“Gourmet of Fortune for this festive celebration!”
Moon, asked if I am cooking any festive food. Yes, Moon. Here is it. In fact, the idea of creating a category for Festive Gourmet arose, just to house all possible festive food recipes I have cooked or going to cook, for all festive season, e.g. Christmas, Dong Zhi (冬至), CNY, Valentine’s day, and etc. For easy reference. Do check it out (smilling)!
So, here’s a new one for this CNY. Tofu aka bean curd, in Chinese, it’s 豆腐，the word ‘Fu’ (腐) sounds similar to Fortune (福). Hence, eating Tofu (豆腐) during CNY celebration symbolizes possession of fortune (Doufu – 都有福). I added dried scallop in making the gravy. Dried scallop is another staple ingredient you can’t miss in cooking CNY festive food.
Of course, the placing of the dish also coheres with the image of a ship loaded with golds. So, I called it “Jin Yu Man Tang 金玉满堂”.
Very simple ingredients used, and yet, a very meaningful and prosperous dish.
Ingredients
1 packet of beancurd aka Toufu, divided into 5 pieces
100 gram of fish paste
200 gram of minced pork meat
2 dried scallops, each for the size of 20 cents coin, soaked and shreded
1 carrot, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small cup of chicken stock (about 100 gram)
Pinch of salt and ground white pepper
Sprinkles of Shao Hsing Hua Diao rice wine (Chinese translation: 绍兴花雕酒)
1 tablespoon of corn starch, mixed with some water to create slurry
1 tablespoon of cooking oil
Seasoning (to marinate minced meat mixture):
1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
Pinch of ground white pepper
1 tablespoon of cornstarch
Method
1) Mix minced meat with fish paste. Add seasoning. Combined well. Marinate for 15 minutes.
2) Lightly place 1 spoonful of minced meat mixture on toufu slice. Top with some diced carrots. Repeat step for the remaining toufu slices.
3) Steam toufu slices for 10 minutes. Remove from steamer/ wok. Set aside.
4) Heat wok with oil over high fire. Add garlic and fry till fragrant. Add in chicken stock and dried scallop (add also the remaining diced carrots, if any). Reduce heat to medium fire.
5) Simmer stock for 3 minutes, with lid on. Remove lid, add in salt, white pepper and Hua Diao rice wine.
6) Pour cornstarch slurry to thicken the stock. Heat off, when thick gravy is created. Pour the gravy over steamed toufu. Serve hot.
Tips: Get a box of tofu in rectangle packet. Choose type of tofu suitable for steaming or boiling. Widely available in various supermarket.
* To remain the tofu slices in good shape when placing minced meat mixture, you may form a minced meat ball with bare hand instead of spoon, before topping onto the tofu.