Tofu Frying 101 (okay, maybe 102)
Tofu Frying 101 (okay, maybe 102)
How to fry (almost) any tofu dish in the Chinese style
Today I wanted to teach you how to prepare and cook tofu in the Chinese style. That’s… an impossibly vast space to cover, so to make it all actually possible to tackle, let’s focus on (1) the most common tofu varieties and (2) predominantly oil based cooking methods.
The techniques we’ll go over are:
Pan-fry/stir-fry. Probably the most commonly seen oil-based tofu fry technique. The tofu is pan-fried until crisp and then tossed with sauce and aromatics. To illustrate this, we’ll use a basic soy sauce fried tofu.
Pan-fry/simmer. Another oft-used approach. We’ll be showing this technique using an old-school shrimp and tofu dish that we adapted from an old Qing dynasty cookbook.
Strictly pan-fry. This is a less commonly seen approach that I’m hesitant to list out as its own ‘category’, as it’s predominantly only seen with one classic Chinese street food dish, Tieban Tofu. That said, of all these techniques it’s the one that’d be most applicable to Western cooking, so I think it’s nice one to cover.
Strictly Deep-fry. There’s a crazy number of deep-fried tofu dishes in China, but to illustrate we’ll go over my personal favorite deep fried tofu dish, the Teochew dish “Puning Tofu”.
Deep-fry/Stir-fry/Simmer. Show with Sichuanese Jiachang “Homestyle” tofu. Note that often pan-frying and deep-frying can be interchangeably used with this method, especially at home.
The above video corresponds to the last three techniques, which you can see in action. For the first two techniques, I’ll be referring to an older video we made – Fried tofu, two ways.
Tofu varieties:
So where in god’s name to even begin here? There’s so many damn tofu products, ranging from deep-fried tofu puffs to smoked tofu to pudding-like Douhua. So let’s zero in on the stuff that would be commonly referred to as just “Tofu”.
In the West, if you go to a supermarket that sells tofu, you’ll probably run into two types of tofu: regular and silken. The regular tofu then ranges in firmness from Soft to Extra-Firm, while the Silken tofu’ll come in three sorts: Soft, Firm, and Extra-Firm.
Regular tofu is made using Nigari (Magnesium chloride) as the coagulant. If you’re curious the general approach of how to make it, I talked about it a bit in the homemade Sichuanese Douhua post. Basically, to make tofu you follow the general process outlined there, then toss the coagulated soymilk in a specific tofu press in place of using the wooden basket. To get the varying degrees of firmness, the tofu is pressed for a longer or shorter time.
Silken tofu is made using Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) as the coagulant. Silken tofu usually isn’t pressed in the same way, but varying firmness is achieved by controlling the ratio of soybean to water in the mix.
So right. Here’s the thing that was a bit of a mindfuck for me when I first came to China – there’s not really the same soft/medium/firm categorization that exists in the West. I mean, there is, soft of… allow me to explain.
First off, the names and dominant styles of tofu are extremely regional in China. I’m going to explain the ‘common tofu types’ but know that these are (1) the workhorse tofus in the city I live, Shenzhen and (2) how they’re referred to at my local market. I can’t guarantee it’d be the same if you went to a market in, say, Shanghai. That said? Shenzhen’s a migrant city with folks all around the country, so I think it’s still pretty indicative of the country at large.
Shigao Tofu (石膏豆腐). Shigao Tofu is made using gypsum as the coagulant – the Western counterpart would be ‘firm silken tofu’. It’s pretty delicate – usually used in soups or stews. The dominant tofu in Cantonese cuisine.
Yanshui Tofu (盐水豆腐). Yansui tofu is made using nigari as the coagulant. It usually ends up a bit firmer than the Shigao tofu – it’s the sort that’s in your Mapo Tofu. Depending on where you are in China, it can also be referred to as Lushui tofu or Hakka tofu (I’m sure there’s way more names). In the West, this would correspond with soft tofu, though in recipes that use it you could also use medium tofu.
Lao Tofu (老豆腐). Lao Tofu starts out at Yanshui tofu (i.e. a nigari tofu) but’s then pressed for longer. It’s the dominant tofu style in the North of China.
