Ever wonder why the neighborhood Thai take out place always give you pad thai as the complimentary item if you exceed a certain ticket amount?  Because pad thai is so easy to make and the cost of the ingredients pretty darn low.  This is what they call it in business schools term, highly leverage items.  Low cost, low work, high flavor, high rewards.  The secret is really in the sauce.  Once you boil a vat of it, place it in jars and it will last forever, or at least till you run out. Everytime you feel like a pad thai, it will take you literally a few minutes to whip out the yummy dish.

Chef’s tip: Make it in small batches – no more than 2 servings at a time. You can sub the shrimp with meat of your choice.

Sauce:
2/3 cup tamarind concentrate
2/3 cup white vinegar
1/3 cup light soy sauce
1/3 cup fish sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup palm sugar
3 Tablespoons garlic powder
1/4 cup Sriracha chili sauce

Noodles:
1 lb dried rice flat noodles, soaked in warm water 30 mins, drained
½ cup canola oil
8 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 ½ cup firm tofu, cut into small ¼ X ½  X 1 inch strips
1 lb medium shrimp, shelled and deveined
12 garlic cloves, peeled and finely minced
6 Tablespoons pickled sweet radish, chopped finely
1 bunch Chinese chives, cut into 2 inch length (substitute with green onions if unavailable)
4 cups fresh bean sprouts
1 cup roasted and unsalted peanuts, finely chopped

2 Lime, cut into wedges, for garnish

Prepare the sauce:
1.     Combine tamarind, vinegar, soy sauce, fish sauce, salt, palm sugar, garlic powder and Sriracha in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat. Bring to a boil and cook until the sauce becomes thick, about 15 minutes. Set aside.
Prep mise-en-place:
2.     Separate all ingredients into 4 batches, including sauce and placed mise-en-place.
Cook noodles in batches:
3.     Heat a wok over high heat until smoking. Add a Tablespoon of oil and swirl to coat the sides. Add the egg and fry for 1 minute, move it to the side.
4.     Next, add the tofu and fry till it is golden.  Move it to the side of the wok.
5.     Next add another Tablespoon of oil, then garlic and shrimp.   When the shrimp is pink, add in the radish.
6.     Next, stir in noodles, followed by the pad thai sauce. Toss back eggs and tofu. Toss to coat noodles.  Let the sauce boil and cook the noodles.  Stir occasionally to prevent sticking, until the sauce is absorbed.  Do not over stir or else the noodles will fall apart.  Check the noodles for doneness. If they are not completely cooked through, add more sauce or water. Immediately remove the wok from the heat.
7.     Stir in half the beansprouts and half the chives. Toss together and transfer noodles to a large serving platter. Scatter peanuts on top.  Place remaining bean sprouts, chives, and lime on the side. Serve immediately.
8.     Repeat for subsequent batches.

Serves 8

Tags: noodles, street fo, Thai.

My neighbor in the house I grew up in Old Town PJ sold “tow foo fah” on a bicycle-powered pushcart.  The dofuhua would be in a big wooden pot, and had a cover wrapped up in muslin cloth.  He would skim the water and bubby top off the dofuhua before layering out thin silky clouds of the dofuhua onto a bowl.  Smooth, creamy, and full of beany flavor.  Whenever it rained, and it rains a lot in Malaysia, he would not be able to sell his tofu for the day and would bring them over to us….sans syrup.  I always wondered why he didn’t check the weather forecast ahead of making the big pot of tofu, esp when he and his wife would hand grind the beans every night.  My family didn’t have much money either, so, instead of spending money on sugar for the syrup, we turned the “dessert” into a savory dish by adding fried shallots oil, dark soy sauce, some light soy and a sprinkle of chopped green onions.

Fast forward 30 years later, I tried making dofuhua, and omg, it is perhaps the most difficult thing I have ever made.  It’s so temperamental.  You’ve gottaa watch the temperature real closely, have a light quick touch and have loads of patience.  The soymilk part is easy, but waiting for the dofuhua to gel or not, is a different story.  And as hard as I try to be consistent, I made half a dozen batches and they all came out differently.  Some are perfect, some became a base for firm tofu.  Whenever it wouldn’t set nicely, I would place the curds into a cheesecloth, like as if I am making ricotta, and had nice sweet pressed tofu for dinner….see picture below.  Drizzle with fried shallots oil, dark soy sauce, some light soy and a sprinkle of chopped green onions.  Deja vu.

So when I ran into Minh of Hodo Soy last week and had a quick chat about making dofuhua and he said it was easy, and how he had taught chefs serving table-side dofuhua  the secret in making the dish, it dawned upon me he is the “dofuhua whisperer”.  Many years ago, when I asked him about his yuba, he went into a long discussion about soy protein brix concentration, and I suspect that might also explain how to achieve perfect dofuhua.  When I crack the code, I will share, but now, here is the recipe that most likely would work.  Good luck!

Chef’s tip: Nigari as the coagulant makes for a sweet tasting tofu.  And don’t move the dofuhua after it has set.  Frankly, I don’t know how my old neighbor is able to peddle all over town with the big vat of dofuhua and yet not make it break.

