rice noodle soup with tofu, radish, carrot, spinach, chili, coriander, ginger, soy and sesame oil.
Pan fried tofu with chili and tomato salsa (low FODMAP, vegan, gluten free)
FODMAP vegan can be delicious too – tofu recipe #2.
I hope you will enjoy this spicy, sweet and sour pan fried tofu dish with a home made salsa with chili and tomato.
Tofu chop suey with okra, eggplant and radish (low FODMAP, gluten free, vegan)
FODMAP vegan can be delicious too – tofu recipe #1.
This weekend I am working on tofu dishes. I bought 2 different type of plain tofu (soft and extra firm) from the Asian grocery store and keen to find out how many dishes I can create from this rather plain ingredient.
Here is a chop suey with pan fried tofu, enhanced by selected vegetables with interesting and gentle textures – okra, eggplant, radish, red capsicum; complimented by ginger, chili and coriander.
Cloud ear ‘salad’ with tofu and garlic chive
A mum from my little boy’s school was over one Friday afternoon. She was born in the countryside in northern China and taught me a dish with cloud ear, egg and soy/oyster sauce. The dish was dark and mysterious, I was not too sure about it. But I was inspired by the idea, and made this cloud ear salad with tofu for the Asian Food Stall at the school fete.
Recipe is as follow: Read the rest of this entry »
Steamed tofu with pork floss (肉松), noodles, soy and vinegar
This dish is simply refreshing & refreshingly simple – the silkiness of the tofu, the tangy soy & vinegar sauce enhanced by the sweetness of the pork floss, add soba noodles to make a full lunch out of it.
Recipe is as follow: Read the rest of this entry »
Tofu skin rolls with chicken, bamboo shoots and Chinese mushrooms 鮮竹卷 (gluten free)
This is a popular Cantonese dim sim dish found in most yum cha restaurants, often steamed and sometimes vegetarian. My version is first steamed then pan fried for extra flavor.
Recipe is as follow: Read the rest of this entry »
Mapo tofu (麻婆豆腐), and my father’s story of two spoonful of oil
The province of Sichuan in China is famous for its taste bud killing pepper corn & spicy food. One of their most famous dishes is the ‘mapo tofu’, sometimes translated as the ‘pockmarked grandma’s bean curd’.
When my father was a young lad, he attended a university far away from home. Ever since then, he developed a strong desire for traveling. After graduation, he worked for a state-owned factory with a starting salary of 51 yuan a month. He did not have the money to travel other than travelling for work.
One year, he was fortunate enough to be sent to Sichuan for a research project. He asked my grandmother for an oil coupon. Those days most essentials were scarce and required coupons. When he arrived, he took the coupon to a well-known local restaurant and ordered a big bowl of mapo tofu. ‘The tofu was so good,’ he said to me, still with great enthusiasm, ‘ it had two spoonfuls of oil in it.”
I have had many mapo tofu dishes over the years – they all seemed to be overly oily. But I liked them just like that – I soaked up the oil with boiled rice. I could feel my father’s joy and excitement as a far-away-from-home young traveler.
Recipe is as follows: Read the rest of this entry »
