Another recipe that helps me cook to my roots. My mom used to cook this dish for us all the time and I hated making it when I learned how. You could technically use ground pork but that wouldn’t be the same. She would use pork shoulder and chop it down by hand which I hated but now that I’m older and wiser, I realized that having chunks of the pork makes all the different in this dish.

I didn’t have a recipe written for this but can recall certain details. I noticed that online sources have all kinds of variations but I went the super simple route. Remember when I posted this the other week?

Yup, it was to make this dish! I tried to use this recipe as inspiration for my dish but I ended up just improvising. My mom didn’t use water chestnut so I didn’t use that and I wanted shiitake mushrooms in it, so I added that.

I don’t really have a recipe to type up, I used two pounds of pork shoulder that I chopped up. I added about 8 shiitake mushrooms. I rinsed off the salted turnip and minced that small but boy I messed that up. I should have rinsed and soaked the turnip overnight because bugga is SALTY. So salty.

I seasoned the patty with some oyster sauce, sugar, cornstarch, sesame oil, chicken bouillon and white pepper. No salt or shoyu cause it’s so dang salty. I also drizzled some vegetable oil on top before steaming it for about 20 minutes.

If it wasn’t so salty, this dish would have been perfect. Luckily I ate this with rice and some squash soup. I don’t know how traditional this is but when we had leftovers of this pork patty, my mom added eggs to make another meal out of it (almost like a meat chawan mushi).

I added a few eggs and some water (I don’t even measure, just eyeball it myself) – topped it with fresh green onions and steamed it for about 10 minutes or just until it is set. And boom, another entree! Ah this was a good dish. I had enough pork mixture to make two pie platters so I froze half for later. If you want a recipe, let me know and I’ll try to type one out next time I make it.

My original name for this recipe is Chinese Bean Curd, Cucumber and Mushroom Salad. Too much of a tongue twister so let’s just call it cucumber salad. I found this recipe on TikTok and I wanted to make it because wood ear mushrooms are Chan’s favorite but it also looked like such a refreshing salad. I had to type up the recipe and best guessed the quantities from the video and guess what? It came out GREAT. It is so delicious! Do I think the peanuts are needed next time? I don’t think so.

Dried Bean Curd Sticks

I found this at Don Quijote, I’m sure you can find this in Chinatown in any store. You have to soak these in water to rehydrate them. There are many different ways according to different websites but I decided to just soak it in cold water in the fridge overnight and that worked great! I rotated the sticks once just to make sure they got equal exposure to the water.

The wood ear mushrooms rehydrated much faster, I soaked them in room temperature water and it took about 30 minutes to get soft. The recipe calls for you to blanch both of them for about 1-2 minutes.

Garlic, Red Bell Pepper, Crushed Peanuts, Roasted Sesame Seeds and Green Onions ready for the hot hot oil…

Hot oil added! Immediately mix the ingredients so the hot oil can distribute to them evenly!

Cucumbers after my quick sugar pickle!

Fresh cilantro washed, drained and ready to go! Cilantro is a must!

Here’s the sauce with all the ingredients dumped in…so good…!

Chinese Bean Curd, Cucumber and Mushroom Salad

Ingredients

• 3 Japanese cucumbers, washed and cut into 1 inch sticks
  • 3 T Sugar for quick pickling
• 2 small packets Wood Ear Mushrooms, rehydrated, rinse and drained (from Don Q – takes about 30 minutes in room temp water to rehydrate)
• 1 package Bean Curd Sticks, cut into 1 inch sticks (soaked in cold water in the fridge overnight)
• 1 Red Bell Pepper, diced
• 1 bunch cilantro
• 1 handful of shelled roasted peanuts

Sauce Ingredients

• 3 Green Onions, sliced
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 T Toasted Sesame Seeds
• 3 T Crushed Peanuts
• 3-4 T heated neutral oil
• 6 T light soy sauce
• 6 T black vinegar
• 2 T oyster sauce
• 2 t salt
• 2 t chicken bouillon
• 1 T sugar, to taste

Toss cut cucumber sticks in a bowl with 3-4 T sugar and let sit for 10 minutes. Drain the water. Set aside. Heat a pot full of water, blanch the wood ear mushrooms and bean curd sticks in boiling water for 1-2 minutes. Immediately drain, rinse in cold water and drain. 

Add red bell pepper, green onions, garlic, sesame seeds, and crushed peanuts into a heat safe bowl. Heat up neutral oil in a pan/wok until smoking, turn off the stove and pour hot oil over the ingredients in the bowl. Immediately stir it to distribute the hot oil to all the ingredients.

Add soy sauce, black vinegar, oyster sauce, salt, chicken bouillon and sugar to the bowl and mix well. Taste and add sugar to your taste.

In a big bowl, add cucumber sticks, bean curd sticks, wood ear mushrooms, roasted peanuts, cilantro and sauce, toss. Can be eaten right away but tastes great after marinating for a few hours!

Note: Doubled sauce recipe when I made it compared to the video, doubling of sauce is reflected in this recipe write-up

How do you folks get your recipes nowadays? I have a whole bunch of cookbooks but I never touch them, I rely on social media and YouTube. Been on a Chinese kick, just wanting to cook up comforting Chinese dishes. I found this video on YouTube and it looked so good and it’s actually quite simple to make! I made adjustments from the original (I always do). Check it out!

Chinese Braised Tofu

Ingredients
2 blocks of firm tofu, sliced into 1/2 inch rectangles – drained and patted dry (extra firm okay too)
6 spring onions – white sliced thin and at an angle, greens sliced into 2 inch sections (reserve greens on the side)
5-6 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp chicken bouillon
1 tsp sugar
2 Tbsp light soy sauce
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 C water

1 Tbsp neutral oil for panfrying tofu

For sauce, mix in green onion whites, garlic, black pepper, chicken bouillon, sugar, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, cornstarch and water. Mix well. Set aside.

Pan fry tofu slices – brown on both sides. I had to do this in two batches since my pan wouldn’t fit two blocks of tofu in a single layer.

Add sauce mixture and cook until sauce thickens. Add green parts of the green onions and cook for an additional minute. 

Notes: Perfect dish to serve over rice – a bit salty. I would probably add a maybe 1.5 T of soy sauce next time. Take this with a grain of salt (heh), I’ve been into blander food lately.

Recipe Credit: Linda Guo’s Kitchen