Stir-Fried Beansprouts With Tofu And Salted Fish

It's back to a Monday and how does one get some quick, simple and hot dishes on the dining table in the evening. My best strategy would get everything prep the day before and one can get things going quickly then. This Stir-Fried Beansprouts With Tofu And Salted Fish could be one of the dish but the only thing is one can't keep bean sprouts for long.

You can pre-fry the salted fish and store in an air-tight container. The tofu can be pre-fried too and keep in the fridge but if you're not, sprinkle some salt all over the firm tofu and place in an air-tight container to store in the fridge. You'll need to use the firm tofu up very quickly as they turn bad easily.



This is a classic homestyle dish in almost every Chinese household. Am sure many of you, your mother would have dish up this for your meals. Usually it will just comprises of bean sprouts and salted fish but at times tofu is added to make it more substantial. Sounded lame huh but so far I know there are people who need to have recipes to guide them to cook based on my experience working in a culinary school.

If you can find short, fat and juicy bean sprouts from Ipoh, it will be so much better but the ordinary ones are just as fine. I like to tailed mine and my aunt would even topped them!

Stir-Fried Beansprouts With Tofu And Salted Fish
300 g bean sprouts (taugeh), tailed
2 pieces firm tofu, slice halved crosswise then into four so you'll get 8 square pieces
1 small piece salted fish, cut into small pieces and fry lightly in oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 stalk spring onion, slice into 4 cm length
1 tsp Chinese rice wine
Salt & grounded white pepper to taste 

Lightly fry the tofu pieces with some oil on both sides till brown. Dish up and set aside. 

In the same pan/wok, heat up about 1 Tbsp oil before adding in the garlic. Fry till fragrant before tossing in the bean sprouts. Keep stirring, sprinkle in some water if the sprouts are very dry. Add the tofu and seasonings. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed. 

Pour in the rice wine around the pan/wok and not directly on the sprouts so that the heat will let out the wine's aroma. Stir and add in the spring onion last. Dish up and sprinkle the salted fish pieces all over. Best serve with steamed rice.  

For vegetarian version, just omit the salted fish.

Vegetarian Thursday: Stir-Fried Celery and Tofu

If you have been following my blog, you must have seen countless stir-fries with tofu hehehe yup cos it's the easiest and it's very versatile. I usually just see what I have in my fridge to be incorporated with firm white tofu (taufu korn in Cantonese) which can be kept  for about 3 days in a container soaked in salted water with a daily change of salted water.

This time round, I have celery and some leftover carrots so this is it... very easy peasy but I've taken great pain to weigh out the ingredients haha.

Stir-Fried Celery and Tofu

2 pieces firm tofu
3 ribs (about 250g) celery
50g carrots
80g oyster mushroom
1 clove garlic, slice thinly

Salt, to taste
A dash of white ground pepper
2 tsp water
2 tsp Chinese cooking wine, Hsiao Tsing (optional)

To prepare the celery, use a peeler to remove the fibrous bit. Then slice them thinly diagonally. I would also use the leafy tops as they can be eaten, why waste? As for the carrot, remove the skin. Sliced into half. Then slice thinly diagonally.

For the tofu, slice horizontally once so you'll get 2 pieces of tofu. Then slice into 4 squares. So each tofu, you'll get 8 pieces of squares. Dab the moist tofu with paper towel to dry them up. In a non-stick pan, add a little oil and pan fry the tofu pieces into light golden brown. Dish up and set aside.

Add a little more oil in the same pan but if your non-stick pan is small, do change into a wok or larger pan for stir-frying. Fry the mushrooms till they're caramalised, otherwise I find the mushroom emit a kind of weird smell. Dish up and set aside together with the tofu.

Add a little oil in the same pan. Put in the garlic and saute till light brown. Quickly add in the celery and carrot slices. Keep stirring. Drizzle in the water and let them cook for about 2 minutes. Return the tofu and mushrooms to the pan. Stir to mix them up well but be gentle. Season with salt and white pepper.

Lastly, drizzle in the Chinese cooking wine and stir for another 2 minutes. Dish up and serve with rice.

