Japanese Style Mah Poh Tofu

For this South Arm Community Kitchen, the participants shared their favourite recipe.

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Junko shared a Japanese style Mah Poh Tofu served on germinated brown rice. Junko preferred germinated brown rice as it’s not as tough as regular brown rice and yet still has some chewiness to it.

Ingredients

  • 1 package of smooth soft tofu, cubed
  • 100 grams ground pork
  • 3 stalks green onions, chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1 inch ginger, minced
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon sesame oil
  • 1/2 tablespoon miso paste
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon mirin
  • 1 tablespoon soy bean paste (or substitute with miso paste)
  • 1/4 tablespoon sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon oyster sauce
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 teaspoon corn starch

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Source: Junko

Serves 2 (we made enough for 12)

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Fried Tofu and Egg Stew

Ben loves dishes with sauce.This Fried Tofu and Egg Stew is just one of such dish.

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Plenty of sauce to go with steamed rice.

Ingredients

  • 8 hard boiled eggs
  • 1 package of fried tofu
  • 1/2 pound ground pork
  • 1 tablespoon dark say sauce
  • 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
  • 3 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
  • 2 cups water

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P/S: the dark soy sauce was missing from the above photo

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Ian Lai’s Asian Inspired Mah Poh Tofu with Multigrain Rice

Ian Lai made a simplified Mah Poh Tofu to be served with some multigrain rice during the Healthy Eating and Fun Cooking demonstration.

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Mah Poh Tofu is a popular Szechuan dish. The name came from the old lady with pocked marked who sell this dish along the street.

Ingredients

  • multigrain rice
  • 200g ground pork
  • salt to taste
  • 1 package of soft tofu
  • 1 package of Mah Poh tofu seasoning

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 Source: Ian Lai

Ian bought the above ingredients from T&T

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Soft Tofu with Century Egg

For the last dish, Emily made another side dish at the South Arm Community Kitchen.

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The side dish is Soft Tofu with Century Egg. This is another dish which can be made in less 10 minutes.

Ingredients

  • Soft tofu
  • Century eggs, peel and chop (handle the egg gently as the egg is very tender)
  • salt to taste
  • sesame oil
  • cilantro

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This dish does not need cooking except to warm up the soft tofu. You can steam the tofu or microwave it.

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Century egg is also known as preserved egg, thousand-year old egg or Pidan in Mandarin. Century egg is made by preserving eggs in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime and rice hulls for several weeks to several months, depending on the method of processing. Through the preservation process, the yolk becomes a dark green or gray creamy yolk while the egg white becomes a translucent dark brown jelly like. Century egg is an acquired taste because it has an odor of sulphur and ammonia.

You may substitute the century eggs with meat floss.

Source: Emily

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Vegetable Noodle Soup

Minoo prepared 3 recipes for the South Arm Community Kitchen.  A Vegetable Noodle Soup, a Chicken Chili and the Lemon Pudding which I had blogged earlier.

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This Vegetable Noodle Soup is a great vegetarian dish if you use tofu instead of chicken. It will be a great dish for the cold season if you made it with chicken stock.

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons sasame oil
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 1 medium potato, peeled and diced
  • 2 large carrots, diced
  • 1 small yellow bell pepper, diced
  • 1 teaspoon each dried thyme, oregano, cilantro and ginger
  • 5 cups water (more if it’s too dry)
  • 1/2 inch bunch (2 oz) whole grain spaghetti, snapped in shorter lengths
  • 2 cups cooked chicken or firm tofu, cubed
  • 1 1/2 cups broccoli, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 teaspoon tamari
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 teaspoon red chili flakes for garnish

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Source: unknown

Serves 8

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Sesame Baked Tofu

Tofu is a source of protein for vegetarian. One half-cup serving of raw firm tofu has double the content of protein from one half-cup of dairy milk. Tofu is low in calories for the protein it packs in. One half-cup of tofu contains 94 calories. For comparison, for each 100 calories serving, tofu contains 11 grams of protein while 100 calories of ground beef provides 8.9 grams of protein, and a 100 calories serving of cheese contains 6.2 grams of protein.

