This beautiful tofu soup is a great comforting pick-me-up and, although we make it with ingredients often found in a Chinese shop you can also substitute in things found in your local supermarket.

Even as a child I loved Asian flavours, especially Chinese ones. When, as a teenager, I first started cooking many of the ingredients I needed to make the dishes I love weren’t available in supermarkets or the local shop. Thus I set out to discover everything I could about our closest tiny Chinese shop- which was quite an adventure because no labels were written in English! At the time I was also struggling with my dietary issues and delighted in finding things like seaweed crisps and konjac noodles (noodles made from a vegetable grown in south east Asia). Suddenly there were so many snack foods that I could safely cart around- a big problem as anyone on a low carb diet knows!

And then I met my wife, who is half-Chinese Malay, and was introduced to many more authentic flavours… and correct cooking methods… because my previous attempts to follow badly-translated Chinese instructions on the back of packets weren’t always wonderful. We’ll just say that my parents started refusing to try my experiments and leave it at that.

This soup uses some of my favourite things from our local Chinese shop and it’s a fab way of using up vegetables that need eating! Although from the picture below it seems as if there are many ingredients please be assured that it’s a very easy recipe. Check the notes section at the bottom of the page for tips on how to change the recipe to make it supermarket friendly but keep the Chinese flavours.

(I included mooli in the video above because it was massive and I couldn’t resist but it’s not normally a part of the recipe)

 

Ingredients

 

1 tbsp sesame oil
350g chopped carrots
400g pak choi
200g oyster mushrooms
2 ltrs water
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp fish sauce
60 ml gluten free soy sauce (also called tamari)
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
handful dried black fungus mushrooms
1 bunch spring onions (green part only)
rice noodles for 6 people
1 packet pre-baked tofu

optional extras:
2 century eggs
1 tsp chilli oil
1 sheet fried/baked seaweed
lime

• Heat oil over medium high heat in a large pot. Add the diced carrots and pak choi stems (setting the leave to the side for later). Brown for 7 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Add the water, soy sauce, vinegar, fish sauce and ginger then salt and pepper to taste.
• Stir in dried black fungus. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 mins.
• Stir in chopped pak choi leaves, spring onions and oyster mushrooms. Simmer until the leaves are wilted- 6 or 7 minutes.
• Make the noodles to the directions on the packet (or if they’re fresh just pop them into the soup!)
• Add the baked tofu and allow to simmer until it’s heated through.
• Serve into bowls over the noodles.
• Top with century eggs, chilli oil and torn sheet of seaweed. Also add a slice of lime if you feel like it!

Notes

Don’t be frightened if you’ve never seen some of these ingredients before and aren’t sure where to get them. Although there are many Chinese online supermarkets (Wai Yee Hong and Oriental Mart are both UK based and deliver across the country) that might not be your preferred option so here are some substitutions:

Vegetables: As mentioned above, although mooli appears in the video it isn’t normally part of this recipe so don’t worry about finding that! Pak choi and carrots are supermarket staples but if you find any other leafy asian vegetables in the local shop this soup is a great way to try them!

Mushrooms: Black fungus is not for everyone, that I very much understand! It’s look is a little off putting and the texture is… slightly like a jellied shoe leather… but it tastes amazing! I may have put you off even further with that texture description but I actually quite enjoy it so please do try it. And if you really can’t stand it then just use the oyster mushrooms or any other ‘exotic’ mushrooms you happen upon in your local supermarket.

Sauces: Sesame oil and soy sauce- even gluten free versions- can be found in supermarkets but rice vinegar and fish sauce might be a little harder for you to get your hands on, depending on where you shop. For the vinegar you can substitute lime juice or even a little white vinegar (but use a little less than written above). If I can’t get my hands on fish sauce I use a seaweed sprinkle that you can learn more about in my coleslaw video. It would also take well to other seaweed sheets that could be torn up and added to the pot.

Tofu: Annoyingly whilst many supermarkets sell tofu nowadays they don’t tend to carry the fried or baked version that you’ll need for this recipe. You can make your own with firm or extra-firm tofu by marinading in soy sauce and baking for around 30mins at 200 degrees C. Another option would be using fried Quorn pieces or if you’re not vegetarian you could always throw some smoked mackerel in towards the end or prawns if you want to keep things light.

