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Steamed Tofu with Shrimp

With the Stay-at-Home orders and closing of our favorite restaurants due to the COVID-19 virus pandemic, I’m finding ways to feed my Mom and myself at home while minimizing my trips to food markets. Searching for foods that will keep while avoiding processed foods as much as I can for health reasons, I’ve been trying recipes that will let me do so.

I’ve found that frozen shrimp keep well and can be thawed reasonably quickly. One of the few processed foods I always keep in my refrigerator are a few boxes of Japanese tofu since they have a shelf life of several monthS, yet appear to be free of offending processed food additives.

Combining parts of recipes I found on the Internet, I made a version of one of the dishes at our favorite local Cantonese restaurant, Asian Taste that they offer on their Authentic Chinese Menu called “Steam Stuff Shrimp & Tofu”.

I started from a recipe for Chinese Steamed Tofu with Shrimp and Scallops. Rather than topping the tofu slices with a shrimp and scallop, though, I wanted a layer of shrimp paste between the tofu and shrimp. So I took a recipe for Shrimp Mousse I used to make Shrimp Toast Appetizers. (Since Mom is on a low-salt diet, I omitted the salt from the original recipe. The shrimp mousse was flavorful enough.)

The sauce and alternative final preparation was somewhat like the scallion, ginger, soy sauce one used for classic Cantonese Steamed Fish.

Here’s the combined recipe.

INGREDIENTS

1 12oz package of tofu – soft or firm, to your preference

1 shoot of scallion green, julienned into 24 1½” lengths for final garnishing

½ teaspoon sesame oil for marinating the whole shrimp

Steamed white rice to serve with the dish

Shrimp Mousse

8 oz shelled and deveined shrimp, 41/50 size. Reserve 8-12 whole shrimp for topping.

½ teaspoon salt, optional

½ teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon sesame oil

3 dashes ground white pepper

Sauce

2 tablespoons finely sliced ginger

2 teaspoons sesame oil

2 tablespoons soy sauce

¼ teaspoon sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

Marinate the reserved whole shrimp in ½ teaspoon sesame oil. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to 4 hours.

Prepare the Shrimp Mousse: Rinse the shrimp with cold running water; drain and pat dry with paper towels. Put the unreserved shrimp and all the other Shrimp Mousse ingredients in a food processor with chopping blade. Blend well until the shrimp becomes sticky like a mousse. Remove from the food processor and set aside.

Prepare the steamer: Add 1 to 2″ water to a large pan or wok with lid. Use either a rack that will elevate the dish above the water or a bamboo steamer that just fits on the edge of the pan or in the wok.

Open the tofu box and drain the small amount of water. Cut the block of tofu into 8 to 12 equal sized blocks, roughly 1½” x 1½” x ½”. Arrange on a heatproof plate that will fit in your steamer.

Top each tofu block with a layer of shrimp mousse, followed by a marinated whole shrimp, then an “x” from 2 julienned scallion pieces.

Heat the steamer water to boiling and place the plate on the rack or bamboo steamer and cover. Steam on medium-high heat for 6 minutes or until the shrimp turns pink. Turn off heat.

Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. In a small pot, heat the sesame oil and ginger for about 1 minute, gently cooking the ginger, though not frying it. Stir in the soy sauce and sugar. Turn off heat.

Remove the tofu plate from the steamer. Remove the water that has accumulated on the plate, leaving a few tablespoons to mix with the sauce, reducing its saltiness. Spoon the sauce over the tofu & shrimp blocks and serve immediately with steamed white rice.

ALTERNATIVE FINAL PREPARATION: Though this will add more last-minute preparation steps, to preserve a fresher appearance, reserve the julienned scallion and uncooked sauce ingredients until the end. Heat ¼ cup of vegetable oil in a small pot until it smokes. Dissolve the sugar in the soy sauce. Sprinkle the sweetened soy sauce over the steamed tofu and shrimp blocks. Top each with ginger and scallion threads. Carefully drizzle the hot oil over the tofu blocks to sizzle the ginger and scallion threads. Sprinkle with sesame oil and serve immediately.

Auspicious Chinese New Year Dishes

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My Mom and I had the good fortune of being invited to a lavish Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner at the home of our friends, James & Elizabeth Wong, who had rushed back from a stay in Hong Kong to prepare and host the dinner for a small group of family and friends.

As dictated by Chinese tradition and superstition, there are a host of dishes to be served and eaten during the Chinese New Year season – starting on Chinese New Year Eve and continuing through the 15th day after New Year’s Day with the celebration of the Lantern Festival. These dishes are thought to bring good luck during the year, based on their names or appearance. There are many lists and examples presented on the Internet.

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The dishes James & Elizabeth provided showed their particular thought and care, not only for the symbolism of the names and ingredients of the dishes, but also for their appearance and actual taste.They were so special that we asked James if he would provide detailed descriptions to accompany the photos we took of the dishes. Together, they document a 5 1/2 hour dinner that offers to bring extraordinary auspiciousness to all the participants.

Couplets hanging about the fireplace wishing out the old year

Our happy group of James & Elizabeth’s family and friends

Our first wine: NV Bollinger Champagne Special Cuvée Brut as an aperitif, which we enjoyed while James was cooking.

🐖紅燒乳豬 • Roasted Suckling Pig with Pomelo and Hoisin Sauce

🐖紅燒乳豬 • Roasted Suckling Pig

The culinary history of a roasted pig in China goes back more than 1,400 years. From the Southern and Northern Periods 南北朝, records showed 22 different recipes to roast a pig. In central and southern China, it is customary that a roasted pig is presented to the ancestors on Ching Ming Festival 清明節 (Tomb Sweeping Day). The tradition of consuming a roasted pig during a large family gathering extended beyond the Tomb Sweeping Day and the pig is nowadays featured wherever there is a major celebration or a feast, particularly in Cantonese communities.