1  1/4 cups organic soy beans, soaked overnight, drained
5 cups water

1/2 teaspoon nigari
1/4 cup water

3 inches ginger, finely sliced
1 cup sugar
1 cup water

Cheesecloth

Making the fresh soymilk:
1.     Pick over beans for impurities.  Rinse beans several times.  Cover beans with water, leaving at least 2 inches of water above the beans level.  Soak beans at least 8 hours or overnight in the refrigerator.  Remove skins off beans.  Drain.
2.     Place soybeans in a food processor.  Add 1 cup water.  Pulse till it becomes smoothie-like.
3.     Transfer puree into a big pot.  Rinse food processor with 3 cups water and add to  pot.  Bring to boil, stirring constantly.  When the foam begins to rise, remove from heat.   Transfer content into a conical sieve placed over a heat proof bowl.  Let the milk drain through the sieve.
4.     Transfer solids into a cheesecloth.  Add remaining 1 cups of water and gently knead into the soybean solids (okara).  Then squeeze as much milk and add to the earlier milk.
5.     Pass milk through a clean cheesecloth placed over a sieve.  Measure out the milk – you should have at least 4 cups of soymilk.  Otherwise, add a little more water to the okara and squeeze as much as you can to make up  the 4 cups.
6.     Bring milk to a boil and then gently simmer 10 minutes, stirring constantly so that milk does not burn.  At this point, the soymilk is ready as a beverage, or continue further to make dofu hua.

Making the Do Fu Hua:
7.     In a small bowl, mix nigari with water.
8.     Warm a deep bowl by swirling it with hot water.  Drain.  Wrap bowl bottom with some towels to keep warm.  Transfer the nigari mixture into the warm bowl.  Place bowl in a place where you don’t move it for the next 20 minutes.
9.     Cool the boiled soymilk slightly, about 5 minutes.  Remove any milk in excess of 4 cups. Check that the soymilk temperature is 185F, warm or cool further if needed.   Pour the 4-cups of milk in one big swish into the bowl containing the nigari, creating enough turbulence so that the nigari is thoroughly mixed with the soymilk.  Do not stir.  Lance off any bubbles on top with a toothpick.  Cover with a tea-towel wrapped lid. And do not move the bowl for 20 minutes.
10.  After 20 minutes, ladle off the whey and any parts that looked bubbly.  Ladle thin layers of dofu hua with a big flat spoon and transfer to individual serving bowl.  Ladle in two tablespoons of syrup or more, and serve hot.

Making the ginger syrup:

11.  Bring ginger, sugar and water to boil.  Simmer for 10 minutes, until thick.  Pass through a sieve to remove ginger bits.

Serves: 6

Tags: Chinese, dim sum.

Ah Ma, my father’s mother, made the most delicious acar.  She learned from her nyonya mother-in-law, Ah Chor, the lady we thought looked like the little old lady in the 1960′s sitcom, Beverly Hillbillies, in a kebaya!  Ah Ma’s acar is so well pickled, it could have lasted for months if we didn’t devour it all in a week!  Her trick was to wring the blanched vegetables real dry.  I never really appreciated the nyonya heritage in my dad’s family until much later when I got interested in cooking and realized that my grandmother was probably one of the best nyonya cooks around.  Since then, it’s been an endless effort to recreate many of her recipes from the memory of taste.  This is one of them.

Chef’s tip: Use a salad spinner to remove as much water as possible from the blanched vegetables.  Pack acar tightly in a glass jar and keep refrigerated.  Like kimchi, it will keep for several weeks.

Spice Paste:
10 dried long Asian chilies, rehydrated in water or fresh Fresno chilies, seeded
2 stalks lemongrass, sliced thinly
2 slices galangal
1 piece fresh turmeric, about 1 Tablespoon, sliced
8 shallots
3 cloves garlic
1 Tablespoon roasted belachan
4 candlenuts

Vegetables:
2 carrots peeled
¼ head cauliflower
1 Japanese Eggplant
½ small savoy cabbage
12 Chinese long yard beans
1 English Cucumber, seeded

½ cup canola oil
1 cup white vinegar
½ cup of sugar
1 Tablespoon kosher salt

1 cup roasted peanuts, crushed
1/4 cup sesame seeds, toasted

1. In a food processor or blender, grind chilies, lemongrass and galangal till fine. Add remaining spice paste ingredients and process till smooth. Add a little water if needed. Set aside.
2. Cut all vegetables into 1 inch juliennes. Cut cauliflower into small florets.
3. Blanch vegetables. Blanched carrots, cauliflower and eggplant till tender, about 3 minutes, and cabbage and long beans two minutes. Spin and squeeze vegetables very dry. Add in cucumber.
4. Heat oil on medium high. Fry spice paste till fragrant, red and oil has separated, about 7-10 minutes. Add vinegar, sugar and salt. Fry till fragrant about 10 minutes. Taste for seasoning. Remove from heat.
5. Mix in vegetables and toss to mix. Add peanuts and sesame seeds and mix to combine.  Let it sit for at last 30 mins for flavors to come together.  Can be prepared in advance.  Serve room temperature or chilled.

Serves: 6

Tags: Malaysian, Nyonya.