#我来唠家常#
▲ Mapo tofu. Photography / sasazawa, picture / picture insect creative
-The Legend of the Gentleman of Things-
Everyone's hometown
There is a dish of tofu
Tofu is perhaps the most varied, widely distributed and most diverse food in Chinese cuisine.
There is no doubt that the tofu that has swept the world was invented by the Chinese. But who invented it? What time? Where was it invented? There are many theories. Legend has it that Liu An, the king of Huainan in the Western Han Dynasty, invented tofu in the process of alchemy. Although this statement has been questioned by many scholars, it has also become a generally accepted statement.
▲ A map of some tofu delicacies in China. Cartography / Wu Pan
Rather than exploring the origin of tofu, people are more concerned with how to eat this delicacy. For more than 2,000 years, the process of eating tofu has been transformed from soybeans on the one hand, and eighteen kinds of "martial arts" such as frying, cooking, frying, stewing, boiling, and roasting on the other hand.
The tofu family is bigger than you can imagine
Is there such an amazing species as soybeans?
▲ The transformation of soybeans in the tofu workshop. Photo/Nguyen Wei Minh
They go through the processes of soaking, grinding, filtering, boiling, dotting and pressing from an oval bean, and not only the final product, tofu itself, is a delicacy, but also the "by-product" of the entire production process has been made into various foods by the Chinese. There is also a certain percentage of tofu, which is made with mung beans, black beans, etc., and the production process is similar.
Tofu brain & bean curd丨More than sweet and salty
Once upon a time, the salty and sweet problem of tofu brain became the focus of the Internet for a while, but have you ever thought about the difference between tofu brain and bean curd?
They are roughly distinguished by their hardness and softness. Tofu brain is more tender and should be eaten with a spoon, while bean curd is relatively hard and can be pinched with chopsticks. Roughly understood, it is a process of soy milk-tofu brain-bean curd-tofu. And this difference in softness and hardness also determines the different ways of eating for the two of them.
▲ Above: Tofu brain made by spring water, picture/picture worm creativity; Below: Marinated tofu brain + sweet and crispy sugar oil cake, picture / Wang Xiaolazy
Tofu brain, whether sweet or salty, is basically eaten as a liquid food. If you like to eat sweet, you can usually add honey, white sugar or brown sugar to it, you can eat hot to warm up your body in winter, and you can eat ice to relieve the heat in summer; I like to eat salty, there are those in the southwest region with soy sauce, chili, oil, salt and vinegar to taste, and the one in Beijing and Tianjin with marinade.
This marinade is quite exquisite, with starch paste as the base, containing meat foam, crushed peanuts, shredded fungus, daylily, etc., sprinkled with shallots and chopped coriander before serving, with a fried dough sticks just out of the pot, the energy of the workers can be full.
▲Leshan tofu brain. Photo/Wang Xiaolazy
Douhua is not a liquid food, it is a bowl of vegetables in the southwest. Use chopsticks to pick up a piece of bean curd that is still soaked in water, dip it in the soul dipping sauce, and eat it with rice. A bowl of white rice, a bowl of bean curd, and a plate of chili dips, Sichuan's bean curd rice can be a full meal. Not only can the bean curd be paired with rice, but it can also be paired with noodles and noodles, and the particular boss will ask you: "Is the bean curd put on its own, or with the noodles?" "Say, what is this bowl of bean curd that is not a dish?
Oil bean skin & yuba丨Champion of body fat rate
In the process of changing from soy milk to tofu, the soybean oil will form a thin film on the surface of the soybean milk, which is the oil soybean skin. Oil bean skin is a product of the combination of soy protein and fat, and it is also the highest fat content in tofu series products. There are 400 calories per 100g of oily bean skin, which can only be consumed by jogging for 1 hour.
Of course, because of this plump fat, the oily bean skin has a taste that other soy products do not have, and it is crispy and crispy when fried, and tough Q bomb when eaten in hot pot.
▲ Above: The craftsman is drying the oil bean skin, photo/Ruan Weiming; Below: Detail of bean skin, photography/fkruger, picture/picture worm creative
Yuba is essentially the same thing as oil bean skin, but the shape is different. The oil bean skin is picked up from the surface of the soybean milk and rubbed together, and after drying, it resembles a bamboo branch, which is the bean curd. Deep-fried yuba is the soul ingredient of snail noodles, and the yuba that absorbs the soup is elastic and crispy when bitten, and the soup dilutes the oiliness of the yuba, and the yuba adds layers to the taste of the snail noodles. Whether it's fried or blistered yuba, they're the star items in the hot pot game.
Louver & vegetarian chicken丨The north and the south are very different
The boiled soybean milk is poured on the cloth, a layer of bean juice and a layer of cloth, and then pressed with a heavy object to remove part of the water, and the finished product looks like thousands of sheets stacked together, so it is called a thousand sheets or a hundred leaves, and it is also called tofu skin in the north.
Northeast people like to eat this kind of tofu skin with its original taste. Tofu skin is generally put in a basin with pickles, take a piece of skin in your hand, first coat a layer of soul soybean egg sauce, put a green leaf lettuce, and then stack a few melon strips, put a green onion, this roll is the eternal spring on the Northeast table.