This 1995 vintage Piper-Heidsieck Champagne, while aged, still drank beautifully and went nicely with the lusciousness of the Roasted Suckling Pig.

🥬發財好市 • Braised Dried Oysters (蠔豉) with Black Moss Seaweed (髮菜), Lettuce (生菜) and Dried Chinese Shiitake Mushrooms

🥬發財好市 • Braised Dried Oysters (蠔豉) with Black Moss Seaweed (髮菜), Lettuce (生菜) and Dried Chinese Shiitake Mushrooms

This is a traditional New Year dish in Cantonese speaking communities. It is invariably featured in New Year meals at home and in restaurants. Most of the ingredients rhyme with phrases of good fortune in the Cantonese dialect. The homonyms are 發財~髮菜 (make a fortune)；好市~蠔豉 (good business)；生財~生菜 (grow a fortune)

🐟漁人得利 • Steamed Fish Filet with Sliced Pork Tongue

From the idiom 年年有餘 (surplus every year), fish (魚) has become an essential food ingredient around the New Year because 魚 and 餘 are homonyms. (Usually the fish is not eaten but carried over to the new year to symbolize surplus. We had leftover fish!) Tongue (脷) is another popular food ingredient in New Year meals because 脷 and 利, meaning profit or benefit, are also homonyms. This homonym pair works only in Cantonese because in Mandarin, tongue is written as 舌 and pronounced differently. Note that tongue is usually mixed in and cooked with the oyster dish described above (發財好市，生財大利 lettuce and large tongue).

I picked the name 漁人得利 for this dish because it contains homonyms for both surplus (漁=魚 and 餘) and profit (利 and 脷). The phrase came from the second part of the idiom 鷸蚌相爭、漁人得利, which literally means “when the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman nets the benefits (both the clam and the snipe)”. The story – when two sides quarrel, it is always the third party who benefits – on which this idiom is based (https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/鷸蚌相爭，漁人得利) dates back to the Warring States period of ancient Chinese history. I created this dish a few years ago not just because it features two popular New Year food ingredients (fish and tongue) but to remind myself to be in harmony with others (和氣), living up to the New Year idiom 和氣生財 (peace brings money).

🐟漁人得利 • Steamed Fish Filet with Sliced Pork Tongue and 🥬發財好市 • Braised Dried Oysters (蠔豉) with Black Moss Seaweed (髮菜), Lettuce (生菜) and Dried Chinese Shiitake Mushrooms

A wonderful 2007 Jacques Bavard Bourgogne-Aligoté Puligny-Montrachet to accompany the Braised Dried Oysters and Steamed Fish Filet

🐓薑蓉鹽焗雞 • Chicken Baked in Salt, served with Minced Ginger Sauce

🐓薑蓉鹽焗雞 • Chicken Baked in Salt, served with Minced Ginger Sauce

Chicken is not an everyday dish in southern China and is reserved for special occasion meals. Chicken baked in salt is a famous 東江 and 客家 Hakka dish originated more than 300 years ago from the salt fields of Guangdong Province, it is nowadays seldom prepared at home and not often found on restaurants menus (unless preordered a day in advance).

清炒蘆筍 • Sautéed Asparagus

Just using up surplus asparagus from an upcoming dish. Read on for hidden meaning!

🥕🥒葡汁焗六蔬 • Baked Six Vegetables in a Mild Portuguese Curry Sauce(西蘭花、台山菜花、紅蘿蔔、夏南瓜、蘑菇、洋蔥)

This dish usually features 4 vegetables. However, four 四 rhymes with 死, which means death, and thus not a good omen for the New Year. Therefore 2 vegetables were added to make the number 6 六 which rhymes with 祿 (福祿壽), meaning blessings, happiness and prosperity.

🥩燒烤肋眼牛扒 • Broiled Ribeye Cap Steak, served with Tricolor Sweet Peppers

🥩燒烤肋眼牛扒 • Broiled Ribeye Cap Steak, served with Tricolor Sweet Peppers

Beef is not a traditional Chinese New Year dinner dish. But we were celebrating New Year in New York ….

2012 Cantine San Marzano Collezione Cinquanta Salento IGT

1996 Château Gruaud Larose

Two nice reds to accompany the delicious steak and vegetables.

🏎一路順暢 • Grilled Asparagus with Chinese Sausage

The name of the dish literally means “one smooth journey”. The word play here is that 路順 (smooth road) and 蘆筍 (asparagus) are homonyms, as well as 暢 (unobstructed) and 腸 (sausage). The ingredients were plated in straight lines in foil trays to emphasize smoothness.

臘味拼盤 • Steamed Assorted Air-dried Meats (pork and duck) and Sausages (liver)

臘味飯 • Rice Cooked with Steamed Assorted Air-dried Meats

Steaming rice with the Assorted Air-dried Meats gives the rice a delicious flavor and aroma from the meats.

🥥椰汁年糕 • Coconut Flavored Glutinous New Year Cake

“Chinese New Year cakes can be eaten year round, but traditionally, they’re served around Chinese New Year to celebrate the holiday. In Mandarin it’s called 年糕 (Niángāo) and the literal transition of that is Year Cake. Because the second word 糕 also sounds like the word “higher” in Chinese, it was thought to be a lucky food as eating cake would help you achieve a higher status or prosperity.” (From Angel Wong’s Kitchen http://www.angelwongskitchen.com)