Generally speaking, we like to use Shigao tofu (i.e. firm silken) with water-based cooking methods, Yanshui tofu (i.e. soft) deep-frying, and Lao Tofu (i.e. firm) pan-frying. Lots of exceptions there but that’s usually our approach.
How to cut tofu:
Tofu’s pretty simple to cut. A few of the most common cuts:
Sheets. Slice the tofu in half lengthwise, and then cut in into 1 cm pieces working perpendicular from that cut.
Cubes. Slice your tofu in half lengthwise. Then, slice down to get one inch strips, and finally cut in the other direction to get one inch cubes.
Triangles. Slice your tofu in half crosswise. Cut each crosswise piece in half at a 45 degree bias. Flip each piece up, and cut each into ~3 pieces, about 1cm each.
How to Prep Tofu for frying:
Don’t.
That’s a bit of a strong statement, but… I’ve just gotta get something off my chest real quick. I see a lot of sources online – sources I love, places like Serious Eats and BA… recommend you buy firm tofu, and then press it further before you cook it. I see this advice everywhere from AskCulinary to Buzzfeed Tasty videos – it’s feels like it’s starting to become gospel.
I’ve also never seen anyone in China press their tofu at home. Ever. That’s the fucking point of firm tofu – it’s pressed.
I’ve gotten into arguments on this very topic, and the common response is that “well, in the West, we just like it firmer and meatier”. And I mean, if you just like it firmer than firm… I’m certainly not going to stop you. We’ve all got preferences. I like overcooked root vegetables, my parents like their steaks well done. But what I’d argue against is the ‘meatier’ claim.
When we cook meat we go to great pains to make it as ‘juicy’ as possible – brine, marinade, deep fry, pass through oil, whatever. So why when people in the West cook tofu do they go to such lengths to remove almost every bit of moisture they possibly can? You wouldn’t be mimicking meat… you’d be at best mimicking overcooked meat. And I mean really, tofu’s not the best mock meat anyhow – that crown likely belongs to Seitan (i.e. wheat gluten).
I can think of one and only one situation where it’d make sense to press tofu at home – I know in some supermarkets in the states a nondescript box of “Medium” tofu’s all you can find. If you have medium tofu and you want to morph it into firm tofu… totally. Press it yourself, good idea. Otherwise? I dunno. Feels superfluous at best.
Further, many people advocate coating tofu in cornstarch before frying it. While it wouldn’t really hurt too much (and I’m sure there’s some coated tofu dishes out there that I’m not thinking of)… tofu generally doesn’t need cornstarch, tofu needs patience. It’s one of the cool things about frying tofu – the outside tends to get nice and crisp.
A note on poaching tofu cubes in warm salt water:
Ok, so I said ‘don’t prep tofu’. There is one thing you can do if you feel so lead. If you’re using soft Yanshui tofu in something saucy, you can poach the tofu in hot, salty water for ~3 minutes… then leave it in there until it’s ready to use. Yanshui tofu can sort of have a slight ‘grassy’ undertone that you might not want to flavor your sauce with. The poach will help dampen that taste, as well as help form the tofu pieces... the latter sometimes helping if frying Shigao tofu as well.
Method #1: Pan-fry then Stir-fry.
High level overview here:
Cut firm tofu into 1 cm pieces or triangles --> Pan-fry on medium heat for 5-8 minutes until the bottom is evenly golden brown --> Flip, fry for ~5 minutes --> Remove the tofu --> Fry aromatics --> Add back the tofu --> Add seasoning (e.g. wine, soy sauce, salt, sugar, MSG, etc)
Ingredients, Soy Sauce Fried Tofu:
Firm Tofu (老豆腐) One block, 400g. Cut in half and then into one cm pieces.
Green onion (葱), about three sprigs, separated into the white part (to use as an aromatic) and the green part (to finish the dish). Cut these into about two inch sections.
Shallot (干葱), 1. Sliced. If you’re somewhere where you can only get those tiny little shallots, use 2-3.
