Yes, another tiktok recipe. But I am loving these recipe videos that invoke cooking from my roots. I’ve always loved braised tofu dishes in Chinese restaurants. To be honest, my family didn’t cook much of it at home. Not sure why, it’s a pretty healthy dish. It can be vegan if you use vegan oyster sauce and veggie stock cubes. Well, I made the dish as authentic as can be which includes deep frying soft tofu cubes. Oh boy. I can see why my family didn’t make this ever. But was it worth the effort? I believe so.

During and after frying. Yeah, some tofu got more tanned than others. You got a problem with that? lol

Rehyrated Shiitake Mushrooms

Original recipe I followed only had bamboo shoots, I couldn’t resist throwing in young corn!

Braised Tofu Recipe

Ingredients
2 boxes of soft tofu
2 cans sliced bamboo shoots (I used Family Brand, 8 oz. cans)
2 cans young carrots (I used Family brand, 8 oz. cans)
30 dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated in 6-8 C warm water for at least one hour (reserve soaking liquid)
4 C shiitake soaking liquid, avoid scooping up any settlement from soaking
4 stalks green onions, thinly sliced
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 T doubanjjang
Neutral oil for frying

Sauce:
2 T oyster sauce
1 T soy sauce
2 chicken bouillon cubes
2 tsp dark soy sauce
1 t sugar
2 pinches of salt
4 T cornstarch slurry (4 T of water to 2 T of cornstarch)

Instructions

1. Drain tofu, wrap in paper towel and press out excess water (place a plate on top and weigh it down to get out more water)
2. Cube tofu and heat up at least 1-1.5 cups of oil in a frying pan (depends how big your pan is, the oil level should be about half the height of the tofu
3. Heat up oil and add tofu cubes and fry, flip to brown both ends. Remove from oil when the tofu is golden brown
4. Heat up pan with about 2 T oil, add garlic and doubanjjang to saute for about 30 seconds
5. Add bamboo shoots, saute for 10-15 seconds
6. Add young corn, saute for 10-15 seconds
7. Add shiitake mushrooms, tofu, and the sauce, mix well
8. Add 4 C shiitake soaking liquid and cover to simmer for about 10 minutes on medium-high heat
9. Add cornstarch slurry and heat up until sauce is thick
10. Option, blanch bok choy and line bottom of your serving dish with bok choy before adding braised tofu on top

Notes:

• Yes, this a lot. You can definitely half this recipe – I always cook for a crowd
• I like spice so this is the amount of doubanjjang I add – if you can’t handle the spice, cut the amount I add by half
• Next time, I would add one more block of tofu (I think could even take two more blocks of tofu)

Blanced bok choy ready to be smothered!

This is gonna be like my meals for the week but I couldn’t resist taking a few bites. It was delicious!!!!