Hey guys, a few notes: 1. The amount in the video serves four people, but the essence of this dish is that it can be scaled up or down - it can be a fantastic way to feed a crowd. We didn’t want to go *too* light on the portioning for the video, but we *are* still two people after all. 2. If you have excess, it keeps quite well in the fridge - up to a week should be completely fine (I mean, in Hubei some people even take it longer and eat sour lazy tofu). Unfortunately, keeping in the freezer will do weird things to it. 3. That said, if you don’t feel like soaking soybeans ahead of time, soaked soybeans are *absolutely* something that you can batch prep and freeze. Soak a bunch of soybeans, strain, portion out into little baggies. 4. Another thing that you can do if you have a little extra is mix in an egg and panfry them, a classic strategy for the leftovers in Hubei. Further, something we quite enjoyed during testing was to (1) mix in an egg or two (2) form into balls, ala fish balls/fish tofu (3) roll in starch and (4) deep fry (at about ~140C) until crispy. 5. After soaking, if you like you can jostle the soybeans a bit and try to remove as many skins as you can. We didn’t do this in the video because we wanted to keep things lazy. 6. Another topping that you can use for this is roasted pounded chili. If you’d like to go that route, while slightly different than the Hubei version, you can follow our recipe from the Guizhou ‘Vegetables-in-Water’ video here: ua-cam.com/video/_tRn_rq3T1U/v-deo.htmlsi=_6GRN5VOOtEAR9WN&t=230 That’s all I can think of for now! We’ll be off for a couple weeks as we’ll be travelling to the USA to see family - back in the middle of September :)
@@AngryKnees Because it requires intelligent presentation that not everyone is capable off. Now, most of us have no idea or anything of value to show here, which is one reason AI was created in the first place....no wonder they're suspicious of the creative minds.
Make a recipe that is keto/low carb but is still a traditional chinese meal. Modern Chinese cooking so carb heavy diabetes rate is massive in China at the moment.
I watch all your wonderful videos and try to recreate them veg style. I am happy with the outcome so far, but advice on how to do a more authentic approach is extremely welcome! So thank you a lot ❤
I recognise that technique! It's the bulk of "burmese tofu" or chickpea tofu. Chickpea tofu get cooked a little dryer, set and cut into cubes, and fried. Also, it's made of chickpeas. Totally trying this next time!
Burmese tofu is awesome. It’s a Shan thing originally, yeah? Variants also exist in Yunnan using split pea as a base (we’ve got a recipe on the channel for the warm/pudding version if you’re curious)
@@ChineseCookingDemystified I hadn't made the connection, but I've literally got the split peas in the cupboard to try that one out! Obvious in retrospect. Thanks.
Perfect for August in the US would be squash or zucchini leaves. It’s just time to be thinning the leaves! They can be sautéed or braised like collard, kale, or pumpkin leaves. Leave the stems, though. They have an unpleasant fuzzy texture.
Did you know you can also eat the tomato greens (such as the leaves, stems, & vines) in a number of ways, & ditto with the pepper greens (sweet & hot)? Really, look up different ways to use them
@@tktyga77 Tomato's a nightshade, containing various toxic alkaloids… fairly low dose, but still. Eating small amounts shouldn't be a problem, but I wouldn't use them in serious amounts (e.g. as the main vegetable).
I love this! I have soybeans I bought a while ago for making tofu but only did it once because I’ve been too lazy to make it again😂. This dish includes all the fiber and nutrients in the soy pulp too!
Some of the comments today are… weird. I immediately thought of taho (a Filipino snack of essentially silken tofu but served with syrup and tapioca balls) when you guys first said “lazy tofu” but this seems to stop earlier. Way earlier. 😂 And in any case, this sounds yummy.
Yeah there’s some weird algorithmic things going on as of late. Feels likes some of the videos aren’t getting pushed as much to the core audience, but rather randos. Comments seem to reflect that a bit
yeah I came here from instagram cause your UA-cam videos haven't been showing up in my feed for the last month or so, going to throw on the bell and watch the vids I missed in the last month
Great recipe! When cooking vegetarian one option I like to use is a handful of dehydrated mushrooms. I forage a lot so I’ll use a combination of various bolete, shiitake and lobster mushrooms. The soaking liquid also makes a great stock. I’ll use it minced in place of pork in mapo tofu for example. Would work great in this and adds a wonderful umami kick. For the smokey aspect adding some smoked paprika to the oil at the end might be nice and would also add color.
