omnomnom | Spicy Asian greens with tofu

I really need a food icon. Anyway.

I'm Australian, currently living in San Francisco's Mission District, and one of the things that's been driving me crazy since I left home is that I miss the Asian groceries and Asian food I was surrounded by there. Australia's really close to south-east Asia, especially Indonesia, and Indonesian and Malaysian food are as readily available where I come from as Central American food is where I am now.

I've been in SF over a year now, and FINALLY today I made it to a decent Asian grocery (it was a bit of a trek), bought a wok, and a bunch of ingredients. Tonight's dinner was just a quick stir-fry, the sort of thing I used to make when I got home late and didn't want to spend any longer cooking than it took for the rice to be done. This is a "pantry" dish, using things that I'd usually have on hand, apart from a bunch of fresh greens. If you live near a Chinatown or any kind of Asian grocery, you can grab a bunch of greens on the way home and make this very easily from staple ingredients.

This isn't 100% authentic to any particular cuisine; it's kind of white-girl-cooks-Malaysian. Tasty, anyway!

Equipment:

* Wok or large skillet
* Wok-flippy-thing (that's the technical term!) or spatula
* Gas stove (you need a fast, hot stove; electric will probably disappoint)

Ingredients:

* A slosh cooking oil (see notes)
* 4 cloves garlic, moderately finely chopped
* 1 tsp chilli paste, or fresh chilli chopped (see notes)
* 1 bunch Asian greens, chopped (see notes)
* enough tofu (see notes)
* light soy sauce (see notes)

Ingredient notes:

Oil should be a clear, mostly-flavourless oil with a high smoke point. Peanut, canola, grapeseed, etc are all fine. I tend to use something other than peanut, as I have peanut-allergic friends, but peanut is the canonical choice for this cuisine.

I like a kind of chilli paste which is dark red, kind of toasted/cooked(?), and comes in a jar with oil. It's often used as a table condiment in Asian restaurants, and you can get all kinds of variants on it in Asian grocery stores. Many varieties have dried shrimp in them, and this is fine and very tasty, though I go for the shrimp-free kind because I often entertain vegetarians. The ingredients of mine read: "chilli, bean oil, salt, spices". Fresh chilli is an alternative here: use 1-2 small red chillis, finely chopped. Or use fresh crushed chilli from a jar; again, your Asian grocery will help you out here. In Australia, we call this sambal oelek which is the Indonesian term for it, but basically it's just crushed red chillis in a jar.

For greens, go with whatever's fresh and tender. My absolute favourite is kangkung, usually labelled "Water spinach" if they translate it to English. That's a Malaysian/Indonesian ingredient and not so easy to find in the US; it may be seasonal here, I think. Another alternative would be gai lan (chinese broccoli) or choy sum (sorry, Wiki fails me here.) I don't think that bok choy or other "heart" style cabbage-family vegetables work well for this dish -- you want the kind with separate stalks. If you don't have access to an Asian grocery or other source of Asian greens, you could use any sturdy western green in the brassica family, such as broccolini, rapini, or kale. Use your greens the same day you buy them, if you possibly can. Rinse them, shake them dry, and chop into bite-sized 5cm (2") lengths.

For tofu: in the refrigerated section of Asian groceries, there are usually various kinds of fried tofu packed in plastic. Better groceries may also have them loose, sold by weight. One is "tofu puffs" or "sponge tofu" which are deep fried puffs of tofu about 3-5cm (1"-2") across that have a sponge-like texture inside. You can use them whole or cut them in halves or quarters depending on size, and they're great in soups especially. A second kind is a firmer square of fried tofu, with a smoother texture inside, usually about 5cm (2") square and 2cm (just under 1") tall. They come in packets of 4, 6, or 9. Both kinds keep very well in the freezer, and you can just pop out a couple of pieces as needed. For this dish, I'd recommend about 3-4 squares of the non-sponge fried tofu to go with one bunch of greens, sliced in thin 1/2cm (1/4") slices.

Chinese soy sauce comes in two main varieties, light and dark. You want the light kind, which is watery, and is what you usually see on the table in restaurants. I like "Pearl River Bridge" brand, but there are many options available. If you have tamari (Japanese soy sauce) this is not a bad substitute.

Technique:

Heat the oil in the wok.

Add the chilli and garlic and stir-fry vigorously until the garlic starts to soften, but not brown.

Add the tofu and stir-fry another minute or two. You only need to heat it through and get it coated in the oil/garlic/chilli.

Add the greens and a shake of soy sauce and stir-fry until the greens are wilted/cooked. Timing for this will vary depending on the sturdiness of the greens.

Serve over rice.

Total cooking time: 5 minutes, for the actual stir-frying. The prep work can be done while the rice is cooking.

The amount above, I consider to be enough to serve two. Usually I eat half of it on the spot (tonight's was wolfed down in about ten seconds flat, no joke) and take the rest to work for lunch the next day. Asian greens don't reheat brilliantly, but my standards for my work lunches are not high ;) You could also use the amount described to serve 4, if you had another dish like a curry to go with it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Posted by

juliet

This is the sort of thing that I cook a *lot*. Happily London is well-equipped with Asian groceries!

Re greens: the thing I would automatically think of here is pak choi.