Tofu stir-fried with lemon grass and chili paste

My co-author's husband from amthucchay.blogspot.com made this dish.  It is similar to a dish from a restaurant in South Philly.  It was very quick and easy to make but it turned out to be delicious.

Ingredients:

• 5 pieces of fried tofu, cut in half in triangle shape
• 1 red bell pepper, slice in any way you want
• 1 table spoon minced lemon grass
• 1/2 cup vegetable broth (or water)
• Canola oil

Spices: salt, soysauce, vegetarian oyster sauce, sugar, chili paste (available in Asian Market as in the picture below):

Methods:

1. The trick for this dish is the cooking heat has to be very high.
2. Add cooking oil, when the oil is hot, add lemon grass.  Stir fry until lemon grass turns golden brown and release fragrance
3. Add bell pepper, stir fry 1 minute.
4. Add tofu, mix well.
5. Add spices to taste, mix well.
6. Pour in broth, stir fry in high heat for a few minutes.
7. If you want your bell pepper cooked well then let it cooked until soft, I prefer it to be crunchy.

Happy cooking and eating:)
Phongloc (Translated by Mai)

Baked tofu corn cake

Ingredients:
8 shittake mushrooms (soaked to soften if dried)
4 handful dried woodear mushrooms, soaked to soften, ground
1 bunch bean thread, soaked, cut 2 inch short
2 ears of corn, sliced kernels off the cob (or 10 oz frozen corn)
1 packet Nasoya firm tofu, boiled 5 minutes, crushed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teasspoon ginger, crushed
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons maple syrup (or sugar or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika

Methods:
1. Preheat oven to 375 F
2. In a wok/pan, add oil, stir fry ginger until golden brown, add mushrooms, stir fry add sugar, salt. Turn off heat.
3. In a large bowl, mix in tofu, corn, bean thread, pepper, paprika, and stir fried mushrooms.
4. Oil baking pan, add in above mixture.
5. Bake 45 minutes.
6. Served with broken rice,  brown rice, French bread....
7. Enjoy!

Stuffed bean curd roll

1 pound frozen bean curd skin
1 packet extra firm tofu, boiled, pressed to extract excess water, then mashed, I use the potato ricer to mash the tofu
1 cup shredded shiitake mushrooms
1 cup shredded black ear fungus
1 ½ tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon pepper corns or ground pepper
1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger
2 tablespoons canola oil

1. Take 1 layer of bean curd skin, rinse and cut into 8 slices to wrap.
2. Wash the rest of bean curd skin, put it in a colander, sprinkle 1 table spoon of salt, mix well, squeeze the bean curd to get rid of excess water, cut into small pieces.
3. Heat up a pan, add oil, wait for the oil to get hot, add ginger, sauté until brown. Add shiitake mushrooms, stir fry until golden brown. Add fungus stir fry until dry. Add sugar, ½ table spoon of salt. Transfer to a large bowl.
4. Mix in bean curd, tofu, sesame oil, soy sauce. Divide into 8 portions.
5. Use plastic wrap to wrap each portion tightly into a roll, about 1 inch round, 8 inch long. Put in the refrigerator for more than 1 hour.

6. Unwrap each roll, wrap it again with bean curd skin.

7. Wrap each roll with banana leaves (since aluminum foil can release bad chemical when cooking, I now use banana leaves instead), steam for 30 minutes.

8. Unwrap the banana leaves. Can be served steamed just like that or deep fried.

Baked tofu balls with seaweed

Makes about 40-50 balls

Ingredients:

* 2 packets Nasoya extra firm tofu
* 1 cup Vital wheat gluten
* 2 toasted seaweed sheets, crushed
* 2 teaspoons sea salt
* 2 tablespoons maple syrup or equivalent sweetener
* 1 teaspoon five-spice powder
* 1 teaspoon low-sodium soy sauce
* 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
* 1 tablespoon oil

Sauce for baking:

* 1/2 teaspoon paprika
* 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
* 1/2 tablespoon molasses
* 1 tablespoon oil

Steps:

1. Cut each block of tofu into 8 pieces. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes. Drain and press dry, mash.
2. In a bowl, mix everything together, except for the sauce to bake.
3. Roll the mixture into little balls, each the size of half a ping-pong ball, for example.
4. Steam for 20 minutes.
5. Let the tofu balls cool completely.
6. Combine the ingredients to make the sauce.
7. Coat the balls with sauce, bake at 350 degrees F for about 10 minutes.
8. Turn the balls over, bake for about 10 more minutes or until brown.

Making tofu with soybeans, lime juice and water

Makes about 1 pound and 12 ounces of tofu. It is delicious when still warm with just salt and black pepper.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups soybeans
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
1 gallon water

Steps:

1. Soak soybeans overnight and drain. Add fresh water and grind in a soybean grinder or blender.
2. Strain soybean pulp through a cheese cloth to make soymilk
3. Boil soymilk for about 45 minutes, stirring frequently. Reduce the heat and add lime juice.
Bring soymilk to boil again, tofu should start to form. The water should be clear with a yellow color, if not, add more lime juice, turn off the heat and cover the pot with a lid.
6. Allow to set for 1/2 hour.
7. Line a colander again with cheese cloth. Place the colander over a pot.
8. Transfer tofu to the strainer and fold the cloth over it. Place a plate on top, then place a gallon bottle of water for weight. (Make sure that the drained water in the pot does not touch the colander. If necessary, pour out the water from time to time.

10. Tofu is ready in about 2 hours.