from PM’s CC Vol II. These adorable little “sandwiches” feature tender pieces of tofu with a little pork, well, sandwiched in between. The sauce is a classic soy sauce-ginger-scallion combo, very fragrant.
鍋貼 guo1tie1 — literally, potsticker. also the Chinese name for–you guessed it!–potstickers.
豆腐 dou4fu3 — tofu. yum.
I was hovering over the bucket of fresh tofu at the Chinese grocery, careful not to puncture the delicate pieces with my metal tongs while rooting around for pretty-looking, uncracked pieces. They come in chunks of 2″ by 2″ squares, 1″ thick, so I needed 4 for this recipe. One, two, three…there I was, bag of tofu in one hand, candidate #4 held in tongs of the other, when my nose started itching. What a conundrum! I had to (1) not sneeze in the bucket of tofu (2) not sneeze on other shoppers and (3) keep my tong hand steady so its piece of tofu didn’t get squashed in my sneeze-spasm: for this recipe I clearly needed perfectly shaped tofu, and did this store have a “you squish it, you buy it” policy? I didn’t want to find out.
Safely home, I refrigerated the tofu in a deep bowl covered in water. Fresh tofu will usually keep for a day or two, no more than 3, this way as long as you change the water daily.
Slicing the tofu (step 2) requires some patience and steady hands, since the tofu is pretty delicate, but also quite enjoyable with a sharp knife sliding right through…
I think I fit slightly more than 1 teaspoon of pork in each sandwich.
For step 4, I really really didn’t want to deep fry the sandwiches. Instead I used a nonstick pan, pouring in just enough oil to cover the bottom, and fried all the sandwiches at once. I got impatient and probably didn’t wait long enough before flipping the sandwiches over, going more for “golden” than for “brown”. I was, however, pleasantly surprised at how easily they flipped: frying even one side firms up the whole sandwich enough that you don’t have to panic over the tofu falling apart as you pick them up. I was able to flip them using only chopsticks.
For step 5, 1 Tb of oil is more than adequate; you just need enough to moisten the scallion and ginger. Decide for yourself whether you need to add the 1/4 ts salt; I didn’t. I simmered uncovered for step 6, occasionally basting the tofu with the cooking sauce, until the sauce was reduced and thickcned by the flour coating on the tofu. PM suggests additional thickening with cornstarch paste, but I found that to be totally unnecessary.
Time spent: 45 minutes
Difficulty level: requires patience and a delicate hand with the raw tofu, and bravery in the face of sputtering hot oil when frying.
Impressive! I’ll definitely be following this blog regularly now.