I always find smoked paprika to not really have quite the right flavor to sub a smoked meat. I would suggest trying liquid smoke or smoked salt instead. I'm not entirely sure why it doesn't work well but I think it might have something to do with the choice of wood used
I just made this for the first time, and it's definitely going into the rotation! It's hard to source zhacai where I live, so I subbed in oyster mushrooms for a veg version of the topping instead. I can't wait to try it with zhacai as well. Thanks for another awesome recipe, guys.
Made this tonight, and it was even better than i thought it would be. one thing that happened was that in the first 10 min the milk boiled over which was not so fun-- i thought it could be avoided with mixing until it was too late! Thank you for an exciting, delicious, and pretty easy recipe!
this remind me of a dish we eat. we call it 炒豆渣, basically chopped 毛豆 stir fried with blanched and chopped green veggie, with some chili and garlic seasoning. so basically same dish but made at a different time since soybean is like matured and dried edamame
Thank you very muchfor the recipe! I tried it today - or a close approximation, since I didn't have many of the ingredients I used white beans instead of soy I used bok choy, since for some reason that's the only kind of greens I found in the supermarket And I don't have a fermented chili paste, so I did most of the rest of the veg version. It still came out really delicious! The recipe is so forgiving, you can change pretty much all the ingredients, and it's still good!
I think the best veg for Indonesian if any wants to make this is... sweet potato leaves. Yes. We eat sweet potato leaves, and it is one of my favourite leafy vegetables.
Tried this recipe first with white rice which was great and the rest of my lazy tofu together with steamed pumpkin which I liked even more - keep up your amazing work!
my own lazy methods: version one (really super lazy): take 1 box plain asian soymilk (i use vitasoy). add 1/2 tsp gypsum or your coagulant of choice. mix and steam for 10 mins in a rice cooker. enjoy version two (still very easy): take 1 pack asian instant soymilk powder (i use yon ho) and add enough hot water to make a cup of soymilk. now you have soymilk! proceed to the steps above. enjoy
FYI, 懒豆腐 is widely popular in Yunnan as well. Before watching the video, I thought this is a dish unique in Yunnan，however in Yunnan, we normally make this with fresh Edamame (毛豆) instead of the dried ones.
Finally got around to making it, oh my it was GOOD! Will get some good veggie bacon for next time to try it that way, and to replace the chicken boulion powder I used half a tbs shittake stock powder, half a tbs of veggie stock powder and half a tbs of onion powder. The Zhacai worked really nicely. Such a delicious meal.
This is great! I love making a batch of this in the blender, portioning into pint jars, then just making a serving for myself whenever. Zha cai go great in this imo.
This did turn out to be more involved than a typical weeknight meal, but maybe it was all the extra dishes that needed washing after dinner? I also don’t have an expensive blender, so it took a bit of macgyvering to get a smooth soy milk. After a few amusing mishaps I was able to really enjoy my lazy tofu over rice. I will definitely make this again, but next time I’ll block off a more realistic timeframe, especially about when the meal will be eaten. I’m thankful you’ve included vegetarian options again. I’ve made Burmese tofu with a delicious sauce for years now, since my daughter and I are the vegetarians while my husband and son are omnivores, so I’m always looking for tasty vegetarian dishes..
I made this today, and it was absolutely amazing. Im not sure what purpose the lard is fulfilling when boiling down the soy milk, though, as we’re not exactly frying it; is it simply to provide a bit more non-stick assistance? Also, Do you know of any other suggestions to do with smoked laurou, Other than making more chilli oil, that is?Additionally, I ate it with a side of kimchi as you two did as it was the only preserved vegetable I had on me at the time. I often see vacuum sealed clay pots at my Asian grocery store listed as "Preserved vegetables" - is this what would be traditionally served here? Im not sure what’s actually in them, I was thinking along the lines of pickled and/or fermented turnip or mustard greens, but perhaps you guys know more.
