Like any home cook, my mother only has a handful of regular staples – soy braised fish, hot and sour potatoes, jellyfish salad, and tomato fried eggs spring to mind. But when I think of her cooking, the ingredients that stand out most are aubergine and tofu.
There were only a few vegetables I liked to eat as a child – aubergine was one. The Chinese have so many ways with aubergine, from stir-fried to deep-fried, adorned with sauces, marinated or simply cooked with miso. I always loved my mother’s braised version, when the flesh takes on a gooey texture. She would peel and cut it into long strips and lay them in a clay pot. Then she would fry some ginger, garlic and black bean paste until fragrant. She’d add water, soy and Chinese rice wine to make a stock, then cover the aubergine with it and some aromatics, then simmer it down, lid on, until the aubergine had completely yielded.
The way I cook aubergine takes inspiration from Mum’s braised recipe, but I like to first coat my aubergine in potato starch and deep fry it for a thicker sauce, creamy texture and rich mouth feel.
Tofu also made a regular appearance in my childhood home, served both hot and cold. In winter, we use frozen tofu for hot soups – freezing changes the texture of the bean curd to make it spongier and very absorbant to liquids. In spring, Mum mixes diced tofu with young onion shoots and dresses this with soy and sesame oil: to me it’s always been a sign that warm weather is round the corner. We’ve given a version of this recipe below, which can be made at any time of year.
Tofu is made by soaking dried soy beans in water overnight, which are then blended with some of the soaking water to make soy milk. This milk is simmered, strained and coagulated with Epsom salts, put into a mould and pressed. At home, in China, we bought it at the Saturday market. If we timed it right, it would come fresh out of the steamer, still hot.
Tofu doesn’t have the greatest reputation in the west. It’s often written off as lacking flavour and a poor substitute for meat. Soft tofus are, admittedly, very mild in flavour, but their texture is ideal for the sweet and savoury breakfast broths we eat a lot of. Blocks of firm tofu have a stronger, more developed taste (more soya beans are used in its production). Because of its subtle taste, tofu is often marinated to lift its flavour; it’s also normal to season heavily when you cook tofu, like in the Sichuanese dish ma po tofu, which is packed with chilli and Sichuan pepper.
In China, cheap and very ordinary vegetarian ingredients such as aubergine and tofu – both capable of taking on and absorbing lots of flavour – are incredibly important. When my mum was a teenager, the only opportunity to eat meat dishes – such as braised pork leg or pig’s head – was at Chinese New Year (that they had meat at all suggests her family was relatively well-off). The Chinese don’t even consume a quarter of the meat we eat in the UK; it is often seen as a garnish rather than a main ingredient. In northern China, where I’m from, stir-fried vegetable dishes are finished with only a little thinly sliced pork, which adds a bit of complexity without taking centre stage.
Like all our food, both of this week’s recipes are designed to be eaten with a bowl of rice.
Braised aubergine with crispy shallots
Serves 4
3 large aubergines
2 tbsp potato or rice flour, for coating the aubergine
2 litres of vegetable oil, for deep frying, plus more to fry the aromatics
1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
1 tbsp garlic, minced
2½ tbsp black bean paste
2 tbsp light soy
6 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp Chinese rice wine
½ litre water
1½ tbsp dark soy, to serve (optional)
Salt, to taste
For the crispy shallots
2 shallots
1 tbsp potato flour or rice flour
750ml oil, for deep frying
½ bunch coriander, thinly sliced, to serve
1 Cut the aubergine into large chunks, toss with the flour and sift to remove excess (you don’t want to have too much flour when deep frying as it can make the sauce too thick).
2 Heat the oil for the aubergines and start deep-frying them when it is hot enough: test the oil’s temperature by dropping a piece of aubergine in – if the oil bubbles, you’re good to go. Fry until golden; then drain the aubergines of any excess oil.
3 Put a wok on a high heat and pour in 1 tbsp vegetable oil. Fry the ginger for about a minute (to bring out the aroma), then add the garlic, stirring constantly so it doesn’t catch.
4 When the oil is releasing a gingery/garlicky aroma, add the black bean paste, light soy, sugar, Chinese rice wine and water. Simmer for a few moments so the ingredients combine, then add the aubergine.
5 Stir gently, so as not to break the aubergine chunks. Braise on a low heat until the sauce thickens – no more than 10 minutes. Once it has an almost sticky consistency, finish with the dark soy, or check for seasoning.
6 Peel and slice the shallots with a mandolin, toss with flour and sift to remove excess flour. Deep-fry them until golden brown – you want them to fizz slightly when you drop them in, but not too vigorously – you don’t want them to burn. When golden-brown, drain on kitchen towel.
7 To serve, we recommend a little bowl of aubergine per person with some crispy shallots and lots of freshly chopped coriander, and a bowl of short grain rice.
Tofu with spring onion salad and creme fraiche
Buy the tofu at an Asian shop if you can. You will need to marinate the tofu overnight.
Serves 4
1 rectangular block soft tofu
2 tbsp light soy
150g vegetable oil
150g spring onions
Boiling water
Leftover marinade (from the tofu, above)
1 tbsp creme fraiche
1 Slice the tofu into 4 pieces.
2 Mix the soy with oil and put the tofu in a small enough container that will allow the oil to cover it. Marinate in the fridge overnight. Reserve the marinade for the salad.
3 Slice the spring onions on an angle, discarding the green tops, then wash. Put them in a sieve over the sink and pour boiling water over them. Set aside to cool. Mix the cooled spring onions with the leftover marinade. Taste and adjust the seasoning, if necessary. Leave to marinate until just before serving, then drain off the oil.
4 Put the spring onion salad on a large plate, add some dollops of creme fraiche and then arrange the tofu pieces on top. Serve.
- Tata Eatery are Ana Goncalves and Zijun Meng. They are currently collaborating on CURIO + TATA, a pop-up concept with Curio Cabal in east London. @tata_eatery
- This article was amended on Monday 7 November to correct the amount of water needed in the first recipe: it’s half a litre rather than 1.5 litres.
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