Braised Pork-Stuffed Deep Fried Tofu

Tofu...the word usually drums up thoughts of blandness and veggie burgers.  In fact, in my household, tofu is something I usually have a hard time convincing my husband to eat.  I love it - so many of my favorite Chinese dishes are made with tofu - Ma Po Tofu for example - the classic spicy silken tofu and ground pork is well loved by Chinese people and one of my favorites.  Unfortunately, trying to convince my husband is another matter.  But lo and behold, this dish of braised pork-stuffed deep fried tofu is one that he loves!

Like many things, I truly believe that people who don't like tofu probably just haven't had it cooked in a way that they enjoy.  I for one, am not a fan of tofu veggie burgers, or meat substitutes made with tofu.  I personally do not understand why a vegetarian would want something to taste like meat if they're vegetarian so I don't like tofu being turned into substitutes for meat.  This isn't to say I'm against vegetarians or eating vegetarian, but then let's eat tofu the way it's meant to be eaten!  As tofu!

Tofu is a wonderful base to carry flavours - mostly because it is indeed bland by itself.  It is a product made of soy beans that have been pressed into blocks.  There are many many different types of tofu and if you go to an Asian store like T&T, you will find a whole fridge section dedicated just to tofu.  You can usually find tofu in a variety of firmness - silken or soft tofu, medium/regular tofu, firm tofu.  You can also find dessert tofu - a silken tofu flavoured with almonds, mango or just sugar and even tofu flavoured with Chinese five spice and other savoury types which usually come firm so you can slice and stir fry.  I love using silken tofu for soups and regular tofu for dishes like Ma Po Tofu (the slightly firmer texture makes it easier to stir fry).  But the problem I have with my husband, is not even necessarily the taste of tofu, but the texture.  He doesn't like the soft, slippery texture of silken or regular tofu.  So how am I to get him to eat an ingredient I love to use in Chinese cooking?

Enter deep fried tofu.  You can easily find this at all Asian stores and even Superstore (deli section by the noodles and other types of tofu).  Literally, this is just tofu that has been deep fried.  The outside is a nice golden color and the inside is airy (sometimes I call them tofu puffs).  The nice thing about deep fried tofu is that the outside doesn't have that slippery tofu texture my husband dislikes so much and since the inside is fairly hollow, it is just ripe for stuffing something I know my husband WILL like - savoury, rich ground pork.  Like a pork meatball inside a deep fried tofu skin.  The braising method gets the pork nice and succulent and the tofu just picks up all that porky yummy-ness (yes I said porky yummy-ness).  Can't even tell you're eating tofu!  I made this for dinner tonight and my husband helped himself to many seconds. :)

I usually like to braise the stuffed tofu with napa cabbage, wood ear and Chinese mushrooms together which just adds an earthy richness.  If you have a clay pot, this is the perfect dish to braise using a clay pot (essentially making this into a type of hot pot).  But if not, just your wok, skillet or some sort of pot will be just fine.  Enjoy this dish, I promise if you don't eat tofu, this is one tofu dish that you will eat!

Golden Mushroom Soup

Mushrooms, mushrooms and more mushrooms - if you love mushrooms, this soup is for you!  Chock full of Chinese mushrooms (similar to shiitake), enoki (or golden mushrooms) and wood ear mushrooms (aka black fungus - tastes better than it sounds) with soft, grated carrot in a savoury chicken broth, this soup is a huge favorite in my household!  I served it to a bunch of our friends during a Chinese feast I prepared for them before Christmas, and this mushroom soup was what people talked about the most as they left that evening. 

I actually first had this soup at one of my favorite Chinese restaurants in Calgary - Enjoy House on 17 Ave SE.  Enjoy House specializes in dishes specific to Teochew (Chaozhou) people of China (from eastern Guangdong province).  I am proudly one of those people!  My grandparents from both sides are originally from this region (and immigrated to Malaysia from there).  The cuisine is very distinct - they cook their duck a special way, their congee (rice cooked down in broth) and many other dishes are quite different, and generally the overall flavours are not what you would find in Chinatown which are mostly Cantonese or Peking style.

