When I first became obsessed with cooking years ago, my fascination was with the successful results. When I could reproduce what was presented in a recipe without disaster, that was exciting. All these years and many cookbooks later, I am still happy about successes with recipes that are new to me. But now I’m also fascinated by learning new techniques that are better than what I’ve done before. I recently had exactly this experience with a dish The vegan Chinese cuisine by Hannah Che, who gave me a review copy. This book demonstrates the author’s interest in connecting her culture with her desire for a plant-based diet. She began to explore vegetarian and vegan traditions in Chinese cuisine and then attended China’s only vegetarian cooking school in Guangzhou. She also spent a year learning about Buddhist vegetarian cooking in Taiwan. She writes, “The vegan diet didn’t alienate me from where I came from, as I feared, but rather motivated me to understand it even better.” Luckily for all of us, her journey has yielded a book full of vibrant, meatless Chinese recipes. The chapters represent ingredient categories and I was immediately drawn to Leafy Greens, the first. The blanched spinach with sesame sauce calls for sesame paste, and the book includes a recipe for a homemade version. It was as delicious as the photo in the book looked. A few pages later in the same chapter, I tried the Chinese cabbage and vermicelli salad and added some local vegetables that were available at the time. As mentioned in the recipe header, it actually made great leftovers for lunch. The chapter “Stems, Shoots and Flowers” inspired me to make homemade bean sprouts. And there is a recipe for fried bean sprouts with Chinese chives that I’ve marked. I also really want to try the fish-scented aubergine, because fish was often prepared the same way with chili, ginger, and garlic. There’s a lot to explore in both the tofu chapter and the tofu skin chapter. There are meat imitations like the vegetarian roast goose, which is made from shitake and bamboo shoots, but no real goose. The chapter on gluten or seitan includes recipes for making your own gluten, as well as poached gluten buns, fried gluten balls, and steamed gluten. You will also find there mushroom recipes, pasta recipes, dumplings and a version of spring onion pancakes that you should definitely try. However, the dish that taught me an excellent technique was the Homestyle Braised Tofu.
This recipe is about frying tofu. First, I would like to explain my process for frying tofu so far. I used to squeeze blocks of tofu between plates and weigh them down with whatever was handy to get the water out. Then I cut the tofu into chunks and patted them dry before mixing them with cornstarch. When I slid the coated tofu chunks into hot oil, it inevitably splattered wildly, leaving a huge mess on the stovetop, on the back wall, on the floor in front of the stove, and on me and everything I was carrying. Here you will be instructed to skip pressing the tofu and simply cut it into chunks to add to boiling, well-salted water. The tofu was soaked for a few minutes, then removed with a slotted spoon and drained on a towel-lined tray. After draining, the tofu was then fried in a wok. On the Tofu FAQ page, Che explains that no one presses tofu in China. Instead, soaking in salt water pulls the cold water out of the tofu and flavors the tofu. It will firm up a bit and fry a lot less messy. And it worked wonderfully! No spatter at all. I’m now a convert to this way of frying tofu. For the rest of the recipe, dried shitakes were rehydrated in boiling water, drained and cut in half. The mushrooms were sautéed with garlic, ginger and scallions before adding chili bean paste and then soy sauce and water. The fried tofu was added with sliced carrots and cooked for a few minutes before adding sugar snap peas. I was actually able to buy local sugar snap peas at Boggy Creek Farm the day I wanted to make this, which was perfect. Before serving, it was garnished with chopped spring onions.
The chili bean paste made the dish flavorful and full-bodied, and the texture of the fried tofu was just right with crispy edges and chewy cores. For the first time, frying tofu wasn’t a terribly messy cooking adventure. I am definitely willing and able to learn new tricks in the kitchen and there is much more to learn and try from this book.
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