- March 11,2023
Tofu Box is a Shandong cuisine that originated in Zibo area, especially famous for its Boshan Tofu Box. Mother Wheat Straw is a true Boshan native and she personally passed on recipe for this Boshan tofu box. My personal experience of making this dish: soft tofu goes from deep fried to crispy, slow fried with stuffing, to stuffed and stuffed, slow steamed and softened, it's just a reincarnation and philosophy of life was to get used to it slowly, otherwise food is said to be a kind of culture. (Hide)
Difficulty: Side dish (medium) Time: 30-60 minutes Main ingredient 500 g northern tofu, accessories 10 g dried shrimp, 50 g lean pork mince, 15 g shuif mushrooms, 15 g shiitake shuif mushrooms, 15 g winter bamboo shoots, peanut butter for frying A pinch of salt, a pinch of monosodium glutamate, a pinch of rice vinegar, 4 spoons of sugar, 1 spoon of wet starch, a pinch of wet starch
1. Take a piece of northern tofu and cut it into a 3X3X5 cm rectangular shape. There are 12 of them on a plate, because at Shandong banquets there is usually a table of ten people, one for each, and two remain on plate. This is not a waste of time, this is etiquette.
2. Heat oil in a saucepan, change oil temperature to medium heat, add tofu cubes and fry slowly, stirring gently to avoid sticking.
3. Deep fry tofu until golden brown, remove and control amount of oil.
4. Let fried tofu cool slightly, cut off a piece of skin from one side of tofu block while it is hot (do not cut it, it will serve as lid of box), pull tofu inside and form a box.
5. The dug up tofu is main ingredient in tofu box filling. In tofu box, special attention is paid to grinding dug up tofu into small grains and serving it with sea rice, meat filling, sliced mushrooms, sliced shiitake mushrooms. and chopped winter bamboo shoots. Prepare filling (also vegan) and fill it back into tofu box. The amazing thing is that dug out tofu plus ingredients can be completely put back into tofu box after frying, no more, no less, reason is that volume of tofu is reduced due to water evaporation during frying.
6. Pour base oil into a preheated pan, fry chopped green onion and ginger until fragrant, add the lean pork filling and fry until crispy.
7. Add fly-sized tofu, salt to taste, fry until tofu is slightly yellow, add chopped mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms and winter bamboo shoots, fry a few times and set aside.
8. Pour fried filling back into tofu box and try to make it as tight as possible without breaking box.
9. Put stuffed tofu box on a plate, steam it in a double boiler over high heat for 20 minutes so that tofu box returns to tenderness of tofu.
10. When steaming box of tofu, use another saucepan to prepare sauce: heat broth in saucepan, add peas and sweet corn (traditionally add mushrooms, cucumbers, bamboo shoots, etc.), add salt, sugar and balsamic vinegar to taste.
11. After boiling, thicken sauce with starch and pour it over steamed box of tofu.