Liaojiu (料酒), 1 tbsp. A.k.a. Shaoxing wine, Huangjiu, Chinese cooking wine.
Light Soy Sauce (生抽), 1.5 tbsp.
Sugar, 1 tsp.
Oil, 3-4 tbsp. For frying. Quick note that this amount – 3-4 tbsp – is if you’re using a round bottomed wok. If using a flat bottomed wok (or some other piece of kitchen cookware), add enough oil to get about 1-2 cm up from the bottom of the wok.
Process, Soy Sauce fried tofu:
Cut the tofu and aromatics, and thoroughly dry the tofu. When working with firm tofu, there’s a small tough bit on the very top and bottom of the tofu. This is totally optional, but we slice that off in order to get a more even texture from the tofu. Slice the tofu in half lengthwise, and then cut in into 1 cm pieces working from the other direction. Thoroughly pat the tofu dry with some paper towels – we don’t want the tofu to be popping like crazy when we add it to the oil to fry. Chop up the aromatics – slicing the green onion into two inch pieces and separating the white part from the green part. Thinly slice up the shallot and toss it together with the white part of the green onion.
Longyau, then with the heat on medium carefully add the tofu into the wok. As always, first longyau – get that wok piping hot, shut off the heat, add in the oil, and give it a swirl to get a nice non-stick surface. With the heat on medium, add in the tofu pieces. If you’re a pro you can carefully slide them all in at once, but to make sure that the tofu doesn’t pile and break (worst case scenario when making this dish), we recommend adding the pieces one by one.
Let the tofu panfry for five to eight minutes until the bottom is nice and golden brown. Same deal as whenever you’re panfrying anything from any cuisine ever – don’t touch the tofu. Let the tofu develop a crust and get nice and golden brown. If you got a round bottom wok like us though, you’re gunna want to tilt the wok to each side to move the oil and ensure the tofu cooks evenly.
Flip the tofu and cook on the other side for five minutes. Take out the tofu once each side is crispy and golden brown. Find a tiny plate or something to put your tofu on… this’ll be out for like three minutes tops.
In the same oil, same medium heat… fry the white part of the green onion and the shallot for 1-2 minutes, then add back the tofu. Just fry until they start to smell real nice, then add back the tofu. Give it a quick mix together (~15 seconds).
Up the heat to high, then add the liaojiu over the spatula and around the sides of the wok and give it a quick mix. Then do the same thing with the soy sauce. Adding these liquids on the spatula and over the sides of the wok’ll help ensure that they sizzle and quickly reduce instead of collect at the bottom and start simmering. After each addition of liquid, give it about a ~15 second mix. Make sure there’s no visible liaojiu in the wok before you add in the soy sauce.
Add the sugar, fry together until the sugar dissolves (~30 seconds). Add the green part of the green onion, shut off the heat, give it a quick mix, and out.
Method #2: Pan-fry then Simmer:
High level overview here:
Cut firm tofu into 1 cm pieces or triangles --> Fry on medium heat for 5-8 minutes until bottom is evenly golden brown --> Flip, fry for five minutes more --> Add liquid --> Cover, simmer for 20 minutes --> Season --> Simmer, allowing liquid to ~90% absorb into the tofu, ~20 minutes.
Ingredients, Fried Tofu ‘braised’ with Shrimp (蒋侍郎豆腐):
Firm Tofu (老豆腐/板豆腐), one block, 400g. Same deal. Cut in half then into one cm pieces.
Dried shrimp (虾米), 15g to be simmered in two cups water. Nature’s MSG.
Oil -or- Lard (猪油), 3-4 tbsp. For frying. Lard is a great frying oil for tofu.
Rice wine (米酒), ~¼ cup. So classically, this specific dish would be simmered in a specific sweet kind of Shaoxing wine. But here’s the thing – in the West the vast majority of stuff that’s labelled ‘Shaoxing’ is… salted. Alcohols laws are fun. So just grab a nicer sort of rice wine – something like a Japanese sake would work great (don’t waste an expensive one though).
Light soy sauce (生抽), 2 tbsp. To be added near the end of cooking.
Sugar, 1 tsp. Added together with the soy sauce.