Check out my other similar tofu stir-fries:
Stir Fry Tofu and French Beans

Stir-Fried Tofu, Zucchini and Mushroom

Mixed Vegetables and Tofu Stir Fry

Stir Fry Tofu and Mushrooms

Stir-Fried Preserved Radish with Tofu and Vegetables

Vegetarian Thursday: Tofu With Mushrooms

We're observing vegetarian once a week and Thursday is the day. So I'll see if on the days I'm around to cook I can jot down what I've cooked to share out here. We're not on strict vegetarian basis, just basically no meat, that's it! So if you're not taking garlic and onion, by all means omit them.

I've made this tofu dish when BoiBoi was around as he loves eating tofu. He would be happy with just lightly steamed soft tofu drizzled with shallots oil and dark soy sauce. So this time round, to add more zest to the usual minced meat topping, I've made a medley of mushrooms topping. Easy peasy by just gathering all sorts of fresh mushrooms of your choice and stir fry them with some sauces. Serve by placing the mushrooms on top of steamed tofu... tadaaaa... yes it was just that simple.

Tofu With Mushrooms
(Serves 4 - 6)

Combination of fresh mushrooms:
60g enoki mushroom
60g shiitake mushroom
90g oyster mushroom

2 blocks Japanese silken tofu
3 cloves garlic, sliced/chopped
2 stalks spring onions, sliced into 4 cm length
2 Tbsp oil

Sauce (mix together):
2 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp oyster sauce
2 tsp soy sauce
Dash of ground white pepper
1 tsp corn flour (optional for a lightly thickened sauce, I did not use this as I prefer no starch in my sauces but it will look nice on the dish when served)

1 - 2 tsp Chinese cooking wine (Hsiao Tsing), optional

Heat a pan and add in the oil. Stir in all the mushrooms. Let the mushrooms sit a while in the pan so that they'll caramalised before stirring. Once they're browned thoroughly, add in the garlic and stir. As the garlic turned fragrant, stir the sauce ingredients before pouring into the pan.

Let it come to a boil, taste and adjust accordingly as my tasted is more on the low salt side :p

Add in the spring onions and Chinese cooking wine. Turn off the fire. Pour on top of lightly steamed tofu (you can do this in the microwave if you do not have a steamer. Sometimes I just place the tofu on a heatproof plate and put on top of the cooked rice in the rice cooker under keep warm mode.). Serve hot with rice.

Stir Fry Tofu and French Beans

A lot of times I tend to stock up on longer lasting items in the fridge to prevent trips to the wet market. Items like cabbages, french beans, baby corn, fresh mushrooms, carrots, celery, bell peppers, tomatoes and squashes generally could last better. Green leafy vegetables does not last long as they turn yellow fairly quickly even after cling wrapped followed by another layer of newspaper. Lettuces could last a little longer though and I found out that storing vegetables in the plastic clear boxes that you buy salad leaves like butterhead lettuces, frisse, romaine lettuce etc could actually last longer in the fridge. Do give it a try!

So here's another stir fry with similar ingredients hahaha... well this time it has pan fried firm tofu squares, french beans, snow peas and baby corn. Pre-fry firm tofu squares and set aside. Heat up some oil and stir in chopped garlic. Wait till fragrant before adding in the french beans and baby corn. Next, stir in the tofu and a little water with a couple dashes of oyster sauce and some white pepper. Let it cook for a couple of minutes before adding the snow peas as these cook very quickly. Dish up and serve with rice.

Stir-Fried Tofu, Zucchini and Mushroom

This dish has a rather unconventional ingredients for a Chinese style stir fry as it has zucchini in it LOL. I was trying to clear half of each of the green and yellow zucchini after making the Beef and Guinness Stew and so this was how this dish came about. Surprisingly this stir fry turned out very well with the zucchini oozing it's natural sweetness and I loved those charred bits on them plus the crunch on each bite of the zucchini slices.