With the la rou (you can also look up lap yuk) arguably the most popular way is to have clay pot rice, add in some lap cheong too. My lazy way of eating it is throw it in the rice cooker with the rice (almost a clay pot rice but an extremely lazy version).
I was wondering what the shelf/fridge life of this might be? Looks delish, and would definitely try but I'm living solo and hate food waste. Thank you as always for your insightful and wonderfully put together videos, your hard work is appreciated.
Can’t wait to try this out. My mother in law gave us one of those Joyoung soy milk machines, so we might up the laziness even further by trying that for the soaking and blending steps.
Just made this the other day for dinner. Very nice and quite easy recipe! I made the vegetarian version of the chili oil (using sambal oelek), but I don't have access to zha cai. I just omitted it, and it worked out perfectly fine. Also, for the vegetable in the tofu, i used frozen spinach reheated in a microwave oven, which also worked quite well. I experienced a problem concerning the texture though: when blending the soy beans (which had been soaked in water overnight) in water, quite a lot of "pulp" was left in the bottom of thr blender. I don't think my blender is of very high quality, so that may be the cause. I ended up using it anyway, and the texture ended up being a bit grainy. Does anyone know how to avoid this? Or is this supposed to happen? I had expected the soy beans to turn into something with a milk-like consistency without any residue. In order to avoid the grainy texture, i think I will boil the soy beans for ~20 minutes next time, before then using an immersion blender to blend it directly in the pan/wok, in hopes that it will make the beans softer.
Kind of embarrassed to admit this on this channel, but I just don't enjoy tofu that much. Although, being a middle-aged Australian, that's very likely just due to culinary habits and tastes developed over decades in a nation where it's not a staple food. But that chilli oil topping sounds pretty incredible for use over all sorts of dishes! Thanks for that recipe. Edit: Also love the fact that I learn a little more about Anglicised-Chinese pronunciations in every video e.g. "Larou" is pronounced "la-row" not "la-rue". Thanks guys :)
Wrote this a bit further down if you don't mind the copy/paste: "Hmm... it'd be a bit different, but you could play with it for sure. Maybe dial it back to 2 tbsp, double up the optional chili powder?"
it's always so weird to me that kale in the us is a hipster superfood, whilst here in germany its a traditional food, mostly eaten by elderly people together with fatty sausage, potatoes, beer and spirits
Yeah it’s a shame, because I really like kale as a vegetable and think it would be perfect here. It just wouldn’t be five time more perfect than a more economical green like collards, though. Good to see that Germany at least has more sensible kale pricing
@@ChineseCookingDemystified kale is dirt cheap and you can buy it frozen in every supermarket. the best kale (and the priciest) is the one in winter after the first frost: then it's silghtly sweet. fun fact: back in the days of black and white films and tv, they used kale fields for areal shots of forests bc the plants look a bit like trees from above
So cool. Really reminds me of mexican refried beans and rice. I want to try it! and perhaps see what happens if I use a different type of bean witht eh same technique. I know you can make tofu with other beans
I'd like to make this dish for some vegan friends. I'll substitute lard for oil but am not entirely sure what to sub the larou with. Perhaps just omit it or substitute some minced rehydrated shiitake mushrooms?
kale in holland is super traditional for homecooking if anyone tried sellingit for health food price the country would colapse but pumpkin and daikon both drow in my garden zo the would be the easiest
Especially at that age, if you keep bringing them to do it they'll take right to it. You'll end up with a bouldering cat before you know it, and I'd watch that content all day!
Mmm... So, some questions: As a hella white poor person, we only have one wok; it's castiron. I have to imagine it'd be hell having a porous wok being subjected to that. Is it relatively still possible in a pot or pan? I figure probably, but as a more awkward and attentive process because of the higher surface area and less concentrated heat sink. Secondly, if all we're doing is effectively reducing this, is it hypothetically possible and lazier to just take your average store soymilk and getting the same product? I speculate a weaker result since it likely will have additives or lack of pulp that alter the texture and flavor. Thirdly, and maybe this is a silly moot point, but hear me out: Say you have some leftovers with tofu, some soup base and veggies if gracious. But you're just CRAVING that simpler more homey texture and setup. If it's already made tofu, can you just throw that crap in a blender and reduce similarly? (I suppose there's going to be differences with fresh raw tofu and already cooked tofu though.) Well, if y'all decide to answet my hella bachelor questions, thank you so much for entertaining my silly ideas and the advice!