Green onion (葱), green part only, ~3 sprigs. Cut into two inch sections.
Process, Fried tofu ‘braised’ with shrimp
So I’m putting ‘braised’ in quotes because using the English terminology ‘braise’ doesn’t really make a hell of a lot of sense with tofu. It’s just sorta the go-to translation for the Chinese word ‘men’ (simmering in sauce) and there’s enough similarities that you could kinda think of it in that way.
Rinse the dried shrimp to get the dust off, then simmer in two cups water – covered – for one hour. This is the first time I’ve personally seen this method, and holy hell… I was just blown away by the end result. Those Qing dynasty cooks knew their shit. The end result of this stuff after an hour long simmer is basically just concentrated umami juice. The first time I tasted this dish I just couldn’t believe that there was no MSG added in here… it’s that rich in glutamate.
Cut and fry the tofu in accordance to steps #1-4 above. With the obvious exception of cutting up the white-part-of-the-green-onion and slicing the shallots. This dish’ll only have some green onion sections that we toss in near the end.
Once the tofu is nice and golden brown on both sides, add in the shrimp, the shrimp liquid, and the rice wine. Cover and ‘braise’ for 20 minutes on medium low. This’s gunna (1) let the raw alcohol bite of the rice wine cook out (2) infuse the tofu with that delicious shrimp umami liquid. Random note that glutamic acid is water and not alcohol soluble – the rice wine is more for taste and to help bring out the other flavonoids in the dish.
After 20 minutes, add in the soy sauce and sugar. Let that continue to cook down on medium-low for a 2-3 minutes, flipping the tofu to make sure both sides absorb the sauce. So what you’re looking for is the liquid to be about 90% reduced/absorbed into the tofu. This should take 15-25 minutes. Add in the soy sauce and sugar, making sure the sugar dissolves into the liquid. Let that reduce and absorb into the tofu, flipping to make sure both sides get that delicious liquid.
Once the sauce is completely absorbed, shut off the heat and mix in the green onion. The green onion here is mostly for fragrance and color.
Method #3: Strictly Pan-frying
Cut firm tofu into large 2cm blocks --> Lightly oil a large skillet --> Add tofu, turn heat to medium --> Brush a touch of oil on top side --> Smother with way too much spice mix --> Fry for 5 minutes --> Rearrange if needed, fry for 5 minutes more --> Optionally chop into cubes
Ingredients, Street food style Tieban Tofu:
This dish’s a classic a nightmarkets in China – you’ll usually see the tofu slowly frying on a flat top, smothered in a type of Chinese BBQ spice mix, and then chopped into bite sized pieces to serve.
Firm tofu (老豆腐), 2 blocks, ~800g. Cut into larger ~2 cm pieces – four slices per block. This needs to be thicker because we can’t have bubbling oil muffing up and making our spice mix clump.
Oil. For brushing. Peanut oil or sunflower oil are nice.
Scallions. Sliced, for garnish.
Spice mix: 1 star anise (八角), ½ tsp whole Sichuan peppercorns (花椒), ½ tsp cumin seeds (孜然), ½ tbsp Perilla seeds (苏子) -or- up the cumin seed by 1 tsp, ¼ tsp white pepper powder (白胡椒粉), ¼ tsp ginger powder (姜粉), ¼ tsp garlic powder (大蒜粉), 2 tbsp chili powder (辣椒面), 1 tbsp salt, ½ tbsp MSG (味精), 1 tsp sugar. These’ll all get ground together. Perilla seeds are also used in Korean cuisine so you might be able to try your luck there. For the chili powder, you’ll want one that’s not overly fiery, so the bog standard cayenne pepper from the bottle should work great.
That spice mix above’s one of the classic spice mixes used in Chinese BBQ. Just add in a bit of anti-caking agents and you’ve basically got what the street vendors use.
Process: Street food style Tieban Tofu:
Grind together the spice powder. First grind together the star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, and cumin seeds. Then add everything except the salt/sugar/MSG and grind again. Finally, add the salt/sugar/MSG and give it a final grind. The reason the salt/sugar/MSG is added at the end is so that it doesn’t cake.
