Patron Exclusive Recipe #7 (Umami) Tofu Stew with Shrimp and Mixed Veg (虾仁豆腐煲)

Sup guys. Hope you had a great week. So in this recipe, I want to share one of my fav way of eating tofu, that is, stews. This stew uses a simple stock made from shrimp heads, and got extra flavor from napa cabbage and mushrooms... It's great and satisfying.

Right, so now let's get started.

  **Ingredients** (Serves two along with rice and/or another dish, or one person as a healthy dinner)

1,  Tofu, midium firm or firm. 1 piece as shown in the pic, mine is about 450 grams. Cut into 1cm thick and 4~5cm wide squares.

2. Shirmp, whole, about 150g, peel them, save the heads. If using peeled shrimp, then 80g. 

3. Nappa cabbage, 250g. Seperate the thicker stem part and the leaf, as shown in the pic. We'll be putting them in different stages as cooking time is different.

4. Button mushroom, 100g. Sliced.

5. A small bunch of cilantro cut into 2cm sections and a small section of a red chili cut into thin strips for color. 

6. An egg, fried and make egg strips. I forgot to take photo of this one, let's refer to our Singaporean noodle video.

  **Process**  

1. Let's make shrimp stock.

a, If using peeled shrimp, then use whatever stock you have on hand, skip this step and cook with tofu directly.

b. If using straight up water, then add a bit of stock concentrate/chicken bouillon/msg to taste at the end.

First long yau, get the wok/sauce pan/stock pot pipping hot, shut off the heat, add in oil, give it a swirl to get a nice non-stick surface. Heat on low, add in the shrimp head, fry for a minute, add in a splash of cooking wine.

2. Till it starts to smell real nice, add in 4 cups of water and let it simmer for 20 minutes. No need to cover. Skim if see fit.

3. Now let's pan fry some tofu. In your frying wok, long yao again, get it pipping hot, shut off the heat, add in 2 tbsp of oil, give it a swirl to get a nice non-stick surface.

Heat on low, carefully add in the tofu, align them into one layer, don't touch them at first, they're very soft at the beginning. Just tilt your wok during the frying process to fry them evenly.

You can fiddle the tofu with a spatula when the tofu can move and slide around when you swirl the wok. Check the color, flip when you're satisfied with the color. Then do the other side. Fry them till both sides are gold brown. I did a half-assed job here as I was really really hungry, lol. But if you're patient, want it to be be pretty or serving guests, you can slowly fry them till all nice and golden brown. 

4. 20 mins later, scoop out the shrimp head in the stock, add in the tofu that sides are nice and golden brown, let it simmering for 5 minutes.

If you're using stock, then add in the stock and tofu to your cookware at this stage and start simmering.

5. After the tofu's simmered a bit, add the white part of the napa cabbage, simmer for another 5 minutes.

6. After the tofu's been simmered for 10 minutes, now we add in the cabbage leaves, and mushroom, simmer for 3 minutes.

7. Before we add in the final ingredients, let's season. I added in 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp sugar, a sprinkle of msg, and a sprinkle of white pepper powder. If you're not making or using stock, this would be the time to add in stock concentrate/chicken bouillon, so season to taste. For this amount, I'd add in 1 tsp stock concentrate.

After seasoning, we can add in the shrimp and egg strips. Once they're in, give a quick mix, shrimps are done in 30 secs to 1 min depends on the size.

8. Once the shrimps are done, add in the cilantro and chili, heat off, give them a mix, and the stew is done!

9. Put them in a pretty bowl and serve (or serve straight up).

A note on cooking utensil, if you have nice looking pots, you can totally start the stock in the pots, then gradually nuzzle and layer in each ingredients to make it beautiful, like sukiyaki. Our claypot was used otherwise at the time so I had to finish them in the wok then plate them later.

Right, so now we have this quick, easy, and satisfying stew that's rich in umami, yet super light and healthy. Tofu is such a great ingredient (*Rant*: when I see #tofu# on Instagram, I just... really wonder why people like to overthink tofu.) As demonstrated in this dish, tofu is just yet another simple ingredient that has a lot of possibilities.

That's all for this week. Coming up next recipe, it'll be an old-school dim sum that's rarely available at cha lou  now –  "sweet sesame rolls". Stay tuned.