Back to Enjoy house...the first time I visited Enjoy House with my parents, they had just opened and claimed to have Teochew style food.  Of course, my family and I had to go and give it a try and pass judgment as to whether they really were authentic (they are).  One of the best ways to find out besides trying the Teochew style duck, is to try Lemon Duck soup.  What's special about Lemon Duck soup is that it is a duck soup made with Teochew style preserved lemons.  These are not easy to make (and unfortunately, my grandmother passed away before showing us all how to make them - my mom is still trying to perfect it).  However, as it was our first time there, the waitress said that you had to order the Lemon Duck soup at least 24 hours in advance so they could prepare the lemons!  We were out of luck - so she suggested trying their Golden Mushroom soup instead.  I can say, that in all the times I've gone back to the restaurant (and it has been many - they recognize us now and already know what we will order) - I STILL have not tried the Lemon Duck soup because the Golden Mushroom soup is soooo good.  It is so good that my mom and I went home to try and make it - success!

Now the recipe here, is not the exact recipe they use, it's what my mom and I have gleaned from having it so many times.  I have noticed the restaurant has dried scallops and fresh thinly sliced (on the bias) green beans in their soup too.  The beans are easy to add in - the scallops...well, depends on how much you want to spend.  If you have ever been to T&T here in Calgary and stop at that strange smelling store across from it with all the dried...stuff...then you'll notice several bins of dried scallops - for $50 a pound!! You may think I'm exaggerating and I am and I'm not.  There are definitely really expensive ones (they're usually much bigger scallops) or you can buy the little ones which are much cheaper, but I think they're still around $15-$20 a pound.  It is a great ingredient for many delicious Chinese soups, and if you want to go all the way, definitely get some, but I promise the soup will still taste good without it or if you don't have it on hand at the time (which is usually the case for me).

Let's talk about the mushrooms for a bit as these are mushrooms you probably don't normally run into:

1.  The Chinese mushrooms are similar to shiitake mushrooms and I buy the dried ones and reconstitute them in hot water, rinse them well and slice them thinly once they're soft enough to cut.  I have made this soup with fresh shiitake mushrooms and although it tastes ok, I find the flavour is quite different.  Fresh shiitake mushrooms are very fragrant and the perfume in them I found was a bit overpowering in the soup.  Especially because enoki and wood ears are not very strong.  Dried Chinese mushrooms are much earthier and I think they bring a better balance and foundation to the soup.  You can find dried Chinese mushrooms at T&T or Superstore.  If you go to T&T, you will likely be overwhelmed by the number of choices in Chinese mushrooms - if you go to Superstore, they usually only have one brand. ;)

2. The Enoki mushrooms can usually be found fresh at the Asian market (T&T) or Superstore over by the Chinese greens.  They have extremely long stems and tiny little heads.  Once cooked they look almost like noodles.  They are usually packaged tightly together in plastic.  You need to cut off the bottoms (mostly dirt) and separate the strands otherwise you will get large hunks of mushroom stuck together in your soup.  Make sure to rinse them well as little bits of dirt sometimes get stuck between the strands because they're packaged together so tightly.

3.  The Wood Ear mushrooms or Black Fungus can also be found at T&T or Superstore.  Superstore doesn't always carry it - but if they do, it's in the Asian section along with the dried Chinese mushrooms.  They will look like little strips of brittle, black and brown cardboard (these are the pre-sliced ones - you can also get them whole, but why slice them yourself?!?).  These also need to be reconstituted in hot water and rinsed well then they're ready to use.

I recommend you try making this soup.  It really is delicious and oh so easy to make.  In my house, we each like to spice it up individually, with a few drops of Tabasco sauce and a spoonful of Chinese red vinegar to turn the soup into a hot and sour soup.  It tastes just as good without those accompaniments too so it's all up to you!  Either way, I hope you enjoy it!   

"Pork Chops Taste Gooooood"

MMMmmmm pork chops.  They're so delicious - if they're cooked right.  Many people I know don't really like pork chops and I don't think it's because Jules says they're "filthy animals."  I think it's more likely because they've had dry dry dry pork chops hailing from the days of E.Coli scares where everyone overcooked their pork to make sure they were "safe".  Well turn the heat down and take the pan off because pork chops CAN be succulent and tender!

I love these Asian-style pork chops.  I make them all the time because with a few simple ingredients and some marinating time, these pork chops are yummy!  Want to add a bit of a Vietnamese flair?  Throw in some lemongrass - either way, you will find these pork chops very savoury and flavourful.  Saute the onions and garlic from the marinade and pour it over top of the cooked pork chops and yum!  Perfect with steamed rice.