Brush the widest skillet you have with a thin layer of oil. Less oil for this one because any oil bubbling over the top’ll muff up the layer of spice – this’s kinda mimicking Chinese BBQ dishes here.
Add the tofu to the pan, brush on a top layer of oil, and smother with the spice mix. I know ‘smother’ isn’t really a proper amount but… just use your own judgement. Take a look at a picture of how much we added if you need.
Fry the tofu for 5 minutes, then rearrange if needed. The street food vendors use a flat top so they can cook these nice and even. For us on a stove, rearranging halfway through’s a nice idea.
Fry for 5 minutes more, and with a minute to go top with sliced scallions.
Optionally chop into 2 cm cubes. This’s the way they’ll often do it on the street, then toss it in a bit of a plastic cup, then eat with disposable chopsticks.
Method #4: Strictly Deep-Frying
With deep-frying, it can often be nice to use a softer tofu. The outside of the tofu’ll form a nice crust, while the moisture on the inside will evaporate and cause the tofu to puff up.
Note that this is not how they make tofu puffs – tofu puffs are made using a very firm mix of 1:4 beans to water, but then including agents like ammonium carbonate, borax, and baking soda in the soy milk blend. However, if you search online in Chinese for DIY tofu puffs, they’ll often (erroneously, IMHO) use deep fried soft tofu as a base.
High level overview:
Cut tofu into 1 cm triangles --> Add to oil at 180C over max flame --> Temp should lower to 150-160C --> Allow tofu to form and float --> Break apart any stuck pieces --> Lower flame to medium-low, fry at 140C for eight minutes
Ingredients, Puning Tofu:
Ok, so… this specific dish Puning tofu traditionally uses its own special tofu product here (also called ‘Puning tofu’). What Puning tofu is is a soft nigari tofu where the soy milk has some sweet potato starch mixed in… then the tofu pieces are individually pressed (and cut in half before frying).
You know how I just said that soft tofu puffs up really nice when deep-frying? Yeah… it also loves to collapse after. In an average batch of deep-fried tofu you’ll likely have ~½ collapse on you… it’s fine, still tasty, but way less easy on the eyes. The starch in Puning tofu, meanwhile, allows it to maintain that ‘puffy’ appearance.
Where I live in Shenzhen sometimes we see restaurants make this exact sub – soft tofu for Puning tofu – if they have sourcing problems with the latter (as a city with a bunch of Teochew migrants, the Puning tofu usually runs out at our local market by ~9am). Still works. So if you happen to find Puning tofu use that otherwise don’t hesitate to reach for soft.
Puning tofu -or- soft tofu, ~400g.
Oil: 2 cups. For frying. Peanut’s nice. Two cups is if you use a round bottomed wok for deep frying. Heavily recommended, you’ll need way less oil in a wok. If using a Dutch oven use like the 50 gallons of oil or whatever you need to actually fill that up proper [/s, if it needed to be said].
For the sauce: 25g Chinese chives (韭菜), ½ tsp salt, optional 1 tsp fish sauce (鱼露), ½ cup water. Fish sauce is a thing in Teochew dipping sauces, I swear.
Process, Puning Tofu:
Cut the tofu into triangles. If actually using Puning tofu, just cut those little blocks in half.
In a wok, heat the oil up until 180C, then drop in the tofu slices. For best results I’d suggest no more than ten slices at a time, else you could start to flirt with crowding.
Continue over max flame, until the tofu slices begin to float, ~3 minutes. Once you drop the tofu slices in, it’ll likely lower the temperature to 150-160C. That’s fine. The tofu’ll also start to stick slightly, also totally normal… just let it form and gently break them apart with chopsticks.
Lower the flame to medium-low, fry for 8 minutes at 140C. Or until puffy, golden brown, and the exterior begins to slightly break down. Flip periodically.
Remove the tofu pieces, lay on a paper-towel lined plate.
To make the sauce: mince the jiucai, toss in a bowl. Add the salt and mix it into the Jiucai. Then add the fish sauce and do the same. Then add the water.
