Braised Tofu and Shiitake

5.0 from 1 reviews

Author: Anita Jacobson

Courses: Main Dish

Cuisines: Chinese

Diets: Gluten Free Vegan

Ingredients: Tofu Vegetables

Prep Time: 1 hour

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 2 hours

Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 8-10 medium size dried shiitake
• 2 block firm tofu (about 400 gram each)
• all purpose flour/corn starch, for dusting (*)
• 3 tablespoon oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 scallions, cut white part into 1" sections, thinly slice the green part
• 1 cup thinly sliced carrot
• 1 cup thinly sliced celery
• 1 tablespoon corn starch + 4 tablespoon water, mix well
• Sauce
• 2 cups shiitake soaking water
• 2 tablespoon mushroom sauce
• 2 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon mushroom stock granules/salt

Instructions

1. Soak dried shiitake in plenty of water (about 3 cups) overnight. Once the mushrooms are soften and fluffy, squeeze out water from them, remove the stems, and cut the caps into thin slices. Don't throw away the soaking water, we will use it as mushroom stock in the sauce.
2. Drain water from tofu by wrapping each block with paper towel. Sandwich tofu blocks between two plates (or two cutting boards), and place a heavy object such as a cast iron skillet on top of the plate (or cutting board), and let water drain out from the tofu for 1 hour. Once drained, cut each block of tofu into 16 pieces.
3. Heat 3 tablespoon oil in a non-stock frying pan or a well-seasoned cast iron skillet on medium heat. Dust each piece of tofu with all purpose flour or corn starch, and fry tofu until golden brown. Set aside.
4. Make sure there is about 1 tablespoon of oil left in the pan/skillet. Turn heat on medium-high, and sauté garlic and white part of scallions until fragrant, about 2-3 minutes.
5. Add shiitake and fried tofu into the pan and mix well.
6. Add all the sauce ingredients to the pan and stir. Bring to a boil. Then reduce heat to a simmer, cover the pan, and cook for 30 minutes.
7. Remove the pan. Turn heat back to medium-high. Add carrot and celery and cook for 1 minute.
8. Add corn starch solution to the pan, stir and cook until the sauce thickens.
9. Turn off heat, place on serving plate(s) and garnish with the green part of scallions.

Notes

• (*) Use corn starch for a gluten-free dish.