The sauce here is built in a bowl before the wok is lit, which is the reason this comes together in fifteen minutes. Soy, dark soy, chilli bean paste, oyster sauce and sugar go into a starch slurry, and that single mixture both seasons the dish and thickens the braise at the end. Tofu puffs cut in half absorb it; left whole they stay dry in the middle.
Chinese · Main
Napa Cabbage and Tofu Puffs in a Spoonable Sauce
Tofu puffs are hollow, so they take up sauce like a sponge. Halve them, braise for five minutes and the cabbage does the rest of the work.
- Prep15 min
- Cook15 min
- Serves3
- LevelEasy
Ingredients
| 300 g | napa cabbage , cut into short lengths, leaves and stems kept apart |
| 150 g | tofu puffs , halved |
| 2 | green chillies , sliced into rings |
| 2 | garlic cloves , minced |
| 2 slices | ginger |
| 3 tbsp | light soy sauce |
| 1 tbsp | dark soy sauce |
| 1 tbsp | chilli bean paste |
| 1 tbsp | oyster sauce |
| 1 tbsp | sugar |
| 2 tbsp | cornflour , mixed with a splash of water |
| 300 g | water |
| 2 | spring onions , sliced |
| 1/2 tsp | salt |
| 1/4 tsp | MSG , optional |
Method
- Halve the tofu puffs so the cut faces can drink, and cut the cabbage into pieces about the length of your thumb.
- Stir the light soy, dark soy, chilli bean paste, oyster sauce, sugar and cornflour slurry together in a bowl with a fork until no lumps are left.
- Get the wok hot, add a couple of tablespoons of oil and fry the garlic, ginger and green chilli for half a minute until they smell of themselves.
- Pour the sauce mixture in around the rim of the wok rather than into the middle, then add the water and bring it to a boil.
- Add the cabbage stems first and cook for two minutes, then the leaves, and let them soften into the liquid.
- Add the tofu puffs, turn them so the cut sides face down, drop the heat to its lowest, cover and braise for five minutes.
- Check the pan once while it braises. The cabbage and the puffs both keep drinking, and if the sauce has gone tight add a splash of water rather than more soy.
- Season with the salt and MSG, scatter the spring onion, cover for one more minute and take it to the table with rice.
Notes
- The sauce should be loose enough to spoon over rice, not thick enough to sit on top of it. Add water at step seven rather than starting with more.
- Swap the oyster sauce for vegetarian oyster sauce and the dish is vegan; nothing else needs changing.
Ratios and technique checked against 窗边的小豆豆。 on Douguo (低脂健康的白菜焖豆泡！). The method here is written by Stellaok; the photograph is the source kitchen's, credited on the image above and linked back to the page it came from. No recipe text is reproduced.