Method #5: Deep Fry, then Stir Fry, then Simmer
Note again that you can either deep fry or pan fry your tofu here. If pan-frying, choose firm tofu. If deep-frying, choose soft tofu.
Basic high level overview:
Panfry according to method #2 -or- deep-fry according to method #4 (though after they begin floating, they only need ~1 minute) --> Stir-fry aromatics --> Add back tofu --> Add sauce --> Let sauce reduce by ~1/4 --> Add vegetables, let cook for ~30 seconds --> Thicken with slurry
Ingredients, Sichuan Jiachang Tofu:
One block tofu – soft or firm – ~400g. Cut into 1 cm pieces. Soft for deep frying, firm if pan-frying.
Sichuan Chili Bean Paste (郫县豆瓣酱), 1 tbsp. I.e. Pixian douban.
Aromatics: 2 cloves garlic, ~1 inch ginger. Both thinly sliced.
Sauce: 1 cup water or simple homestyle stock (毛汤), ¼ tsp stock concentrate (鸡汁/瑶柱汁) if using water, 1 tbsp light soy sauce (生抽), ¼ tsp salt, ½ tsp sugar, 1/8 tsp white pepper powder (白胡椒粉). For the stock concentrate, we often use the scallop or abalone sauce varieties simply because they taste good.
Green garlic (蒜苗), 2 springs. Cut into two inch sections. Green garlic’s classic with this flavor but ~3 scallions would also be perfectly fine.
1 mild green chili (请教). Cut into diamonds. Something like an Anaheim would work great.
Dried Mu’er Wood Ear Mushroom, 5g. Reconstituted in cool water for ~30 minutes. Skip if you can’t find these.
Optional: pork belly (五花肉), 30g. Sliced into ~3mm pieces. To be rendered out and form the base of the stir-fry.
Liaojiu a.k.a. Shaoxing wine (料酒/绍兴酒), 1 tbsp. For use while stir-frying.
Slurry of 1 tbsp cornstarch (生粉) mixed with 3 tbsp water. For use while stir-frying.
Sprinkle of MSG (味精). Optional.
Toasted sesame oil (麻油), ½ tsp. For finishing the sitr-fry.
Process: Sichuan Jiachang Tofu:
Slice the chilis, the green garlic, and the tofu. Reconstitute the wood ear mushrooms in cool water. Prepare the sauce. Optionally mince the chili bean paste. You can mince chili bean paste so that you don’t have… broad beans… floating around. We opted not to do that in the video, instead breaking them apart with a spatula when stir-frying. Either way.
Pan-fry or deep fry the tofu. If pan-frying, refer to methods #1 and #2. If deep-frying, follow method #4 above, but once the tofu is floating, you only need to give it 30-60 more seconds. We don’t really need the tofu to puff up here, we just want it to form together so it doesn’t break while stir-frying and simmering.
Stir-fry, then simmer. As always, first longyau: get your wok piping hot, add in the oil – here, about ½ tbsp (or ~2 tbsp if skipping the pork), and give it a swirl to get a nice non-stick surface. Heat on medium now:
Pork belly, in. Fry for ~3 minutes until much of the oil’s rendered out… about ~2-3 tbsp in all.
Shut off the heat, add in the chili bean paste. Make sure the paste isn’t burning, then swap the flame to medium-low.
Fry the chili bean paste for ~2-3 minutes until it combines with the oil, and then re-separates (kind of akin to some curries). This process is called ‘zuochu hongyou’ (frying out the red oil), and is very important in Sichuan chili oil based dishes.
Aromatics, in. Swap flame to medium high. ~30 second stir-fry.
Swirl in the ~1 tbsp liaojiu wine around the sides of the wok. Super brief mix.
Tofu, in. Super brief mix.
Mu’er wood ear mushrooms, in. Super brief mix.
Sauce, in. Up the flame to high to bring to a boil.
Let boil for ~5 minutes uncovered, or until reduced by ~1/4.
Add chili and green garlic. Mix and continue to cook for ~30 seconds. If using scallion, only cook for ~5-10 seconds.
Sprinkle of MSG, in. Quick mix. Heat off.
Toasted sesame oil, in. Quick mix. Fin.