The Back Yard Lemon Tree

I love rice bowl dinners. I’m a big believer in the protein and two veg rice bowl for a balanced meal. This braised tofu is as close as I can get to a one pot meal, it has enough vegetables and protein to make a complete and satisfying meal. Best of all it is made with pantry staples.

I make this in deep sided saute pan, so I can pan fry all the tofu pieces in one layer. I use what ever vegetables I have on hand. Fresh shitake mushrooms if I have them or reconstituted dry mushrooms, if I don’t. You can mix and match the vegetables, if I have some sugar snap or snow peas around I’ll use them, if not frozen peas make a perfectly acceptable substitute indeed the peas give this dish a old fashioned homey cosy-ness. This is an old style Cantonese braised tofu, with lots of sauce thickened slightly with corn flour. This is everything I want in a one dish rice bowl, nostalgic, comforting and wholesome.

Home-Style Braised Tofu

Adapted from Woks of Life

• 1 tablespoon cornflour
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 tablespoon oyster or mushroom sauce
• 1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
• 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon dark soy
• 1/2 teaspoon roasted sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons crispy chilli oil (optional)
• 450-500g (1 pound) of medium firm tofu, sliced into 1 cm (1/2 inch) pieces
• 1 1/2 cups of chicken style vegetarian stock
• 2 cloves of garlic minced finely
• 1/4 cup of fresh shitake mushrooms sliced or 3-4 dried mushrooms reconstituted and sliced
• 1 small carrot peeled and sliced thinly on the diagonal
• a handful of snow peas (topped and tailed) or 1/2 cup of frozen peas
• 1 small red capsicum sliced on the diagonal
• 1/2 cup of bamboo shoots (sliced) or 2-3 green onions sliced into 3 cm (inch pieces) optional

1. In a small bowl mix cornflour with 1 tablespoon of water to make a slurry and set aside
2. Mix sauce ingredients together 1 1/2 cups of stock, sugar, oyster sauce, rice wine, light soy, dark soy, sesame oil and chilli oil (if using)
3. Drain tofu cut into 1 cm (1/2 inch) thick slices and pat dry with paper towels. I place the tofu in a single layer on paper towel and lightly press them with another towel paper to remove excess water.
4. Heat a wok or saute pan and add about a tablespoon of oil. Add tofu in one layer. Turn heat to medium and cook tofu until lightly golden (about 1-2 minutes) on both sides .
5. Gently push tofu to one side of the pan. Add another tablespoon of oil to pan then add garlic to pan and saute for a minute or until fragrant.
6. Add carrots, red pepper and mushrooms to pan and gently stir the tofu and vegetables together. Increase heat to high, add stock and seasonings, cover and simmer for about five minutes.
7. Take lid off pan, Turn heat up to high, add snow peas or frozen peas and green onions. Mix through. Bring to simmer then add cornflour slurry a bit at a time until sauce thickens and coats the veggies and tofu nicely.
8. Remove from heat and serve immediately with steamed rice