Stir-Fried Tofu, Zucchini and Mushroom

1/2 of a medium sized green zucchini, cut lengthwise before slicing into about 1/2 to 1 cm thickness
1/2 of a medium sized yellow zucchini, sliced as above
1 piece firm tofu, cut into thin squares
2 stalks of eryngii mushrooms, sliced into rings
1 clove of chopped garlic
Salt and black pepper to taste

1. Pan fry the tofu pieces with a little oil until golden brown and set aside.

2. Add a little oil (you don't need a lot for this one) into the same pan/wok and fry the garlic until fragrant. Stir in the zucchini slices. If you wish to have some charred bits, just leave them untouched for a couple of minutes before stirring.

3. Stir in the mushroom and tofu next. Sprinkle some water all over, be careful with the amount as the zucchini would expel some liquid whilst cooking. Season with salt (about 1/2 to 1 tsp) and black pepper (amount depends on your taste). Stir to mix and taste. Quickly dish up and serve with rice.

Mixed Vegetables and Tofu Stir Fry

First my PC acted up and now the modem... so I'm without internet at the moment. I will post up the Lompat Tikam recipe later on since there were requests for it. Here's a simple recipe (well not really a recipe since there isn't any measurements :p) while I sulk waiting for magic to happen.

This is another version of stir fry of whatever vegetables I found in my fridge. If you follow my blog, I tend to do this a lot, well to clear up whatever I have plus this let me to be creative once in a while heh.

I just needed a little bit of everything and they really do bulk up when put together. This time round, I have a little of cabbage, a stick of celery, a small segment of carrot, a few pieces of oyster mushrooms and half a piece of firm tofu. Sliced up the cabbage, celery and carrot.

Cut tofu into slim sticks and pan fry them with a little oil. Remove from pan when all sides are browned and set aside. Add a little oil if there isn't enough of it. Once it's hot, stir in chopped garlic. When it's fragrant, put the carrot and cabbage in. Sprinkle some water all over so that they both can soften a little. Add in the celery, mushrooms and tofu. Stir and season with salt and black pepper. Dish up and serve with steamed rice.



So this is another one of my easy stir fry dish that contains lots of fibre and some protein.

Stir Fry Tofu and Mushrooms

Oppsie daisie... sorry for yet another stir fry dish with similar ingredients :p

The home PC decided to act up and we're now waiting for the spare part to arrive. Hopefully by end of this week it will get sorted out. In the meantime, I'm using Capt'n Hook's Macbook and the thing is all my photos are in the PC, my back up hard disk cannot be read by the Macbook grrrr... I only have some stir fry dishes uploaded in my flickr album, so bear with me ok.

This post is dedicated to "quick and easy" Celine (Life, Love and Me) since this is another easy peasy dish but can look great to even serve to guests. Super healthy cos I only have this dish with brown rice as it has protein and fibre altogether in one dish.

This dish comprises of firm tofu, assorted mushrooms (you can use all sorts of fresh mushrooms) and carrots for colour; served on a bed of blanched dou miao (pea shoots). Just need to shallow fry firm tofu that has been sliced into squares and set aside when golden brown. In the meantime, quickly blanch some pea shoots, drain and place them on the serving plate.

Using the same pan on medium heat, make sure the amount of oil is just enough for your serving size. First stir in some sliced garlic. When it's fragrant, add in the sliced carrots and stir. Next stir in mushrooms and fried tofu. Pour in a little water, a few dashes of oyster sauce and a tiny dash of dark soy sauce which you can omit. I've used it just for some colour. Season with some white pepper. Taste and adjust accordingly.

Simmer for a few minutes or till liquid is dried up (you can add cornstarch solution to thicken). Serve this over the blanched pea shoots.

Yummy or what?

Tofu with Minced Meat and Mushrooms

This is a firm favourite dish and it's rather common to see such dish on the dining table of Chinese households and restaurant as tofu and mince meat are easy for the children. The only messy bit is one need to shallow fry the tofu which I really dislike cos the oil sputters all over the place even after patting dry the tofu with paper towel. Grrrrr...

So to make this dish, slice firm tofu into squares. Pat dry with paper towel before frying them in some oil. Once the tofu squares are lightly browned, remove and set aside.