▲ Above: Rolls of tofu skin. Photography / Valley of the Wind, Picture / Picture Worm Creativity; Below: Shanghai braised vegetarian chicken. Photography / Yang Bainian, Picture / Picture Insect Creativity
In Yangzhou, the shutters are shredded and boiled with broth into large boiled dried shreds; In Shanghai, the shutters are cut into strips and then tied into Chinese knots, which are stewed with pork belly to form the shutter knot. Rolled into a round stick-shaped shutter, bundled tightly and cooked, sliced and oiled, it becomes a vegetarian chicken, which is the soul mate of a bowl of Su noodles.
The art of fermentation with tempeh & fermented bean curd
Tempeh is definitely an old qualification in the tofu family, and the earliest record is found in Liu Xi's "Interpretation of Names and Diets" in the Han Dynasty, which is much earlier than the clear record of tofu. Tempeh is rarely eaten as a stand-alone dish, but it is the core condiment of many famous dishes. Mapo tofu and back-pot meat are based on tempeh, and Sichuan people often have tempeh when they cook vegetables such as eggplant, potatoes, radish, and taro; The morning tea of Cantonese people is also inseparable from tempeh, such as dace with tempeh, pork ribs with soy sauce, and fried snails are also seasoned with tempeh.
▲ Sufu bean curd. Photography / Dapeng DP, Picture / Picture Worm Creative
Ferment the tofu to create fermented bean curd. Like tempeh, fermented bean curd is a frequently used ingredient. When Beijingers eat shabu-shabu, the dipping sauce is inseparable from the seasoning of fermented bean curd. For Tianjin people, pancakes, fruits, and pot dishes are inseparable from fermented bean curd.
South Tofu & North Tofu丨More than North and South
It seems that in China, many cuisines have a rough distinction between north and south, and tofu is no exception. South tofu, also known as tender tofu, is made of gypsum as a coagulant, and the tofu is white and tender, suitable for making tofu soup or shallots mixed with tofu, and is not very suitable for complex cooking and stir-frying; North tofu, also known as old tofu, is made of salt brine as a coagulant, the tofu that comes out is not as white as the south tofu, and the taste is much older, which can be made into frozen tofu, stewed tofu, fried tofu balls, etc.
Tofu is divided into north and south, but the way to eat it is not as simple as a dichotomy! How do different regions of the country eat tofu?
▲ Plain is true! Diagram / Diagram Worm Creative
After eating all the tofu, I also traveled all over China
Mapo tofu is probably the most famous tofu dish in the world, not only is it very popular in China, but foreigners almost also know tofu as a Chinese delicacy from this dish. But that's not the only way to make delicious tofu in China?
▲ Mapo tofu rice bowl. Photography/K, Picture/Picture Worm Creativity
Frozen tofu丨Northeast stewed top student
Northeast people eat tofu as a tongue twister, don't believe you read "stewed frozen tofu" again. The outdoor low temperature makes the water in the tofu freeze, and the swelling volume squeezes the protein tissue of the tofu, making the tofu taste more resilient and creating many pores. When simmering frozen tofu, these pores fully absorb the soup of the stew, like a sponge. This seemingly bland and mysterious frozen tofu is often the most popular member of this pot of stew.
▲ Above: Frozen tofu. Photography / Blue Sun TNT, Picture / Picture Worm Creative; The picture below is cod stewed with tofu, picture/huitu.com
Stinky tofu丨Changsha snack top
There are quite a lot of smelly and fragrant foods, but the smell of many foods is "fake" smell, and stinky tofu is really smelly, especially the original that has not been fried, and some people even suspect that it is brewed and fermented with what? The brine ingredients of Changsha stinky tofu are generally boiled with tempeh, soda ash, shiitake mushrooms, winter bamboo shoots, etc., and the pursuit is how to smell just right.
After the stinky tofu is rolled in the oil pan, part of the smell gives way to part of the fragrance, the appearance is charred black, and the inside is white and tender. Changsha people will poke a hole in the middle of the fried stinky tofu and pour the secret soup into it, which increases the deliciousness of the stinky tofu. The outside will be sprinkled with some minced mustard, chili pepper and coriander, and the whole stinky tofu will be eaten in one bite, which is fresh and spicy.
▲ Smelling and eating. Photo/Visual China
Edamame tofu丨It's delicious when it grows hair
"Huizhou edamame tofu, don't spit out even if you slap it", Anhui people describe the deliciousness of edamame tofu. Edamame tofu is also called moldy tofu, the cut tofu pieces are placed on bamboo strips, and after 3-5 days of emulsification at 15 °C-25 °C, the surface grows uniform and fine fluff, and ordinary tofu becomes edamame tofu. Deep-fried is the most common way to eat, with a crispy and golden surface and a juicy inside, and served with minced bamboo shoots, minced garlic, chili sauce and a dipping sauce for stir-fried meat foam.