Here are more nutritional facts about tofu:

  • Tofu is a cholesterol-free food, as are all plant-based food.
  • One half-cup serving of raw firm tofu has only 5 grams of fat.
  • One half-cup serving for firm tofu contains about 227 mg of calcium or about 22% of the recommended dietary allowances (RDA).
  • One half-cup serving of firm tofu contains about 1.82 mg of iron, this can vary greatly, depending on the brand. The RDA for women is 18 mg, and 8 mg for men.

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The Sesame Baked Tofu takes on the flavour of the seasonings as tofu itself is quite bland. The toasted sesame seeds gives the dish some crunchiness and nuttiness. This dish goes well with some baked sweet potatoes.

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs firm tofu, cut into bite sized pieces
  • 1 tablespoon roasted sesame oil
  • 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
  • 1/8 cup tamari
  • 1/8 cup water
  • 1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds

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Oyster Jade Boat

Selena partnered with Betty to demonstrate in the Caring Place Community Kitchen. In this way, the participants will not feel too pressured to come out with two dishes at a meeting.

Selena made a finger food called the Oyster Jade Boat. This is a great finger food which can be served on Japanese cucumber, celery or iceberg lettuce or any kind of vegetable which can be eaten raw and has the shape which can hold some filings.

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The Japanese cucumber which was used here gives this finger food a very nice crunch. This dish is perfectly name as the green in the cucumber is as green as a piece of jade and its shape is like a boat.

Ingredients

  • 8 Japanese cucumbers
  • 3 dried shiitake mushroom, reconstituted
  • 3 button mushrooms
  • 1/2 carrot
  • 2 pieces of savoury pressed tofu
  • 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1/3 lb ground pork
  • 2 tablespoons rice wine
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
  • white pepper
  • tomato and cilantro for garnishing

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If you would like to serve this as a vegetarian dish, omit the pork and use vegetarian oyster sauce instead.

Click on the link below for the instructions.

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Mah Poh Tofu

Vanessa and Ming, once again, demonstrated in the South Arm Community Kitchen. Vanessa made Mah Poh Tofu while Ming made some hand made noodle from scratch to be eaten with the Mah Poh Tofu.

For dessert, Vanessa made some Hong Kong style Tang Yuan, something sweet for the coming Valentine’s day which is way past by now due to our posting delays.

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Mah Poh Tofu or Mapo Toufu is a szechuan cuisine which is famous for spiciness. It’s main ingredients are pork and tofu which are cooked in a spicy sauce made from szechuan pepper corns. The szechuan pepper corn is a so spicy that it will numb your mouth, hence the word “ma” in Mah Poh is taken from. There is also a legend that the name came from the lady who made famous this dish. She is an old woman with pock-marked face. You can read more about the legend from wikipedia.

Ingredients

  • 1 package traditional tofu (or any soft or medium tofu), drained and cut into cubes
  • 1/2 lb ground pork
  • 2 shallots, sliced
  • 2 green onions, chopped
  • Oyster sauce
  • Soy sauce
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Sugar
  • Corn starch
  • Chili Bean Sauce

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Click on the link below for the instructions.
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Korean Tofu Pancake

Lan is a young Korean lady who is relatively new to our Richmond Cooking Club. She made two Korean dishes in the recent cooking club meeting. She made a Korean Tofu Pancake and a Korean Spicy Pork. It is great to learn from other cultures. We had a marvelous time.

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The Korean Tofu Pancake is a vegetarian dish. It is loaded with oyster mushrooms, chives and green onions.

Ingredients

  • a package of firm tofu, mashed and drain
  • a package of fresh oyster mushroom, cut into small pieces.
  • a bunch of chives, finely chopped
  • half of a sweet red pepper, finely diced
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • flour for coating

Just ignore the carrots as there is a mix up while I photographed the ingredients for the dish.

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Click on the link below for the instructions.

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