I have soy beans waiting in the cupboard, I could totally make this with some sort of sauce that is more local, I have some smoked fish in the freezer I could use. Could be used for meal prep too I imagine!
Black Eyes Peas going in to soak now. :) I am out of soy beans, so I am going to "wonder if..." until I make my way over to PAT Mart in Mississauga (Canada's version of H Mart in the USA).
Thank you @@ididntknowtheyhadwifiinhell I did come across her channel when looking into lentil dishes recently, I will for sure look deeper into her channel!
Even lazier .. I might try this with some bought tofu first , just to try some toping hacks cuz , ingredient availabilities. Maybe chili paste , and bacon with beef jerky and greens ,, looking for easy healthy things to have for lunch. going out i$ getting expen$ive .
I made this and I liked doing it! I was trying to find variations (such as can I add a coagulant to make it more crumbly? Are there vegan cheese recipes using it?) for it and could not find anywhere. On tiktok, I was able to find only one recipe for it from a woman who was living in China. I thought it might have been because it was written on chinese, so I tried searching in chinese (which I believe is 懒豆腐), but also did not find anything other than edamame soup (which seems close but not quite). Why is that? I think I might be because China's internet is somewhat siloed, but I was also wondering if there is another name for it.
I tried this and it was very good! But 750 grams of vegetables seems way too much... I used 400 grams of kale and it already feels like too much. It doesn't have the "hummus-like" texture, it's more like tofu coated kale. Still delicious though!
Could I make this even simpler by using about two packages of silken tofu, smushing them up together in the wok to heat them? Might be a bit dryer than shown in this video but I think it would still be very good.
I was just thinking of buying some Laura soybeans (from Iowa in the states), but I can't stand the process of making tofu, especially since I can never make more than 2 blocks at a time, so this looks right up my alley.
I thought 小白菜 is just Bok Choy, not young Napa Cabbage. When I go to the Bok Choy wikipedia page and click on the chinese version, it also says 小白菜 as the title.
小白菜 is confusing, I believe the Wiki page is more influenced by Cantonese speakers since we do call bak choy as 小白菜, but in other parts of China (especially north), it is also 小白菜...
What relationship does this lan dou fu have with the same named dish from yunnan/zhaotong area? In that version, edamame is used instead and generally the green is chinese celery.
They're basically the same thing/same idea. The Yunnan version uses edamame, elsewhere use soy bean. And soy bean is the matured version of edamame. Kinda similar to the idea in the north where people would eat young tender wheat grains when they're still green.
Kikely the best smoked sub is strangely country Ham but to get it more on point smoke it more in... well a smoker for 3 hours. Or even buy what my store calls hame steak (One if not the cheapest protein we sell) smoked for 6 hours. BTW Ham steak is just the end of a ham we try to make it look nice. I am not sure this has a unified name. I know my local bitcher and HEB (A Texas grocer) use it though.
Question about Hunnan chopped chilis: my jar kept growing mold at the top layer, which I thought was really strange since I assumed it was actually a pickle and how the hell could mold grow in a brine. Is that normal?
Yeah it’s a ferment, not a pickle. per se. The jars that you get are long dead and can be susceptible to molding, which is why we personally keep ours in the fridge.
@@absinthe_apostle Probably, remember to use clean utensils (no water, no oil, no licking...) to fetch it. My mum drilled that down in me growing up because jars of these kinds fermented tofu and such grow mold pretty easily.
Is it allowed to cheat and blend already made tofu? Wonder how that would end up haha(he laughs as the point of easy to make from the beans passes over his head)
Hey guys, I love your channel. Lucky enough here in Canada to find most ingredients. I am going to attempt to make scorpion lamb. Really difficult to find any instructions on the web. Any suggestions?