In the same pan, if there are still a lot of oil, remove them, if not enough (about 2 or less tbsp depending how much minced meat you have) add some. Add in some chopped garlic and fry till fragrant. Then stir in minced meat (can be chicken or pork, both are equally delish, marinade with some soy sauce, ground white pepper, a dash of sesame oil and a little cornflour). Next stir in soaked and sliced shiitake mushroom. Once the meat is cooked, pour in some water, a couple dashes of oyster sauce and dark soy sauce. Season with some ground white pepper. If you prefer a saltier dish, you may adjust with some salt but seriously oyster sauce alone would be good enough.

Add in the fried tofu and let it simmer on low heat for a few minutes. If you wish, pour in some cornstarch solution to thicken up the gravy but I prefer to simmer mine till drier and the liquid thickened up. Dish up and serve with steamed rice.

Stir-Fried Preserved Radish with Tofu and Vegetables

Another dish of my childhood memory is this simple stir-fried french beans with tofu and strips of preserved radish (sweet choy po)! For my version, I've added some leftover cabbage and coloured it with some carrots.

I've washed the sweet preserved radish and soak them in water for about 20 minutes before cutting them into strips. Then, I sliced up firm tofu into squares and pan fried both sides in a little oil until browned. Remove and set aside.

Fry up some chopped garlic (can be omitted if you're strict vegetarian) in some oil till fragrant before tossing in the preserved radish and stir. Add in some water, cover wok with a lid and simmer for about 10 mins on low heat or until water almost dry up. This will soften the radish a little but yet retain a little crunch, otherwise your jaw is going get tired from the amount of chewing needed :p

Add in french beans, carrots and cabbage. Stir and add in some oyster sauce and pepper to taste plus a teeny pinch of sugar to bring out the flavour. Only add salt if necessary as the oyster sauce is salty already. Put in the tofu and gently stir till well mixed. Dish up and serve with rice.

Soy Steamed Egg Served With Minced Chicken and Preserved Radish

Another kiddy favourite... a homemade sort of tofu made from soy milk and eggs, topped with a delicious and fragrant minced chicken and preserved radish. Hmm just like how come restaurant serves this kinda dish. You won't believe it that it's very easy to make, just check out the recipe below.

Soy Steamed Egg Served With Minced Chicken and Preserved Radish
(Serves 4)

(A)
500 ml unsweetened soy milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp sugar

100g minced chicken
2 tbsp preserved radish (choy poh)
1 tbsp garlic
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp corn flour mix with 2 tbsp water
chopped spring onions

Mix (A) together and sieve twice. Place mixture into a bowl and steam over low heat until sets. (12 mins on my electric steamer).

Heat oil and saute garlic until fragrant before adding preserved radish. Fry and mix well before adding minced chicken. Fry till meat is cooked. Put in the seasonings. Stir and add in corn flour mixture. Stir-fry until well mixed.

Serve steamed soy and egg by placing the minced chicken on top and garnish with spring onions.

Technorati tags: tofu

Steamed Mashed Tofu With Fish Paste

Another dish learnt from my mother which is also easy peasy and very healthy as well. Mom's cooking is the best, I tell ya!

To make this, just mash one block of soft tofu with 200gm of fish paste which you can make yourself or just buy ready made from the wet market. I find the best way to mix them thoroughly is to use your fingers to squash the fish paste. Mix in one egg (can be omitted but it will be smoother if used), a bit of sesame oil or shallot oil or garlic oil :p, some chopped spring onion, salt and pepper to taste. Steam for 15 minutes (I've used electric steamer, so you might need to adjust your timing accordingly). To serve, just sprinkle more chopped spring onion on top. Told ya it was easy peasy!

This was how the mixture looks like before steaming...



And this was the end result...




Technorati tags: tofu

Steamed Tofu With Minced Meat

My mom make this a lot as it's simple and healthy, plus hardly much cleaning up since it's a steamed dish. My boiboi loves this, hence I created this at home using very very basic ingredients which one can easily subtitute with others. One of the best dish to hide vegetables for fussy kids.

All one need is minced meat, here I've used minced chicken fillets which you can substitute or have a mixture of fish paste, prawn paste, or pork, if using chicken or pork, do add some water to the mixture to soften it. Add in chopped or diced carrots, and/or turnips and/or water chestnuts, very flexi here, some spring onions will be nice as well. Pour in some soy sauce and pepper to taste. Mix in some cornflour thoroughly. Set aside.

