Mushy, sweet and sour. These are the three adjectives given to me in a Recipe Challenge by Stephanie Charouk. That was a hard one for me, Stephanie. Finally I came up with this–something tofu with a sweet and sour sauce.
Why was it difficult? Because sweet and sour is not my favorite flavor. Apparently, it’s not popular with other Cantonese as well. I once suggested having Sweet and Sour Pork with Hong Kong friends and was teased about my tastes being gweilo or foreign, as in being a foreign person. People from other Chinese provinces think our cuisine is too sweet. And even though Sweet and Sour Pork is Cantonese we think the combination is foreign.
Mum hated even a bit of sweetness in savory entrees. And she’d make a face if something was too sour. Except for one of her favorites–a very traditional dish made after the birth of a baby in a Cantonese family. Stephanie, maybe we should try this sometime–Pig Trotters in Black Vinegar and Ginger.
New grandmothers would braise a humongous pot of pig feet and distribute small portions of the stew to friends and family. The trotters is cooked in black vinegar, which has the richness of balsamic vinegar, young ginger root and brown sugar for hours until the fat of the pig feet is soft and, well, mushy.
The thought of cooking pig feet was just a fleeting one. For the amount of work involved, I’m not sure my friends here in Fairfax, Va would appreciate it and although I love it, I’ll save testing out Mum’s recipe when my daughter gives birth and I can do the traditional grandma thing. Would you have liked the soft, melt-in-your-mouth pork fat? Hmm, pork belly would be good too. Maybe in another post.
Another option for mushy I thought of was brain. Soft pig’s brain in soup. But can’t cook brain with sweet and sour. Pig brain is cooked in a clear broth and some ginger. The old folks used to tell us eating brain would make us smart. Ya, right, like cows or pigs. By the way, it’s true they eat Monkey’s Brain in Guangzhou. In the 1980s, the Ban Xi Restaurant in Guangzhou had Monkey Brain Omelette in its menu. Again, it’s not sweet and sour.
I finally decided on tofu, a safe fallback. It’s mushy. And I can make it with something sweet and sour. In my Recipe Challenge, I’d rather stick to making something authentic and traditional.
My first choice for you is Deep Fried Tofu, which will be in a separate post. It’s delicious but not sure if you’d want to mess with deep frying, I got an alternative as well, this one below.
In this recipe, I selected tofu sold in cylindrical packs so that it would have attractive round tofu pieces. But you can use tofu blocks as well. I chilled it before serving, but you don’t have to.
Chilled Tofu with Sweet and Sour Sauce
Serves 6-8
Preparation time: 45 minutes, includes chilling
Cooking time: 3-5 minutes
1 cylindrical package tofu, cut into 6-8 pieces
2 stalks spring onion, finely chopped
A few springs of cilantro, finely chopped
Sweet and Sour Sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Thickening sauce
½ teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon water
Place cut pieces of tofu on a paper kitchen towel and let it sit to drain out moisture. Change paper towel when it is soaked with water.
Meanwhile in a 1-quart saucepan, add soy sauce, rice vinegar, brown sugar and water and blend to melt sugar. Set aside.
In a small bowl, blend cornstarch and water and set aside.
Heat saucepan until soy sauce combination is brought to a boil. Slowly dribble cornstarch thickener a little at a time into boiling sauce, stirring quickly at the same time. Stop adding thickener as soon as sauce thickens.It should have the viscosity of maple syrup.
Remove from heat immediately. Add in sesame oil. Allow sauce to cool down.
When sauce is cool, place tofu in individual serving cups. Dribble sweet and sour sauce over tofu and chill in refrigerator for 15-20 minutes. When ready to serve, garnish with spring onion and cilantro.
NOTES
Variation
–Instead of serving the tofu in individual serving, you can drain a whole block of tofu, and dribble the sauce over the tofu. Top with spring onion and cilantro.
