On 12 May 2010 we finally got round to using up some doufu that had been left to us by Sue Blake some weeks before. It's based on one in “Chinese Home-Style Cooking”, published by the Foreign language press, Beijing, 1990. And it suffers from all the usual problems of cookbooks the world over. I recognized that some of the proportions just had to be wrong, but I still didn't get things right. But it didn't taste that bad; we'll have to improve on it next time round. The only issue is that a dinner with just doufu is a little one-sided.

The recipe below suffers from the same problem as many cookbooks: it's what I want to cook, not what I cooked. It may change again.

Ingredients

quantity		ingredient		step
500 g		soft doufu		1
80 ml		soya sauce		2
40 ml		rice wine or dry sherry		2
20 g		ginger, chopped		2
20 g		spring onions, chopped		2
140 g (2)		eggs		3
80 g		flour		3
2 stars		star anise		4
500 ml		water		6
10 ml		pepper oil		7
20 g		garlic, chopped		7

Preparation

1. Cut the doufu into squares about 6 mm thick and roughly 3 cm on a side.
2. Mix soya sauce, wine, ginger and spring onion and marinate the slices in it for 30 minutes.
3. Beat the egg. Take the slices, dry them, dip them in the egg and then flour on both sides.
4. Deep fry the star anise at 180° until lightly browned. Remove.
5. Deep fry the doufu, a few pieces at a time, at 180° until browned.
6. Meanwhile, crush the star anise and add marinade, star anise and water in a pan and bring to a boil. Add the doufu and simmer gently until the liquid has significantly reduced.
7. Add pepper oil and garlic. Serve.