We use the smaller tubes of egg tofu, if not mistaken it's RM2 for 3 tubes but can use the larger tubes. Cut the tube into half then halves the tofu lengthwise, so each tube will make 4 pieces. Arrange the tofu on a heat proof platter. Place the minced meat mixture on top of the tofu pieces.



Steam the tofu pieces for about 12-15 mins, I'm using an electric steamer so you might need to adjust your timing according to the heat. Serve hot with rice.




Technorati tags: tofu

Steamed Minced Beancurd

**Non-Halal**

This is another recipe I dug out during my stay at my parents sometime back. It's really a simple dish but full of nutrition. I guess one can play around with the ingredients to be added into the beancurd mixture ie. fish paste, shrimps, crabmeat, vegetables etc. Easy to digest, best for younger kids or old folks. Like any of my other dishes... this is easy to prepare too. Dig in!

Steamed Minced Beancurd

3 pcs soft beancurd, mashed
150g minced meat
3 pcs mushrooms, soaked and diced finely
1 tbsp fried shallots
3 eggs beaten
1 tsp cornflour
1 tbsp chicken powder (I omitted)
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 salt to taste (it's a bit bland, so need to add more the next time)
1 tsp sesame oil

1. Mix all ingredients and put into greased 8 inch casserole.

2. Steam over medium heat till form and cooked. Insert knife in the middle of dish to test.

3. Serve hot with rice.

These steamed beancurd can be cut into cubes or blocks when cold and deep fried in batter for a delicious difference.

Ref: Her World, May 1992, The Versatile Beancurd

Technorati Tags: beancurd

Steamed Tofu

Another quickie dish... homemade, simple, nutritious, healthy BUT yet tasted slurpilicious, brought to you by Babe in the City - KL haha... Please excuse the photo quality cos I was in a hurry to serve it hot.

Steamed Tofu

Tofu based:
550 ml unsweetened soy bean milk
4 medium eggs or 3 AA (large) eggs which I've used instead, worked as well
pinch of salt
pinch of sugar

Topping:
2 tbsp fried shallots with oil (you don't need a lot of oil)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp fried dried shrimp (which I've omitted since I can't find any in my fridge)
2 tbsp spring onions, chopped

Mix the tofu based ingredients and sieve into a deep heat proof dish. Put in a wok or steamer and steam for 7 minutes under medium heat.

Once done, remove from steamer and sprinkle the topping all over. Serve hot with rice.

My boiboi lurrveee this even though he refused initially and he told me he will only eat it after dinner as dessert cos it looked like tau foo far to him hahaha... Anyway we coaxed him to try some and he was hooked! Now he will ask me to cook this for him other than his fave potato dish.


Technorati Tags: tofu

Silken Tofu Topped with Minced Meat & Prawn

This is an easy peasy dish but a firm favourite with the young. Silken tofu is a very versatile ingredient but it is mostly used in soup or simply just being drizzled with dark soy sauce and shallot oil. I normally make a minced meat sauce and pour all over lighlty steamed silken tofu.

Making the minced meat sauce is very simple indeed. One can use either minced chicken or pork meat and some cubed prawns (my boiboi don't take whole prawns, so I have to hide them this way). In hot oil, sweat some chopped onions. Next stir in the minced meat. Cook the meat till lightly browned before adding the prawns. Add some chopped garlic next. Keep stirring. Pour in some water and add in seasonings like oyster sauce, wee bit of dark soy sauce, little bit of sugar to balance out and pepper to taste. No salt is necessary since oyster sauce would be enough. Cover with a lid and simmer for a while to let the meat tenderise. Once the sauce is reduced to the amount you would prefer, thicken the sauce with cornstarch solution by pouring some cornflour mixed with water and keep on stirring the sauce. Remove from fire and pour sauce all over lightly steamed silken tofu. Top with some chopped spring onions (not shown in pic) and serve with rice.

Note: After steaming the tofu, remember to pour away the water collected on the plate. It's actually liquid that seeps out of the tofu.


Technorati Tags: malaysian food + tofu