Eggs: You could make your own century eggs but it involves caustic soda, clay and at least a month so… don’t. Don’t do that. Just boil some regular chicken eggs (or duck if you’re feeling fancy) to a medium hardness.

This recipe is vegan if you don’t add the fish sauce and the century eggs!

This recipe is one I have been wanting to make for over a year but thought would be horribly laborious and complicated… well I was completely wrong! It’s easy to make (even easier with a blender) and just as delicious made at home.

My late mother-in-law was Malaysian and connecting with that part of her heritage is obviously deeply important to my lovely wife- it also goes without saying that when ill all she wants to eat is the food her mother made her!

Which is why recently I found myself hunting down a recipe for Yong Tau Foo, also known as ‘wow, that’s the best street food I’ve ever eaten’.

In January 2016, a year after getting engaged, we headed out to Malaysia for a few weeks so I could meet her mother’s family and experience the loveliness that is that very special country.

Her family is Chinese-Malay and her aunts were very excited to take us on a tour of, the capital city, Kuala Lumpur’s China Town. After many hours of excitedly journeying through the streets, picking over things in the markets… and trying on dragon heads… they led us through a tiny alleyway and into a very hot, very humid square, covered in busy tables and chairs. Picking cautiously over open pipes, rocky terrain and the occasional gas line we made our way to the centre of the square where three noisy food stalls were set up, each cooking over an open flame as customers shouted out orders seemingly at random.

Once my dietary requirements were explained to the aunts they pointed me towards the stall with a massive, bubbling wok of delicious smelling soupy oil from which the cook was pulling up colourful stuffed vegetables. I’m not normally a fan of anything deep-fried but the smell was so delightful I just couldn’t resist!

I cannot stress enough how great a decision that was.

This is the day I discovered one of my top 10 favourite foods: Yong Tau Foo. The stuff of dreams.

I love Malaysian food- pretty much all Malaysian food- but eating it generally requires a lot of adapting and it can be a struggle to keep the same beautiful ‘flavour profile’ (which is a very wanky, Masterchef-y way of describing food… but also spot-on). Not so with Yong Tau Foo! I can’t pronounce it but I can eat it. And so can you! Unless you’re a vegetarian.

A fair warning before you begin this recipe: you will need to use your hands so make sure you have something to help you easily clean them to hand otherwise you will get fish all over your house. Fact.

Ingredients

For the Paste:
4 fillets of fresh mackerel (around 480g)
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup water
Some white pepper

Vegetables:
10 pieces okra, seeds removed, slit lengthways
1 large aubergine, cut into thick horizontal slices and then slit to create a pocket.
10 pieces deep fried tofu balls (tau foo pok)- you can find them in Chinese shops and online
Small bowl water
I cup cooking oil (keep it light and dear god don’t use rapeseed… oh that awful taste)
The green tips of a spring onion bunch
Chopped coriander

Put all of the ingredients for the paste into a small food processor or nutribullet and blend. You can also chop the fish up incredibly finely using a massive cleaver and add the other ingredients a little at a time. That would be very authentic but also rather difficult if your knife skills aren’t all that.

Prepare to stuff your vegetables. You’ll need a normal dinner knife for this and dipping it in the water first will stop the paste from sticking too badly. Try not to overload the vegetables as obviously they will shrink slightly during cooking.

Whilst you’re stuffing (and I created quite a good production line!) warm a cup of cooking oil in a large frying pan.

You’ll first want to start frying the aubergines as they will take the longest to cook… please excuse the pictures from here on out- it got very dark very suddenly! You’ll know they’re done when they’re brown on each side and the stuffing has become firm.

Once the aubergine slices have cooked take them out of the pan and rest on some kitchen roll to soak up any excess oil while you cook the rest of the stuffed vegetables.

Done! Enjoy scattered with sliced spring onion tops and chopped coriander. Drizzle soy sauce over the top and teaspoon of chilli oil.

Notes

If you want to be daring or just trust that you’re excellent with filleting then you could use a large, whole mackerel for this but make sure you’ve cleaned it and drained it well. Also, you are a brave, impressive person.

Other stuffed things commonly found in Yong Tau Foo include red chillies, bean curd skin sheets and bitter gourd but I’ve kept it to things you can generally easily find in England and also aren’t incredibly spicy.

The easiest way to remove okra’s insides is to delicately slit lengthways on one side and then slightly-less-delicately jam your finger in there from the tip and pull it all out.