For this dish, I usually use pork loin chops - in fact, I will usually buy a large pork loin (think Costco) and then slice the individual chops.  Whatever I don't use, I portion a chunk and freeze for another time.  It's a little more cost effective this way.  But also, this way you can choose how thick or thin you want your chops.  Since I'm usually in a hurry when I'm making dinner, I cut the chops to about half inch slices and then I pound them to quarter-inch thickness using a mallet (or the bottom of a frying pan works too!) while placing the chops between plastic wrap or wax paper.  I like them thin so they cook fast.  Either way though, it's worth giving them a little bit of a beating if for no other reason but to make your chop an even thickness throughout.  This will help when you're cooking so you don't have part of your pork chop thin and another part thick, making the overall cooking uneven (you'll have to leave the thick part on to make sure it gets cooked and then the thin part becomes overcooked and dry).

Speaking of dry pork chops, how do you cook your pork chops so that they don't become dry?  First, close your mind to overcooking them to be "safe".  Pork is actually quite safe these days - not that I'm saying that you should eat them rare or anything, but you need to monitor them and take them off the heat when they're done - not leave them on for an extra 5 minutes "just in case."  When you're cooking pork chops, you want to watch for a couple of things.  First, when you put them down on a grill or frying pan, use medium to medium-high heat.  Blasting them at too high a heat will just burn the outside and the inside will never get cooked fully.  Two, watch for the sides of the pork to start turning white until it is almost halfway white up the sides - then flip to cook the other side.  Three, poke, poke poke!  Do a poke test - and by this, I mean use your finger to give the meat a poke (do not puncture it with a knife or cut into it to see if it's cooked - you will lose all the juices).  What you're looking for is for the meat to be just firm.  If it feels hard - it's too dry.  If it feels soft and squishy, still undercooked.  Another trick to tell how done your meat is, is to touch all your fingers to your thumb, then with your other hand, poke the meaty part of your palm, just under your thumb.  That's how your pork should feel when it's done.  (By the way, if you touch only your index finger to your thumb and poke your palm, that's "medium rare", index and middle finger, "medium" etc.).  So you need to keep your eye (and your finger!) on your pork to make sure you don't cross the threshold from "just firm" to hard.  Last, don't forget to tent your chops!  Once you take them off the heat and put them on a dish, cover with aluminum foil.  This allows the meat time to rest and keep its juices.  If you cut into it too soon, you will have a wet mess and your pork will be dry!  Do all these things, and you won't have dry, sand paper chops!  Enjoy!

Chickity China the Chinese Chicken

Today, I want to welcome my sister Melissa, to Tummy Juice.  Like me, my sister loves eating and cooking.  This weekend, she came down to Calgary to visit me (...ok, ok, it was really to visit her baby nephew), but before she left, she made a delicious oven roasted chicken with soy sauce and onions.  I finished it off with some baby bok choy with oyster sauce and drizzled the whole thing with crispy garlic oil.  Without further adieu, heeeeeere's Melissa!......

So over the past little while, all my Facebook friends have been enjoying the documentation of my cooking experiments, subsequently leading to my sister’s own documentation, and ultimately, the birth of this blog.  I guess it would make sense that I “guest-blog” every now and then, so here’s my first entry.

Well, back to what I was saying about cooking “experiments” – I’ve always been a bit intimidated with cooking Chinese food….not too sure why.  Perhaps watching my mom and my grandma cooking their family recipes always seemed so complicated, I always ended up cooking “Western” cuisine, because the methods just seemed so much easier.

Well, my mindset has quickly been changing when I realized that Asian-style cooking doesn’t have to be complicated.  In fact, a lot of it is really quite easy!  I also daresay that with cooking a simple Chinese meal, you get the best bang for your buck – really tasty, and enough to pack your lunch for the next day.

Alright, now I believe my sister when she said that I wouldn’t have a hard time blogging….now to the food.
I found this great chicken recipe from The Chinese Chicken Cookbook by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo.  Like a lot of Chinese recipes, it covers several dimensions of flavour – savoury, sweet, acidic, and…some alcohol flavour (not sure how to describe that!).  The only thing that is “missing” is some heat, but I would say you could definitely add some red chilies to this recipe if you like.  Otherwise, all the ingredients are easy to find at any grocery store, or might even be in your pantry already.

I did make a slight adjustment – it originally calls for quartered chicken breasts, but I substituted it for boneless, skin-on chicken thighs instead.  A couple of reasons why:  chicken thighs tend to be juicier, and best of all, they cook faster!  The original recipe takes a total of 1.5 hours roasting time, whereas the thighs will take probably a max of 45 minutes.  This makes it more ideal for a weekday meal…especially after a long day of work.  Prep time will be about ten minutes if you don’t have to de-bone your chicken, plus give it about 20-30 minutes to marinate.  Yet another tasty meal that doesn’t take a whole lot of effort – the best kind!