▲ Edamame tofu. Above/Documentary "A Bite of China", below/Picture Worm Creative
Wensi Tofu丨Huaiyang cuisine
This is a very famous Huaiyang dish with knife work, according to legend, it was created by a monk named Wen Si during the Qianlong period, and it is also called "assorted tofu soup" in the "Diao Ding Ji". Tofu has a light taste, and in order to make it flavorful enough, it has become the choice of Yangzhou people to cut it into thin strips.
Boil the mushrooms, bamboo shoots, ham, and chicken breast cut into hair-sized pieces with chicken broth, and then boil the tofu shreds with the chicken broth. With its soft and mellow taste and the fine shredded tofu that melts in your mouth, there are so many delicious ingredients to complete this tofu soup that the word "assortment" is appropriate.
▲ Wensi tofu as thin as a hair. Diagram / Diagram Worm Creative
Grilled tofu丨Shiping is the best?
Some people say that the tofu in Shiping is the most delicious, and the secret lies in the well water (commonly known as "sour water") in Shiping. Walking on Shiping Street, the most common stall is the tofu stall, some sell raw tofu blanks, square, round, long and flat; There are more small shops selling roasted tofu, "Eighteen Monsters in Yunnan, Shiping Tofu is roasted and sold".
Several people sat around the tofu stall, each person with a dipping saucer, and the boss skillfully played with the tofu in front of the diners, watching the delicious food in front of him expand and expand, and the heat bounced. Experienced bosses dispense tofu just out of the fire as needed and count it with corn kernels. The tofu stall is open from morning to night, and diners change stubbles to enjoy the delicious taste of roasted tofu, while the small tofu stall has also become a social place for the neighborhood.
▲ Roast tofu stall in Shiping Old Street. Photo/Nguyen Wei Minh
Guiyang tofu balls丨There are also folded ear roots!
In the reprocessing and eating method of tofu, Guiyang's tofu balls can definitely be ranked No. 1. Put Sichuan pepper powder, five-spice powder, garlic paste, minced green onion, etc. into a pot containing tofu, knead the tofu into a puree by hand, mix it well with the condiment, and then knead it into balls and put it in the oil pan to fry.
The taste of each dumpling depends on the exclusive secret ingredients and mastery of the heat of the oil pot. Eat the balls on their own while they are hot, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, or they can also be eaten with the store's secret dipping sauce. Guiyang people are very fond of using folded ear root to prepare dipping sauce, and some can even stuff tofu balls with folded ear root.
▲ Guiyang people's daily snacks. Photography / Immortal Board Board, Picture / Picture Worm Creativity
Stuffed tofu丨The nostalgia of the Hakka people
Cantonese people are fond of stuffed vegetables, and there are all kinds of stuffed peppers, stuffed bitter gourd, stuffed eggplant, and Hakka stuffed tofu in the vegetable market. Legend has it that the Hakka people fled from the north and wanted to eat dumplings but couldn't find flour, so they used tofu as the skin and meat as the filling, which made this stuffed tofu dish.
Tofu should be salted and marinated old tofu, and the meat filling should be half fat and half lean pork, and a hole should be made in the middle of the tofu to stuff the meat filling. Fry the tofu in hot oil until golden brown and crispy, then put it in a casserole and simmer to taste. This piece of stuffed tofu is put into the mouth, the meat is vegetarian, tender and elastic, and the taste and texture are all multi-level satisfaction.
▲ Stuffed tofu completely satisfies the needs of wanting to eat meat and tofu. Diagram / Diagram Worm Creative
It's called tofu, but it's not tofu
Nowadays, there are many special members of the tofu family, which are very popular with young men and women in the city, and although they are not tofu in the traditional sense, they have expanded the "tofu" family and become an indispensable element in spicy hotpot, spicy fragrant pot, steamed vegetables and hot pot.
To say that fish tofu is a must-order item for spicy hot pot and hot pot, does anyone object? This new food made of fish puree and soy protein isolate is just right for a new food with a square shape.
▲ Barbecue fish tofu. Photography / Changsha Photography Little Old Man, Picture / Picture Worm Creativity
Also slightly related to traditional tofu is Senye Tofu. Its main ingredient is soy protein isolate, plus other food additives, which makes the taste more elastic. On a cold winter day, a hot and spicy dry pot thousand pages of tofu with two bowls of rice is not too much!
Japanese tofu, almond tofu and konjac tofu have little to do with traditional tofu in terms of raw materials, but because of their shape, they have also earned the reputation of tofu. Japanese tofu is more like egg custard, the main ingredients are egg white and egg yolk, and teriyaki is the main way to eat; Almond tofu is a Jiangsu dessert, the main raw material is sweet almonds, which are sweet to eat in summer; The main ingredient of konjac tofu is konjac, which is very low in calories and can replace the staple food in cold skin and cold noodles and become a diet meal.
▲ Braised Japanese tofu. Photography / Xu Xigao, Picture / Picture Worm Creativity
Tofu is divided into north and south and not only north and south, and their position in Chinese cuisine is irreplaceable. The eight major cuisines all have dishes with tofu as the protagonist, and what we Chinese miss more may be the plate of "home-style tofu" that belongs to our hometown.