(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Beef

The first time I ever had Bo Luc Lac (Vietnamese Shaking Beef) was at the Vietnam Restaurant on 12 Ave in Calgary where I live.  My friend's Vietnamese boyfriend had taken us there and warned me not to order any pho as he said he only ate there for their Bo Luc Lac (he didn't think their pho was that good) or as it's written in the menu "beef cubes."  This was almost 9 years ago so my experience in Vietnamese food had mostly been pho, bun bo hue (spicy pho) and subs.  I had never heard of these beef cubes before.  So I did as he did and ordered it.  It was delicious!  (Since the original writing of this, I have had the Bo Luc Lac at Bolsa in Calgary and it is the best!  Truly!).

I will admit I was skeptical at first - the beef cubes were in fact, just cubes of beef sitting on top of steamed rice with a side of iceberg lettuce, a tomato and a cucumber and some Italian dressing I think.  It didn't look fancy, there were no garnishes.  Just beef on rice.  I took a bite and I was surprised - the beef was tender and each morsel was so flavourful!  I had always wondered how they made it, and never really tried until my sister tried a recipe from Viet World Kitchen.  She said it tasted wonderful so I thought I'd try it.  Since then, I've made it a few more times and tweaked things here and there to my taste...I've also incorporated pickled red onions from Rasa Malaysia's Bo Luc Lac recipe as I think that makes a huge difference in the overall dish.  The tangy onion-y bite adds that little bit of kick to the overall flavour of the beef and I think it's a must-have when serving this dish.  I also enjoy dipping the beef cubes in a dipping sauce (or pouring it over) - you can either use traditional Vietnamese fish sauce (the one with the carrots in it that come with almost every Vietnamese dish at the restaurant), or a lime-pepper dipping sauce.  It just adds another dimension of flavour that is deeelish!

So why is this called "shaking" beef?  It's because "Luc Lac" describes the action of shaking the beef when searing/cooking it.  You need to have a fairly hot pan with a little oil (a wok works nicely if you have one, but a skillet or frying pan is fine) and you quickly and carefully put the beef in and then take a step back!  You will get lots of sizzle and spray...it's a little dangerous!  I have a gas stove at home so the heat and spraying oil and marinade actually made sparks of fire.  I thought maybe the next time I made it, I could do it without the pan being so hot...but unfortunately, I did not get the same searing and instead of beef cubes with that flavourful seared crusty goodness on the outside, I ended up with just cooked beef with no crust and a bit of a mushy sauce.  Blech.  I guess a little danger is worth the taste!  So get that pan nice and hot, put your beef in, let it sear for a few seconds and then shake, shake, shake!

There is a good reason for all this shaking.  Shaking the pan back and forth moves the beef around so that you can get that nice sear on the other sides of the beef cubes.  Shaking also keeps you from getting mushy stuff from happening inside your pan and all over your cubes.  What mushy stuff you ask?  Well, have you ever put a burger on the BBQ and then watched the top of that burger (the uncooked side) as the other side is cooking away?  You'll notice after awhile that some brown bubbly...stuff, appears on top.  It starts off as blood seeping out and then the heat cooks it along with some of the beef juice and turns it brown.  That's the mushy stuff.  At that point, that's when you want to flip your burger over to finish cooking it (you only want to flip your burger once)...but in Bo Luc Lac, you don't want that stuff to appear.  Or at least if it does, you want it to dry up rather than stick to your cubes or make a mushy sauce.  So to prevent this, you have to keep the beef moving and you have to have a hot pan.  It is not enough to just keep the beef moving - if that pan is not hot, the mush will not dry up - like I said, it's a little dangerous, but worth it!

One last tip...if you can, use a nice cut of beef.  The nice thing about this dish is that you really don't have to - I mean this is a time where you could use a cheapie cut of beef and it will still taste good...but the last time I made it, I decided to splurge and used a ribeye (I know, I had trouble cutting my beautiful ribeye up into little cubes) - but ribeye steaks are known for their marbling and that extra bit of fat just made the whole dish so juicy!  MMMmmm!  Anyways, I'm certainly not saying you need to do that, but if you do get a more tender cut of beef, it really will make the dish that much better.  It's up to you.  Either way, I think you'll enjoy this dish!