Hey guys, a few notes:
1. The amount in the video serves four people, but the essence of this dish is that it can be scaled up or down - it can be a fantastic way to feed a crowd. We didn’t want to go *too* light on the portioning for the video, but we *are* still two people after all.
2. If you have excess, it keeps quite well in the fridge - up to a week should be completely fine (I mean, in Hubei some people even take it longer and eat sour lazy tofu). Unfortunately, keeping in the freezer will do weird things to it.
3. That said, if you don’t feel like soaking soybeans ahead of time, soaked soybeans are *absolutely* something that you can batch prep and freeze. Soak a bunch of soybeans, strain, portion out into little baggies.
4. Another thing that you can do if you have a little extra is mix in an egg and panfry them, a classic strategy for the leftovers in Hubei. Further, something we quite enjoyed during testing was to (1) mix in an egg or two (2) form into balls, ala fish balls/fish tofu (3) roll in starch and (4) deep fry (at about ~140C) until crispy.
5. After soaking, if you like you can jostle the soybeans a bit and try to remove as many skins as you can. We didn’t do this in the video because we wanted to keep things lazy.
6. Another topping that you can use for this is roasted pounded chili. If you’d like to go that route, while slightly different than the Hubei version, you can follow our recipe from the Guizhou ‘Vegetables-in-Water’ video here: ua-cam.com/video/_tRn_rq3T1U/v-deo.htmlsi=_6GRN5VOOtEAR9WN&t=230
That’s all I can think of for now! We’ll be off for a couple weeks as we’ll be travelling to the USA to see family - back in the middle of September :)
Why is this written like it came from ChatGPT?
@@AngryKnees Because it requires intelligent presentation that not everyone is capable off.
Now, most of us have no idea or anything of value to show here, which is one reason AI was created
in the first place....no wonder they're suspicious of the creative minds.
@@AngryKneeslol that’s a new one. maybe I should swear more or sth?
It is completely incomprehensible why separately to cook vegetables. they can be cut raw and put into boiled soy milk: it also consists of water.
Make a recipe that is keto/low carb but is still a traditional chinese meal. Modern Chinese cooking so carb heavy diabetes rate is massive in China at the moment.
I deeply appreciate you giving a nod to a meat free version. Keep that up when it is possible or reasonable to do so.
Seconded as someone who loves Chinese food but doesn't eat pork
Third this, because my sister is vegetarian.
I absolutely love the recipes you present !
I Mainly have to adapt these for vegan with sourced egg exception.
yes this is really helpful!
I watch all your wonderful videos and try to recreate them veg style. I am happy with the outcome so far, but advice on how to do a more authentic approach is extremely welcome! So thank you a lot ❤
I recognise that technique! It's the bulk of "burmese tofu" or chickpea tofu. Chickpea tofu get cooked a little dryer, set and cut into cubes, and fried. Also, it's made of chickpeas. Totally trying this next time!
Burmese tofu is awesome. It’s a Shan thing originally, yeah? Variants also exist in Yunnan using split pea as a base (we’ve got a recipe on the channel for the warm/pudding version if you’re curious)
@@ChineseCookingDemystified I hadn't made the connection, but I've literally got the split peas in the cupboard to try that one out! Obvious in retrospect. Thanks.
It's obvious in hindsight. if tofu is to cheese, then this stuff is to farmers cheese.
That's what I was thinking!
Like a bowl of cottage cheese
I came here to say this. But in my heart, I knew it has already been said
This reads like poetry 😂
"This is to tofu what farmer's cheese is to cheese." is what you wanted to say
Perfect for August in the US would be squash or zucchini leaves. It’s just time to be thinning the leaves! They can be sautéed or braised like collard, kale, or pumpkin leaves. Leave the stems, though. They have an unpleasant fuzzy texture.
Was not aware you can eat those. Got a whole communal garden full of those.
Did you know you can also eat the tomato greens (such as the leaves, stems, & vines) in a number of ways, & ditto with the pepper greens (sweet & hot)? Really, look up different ways to use them
@@tktyga77 Tomato's a nightshade, containing various toxic alkaloids… fairly low dose, but still. Eating small amounts shouldn't be a problem, but I wouldn't use them in serious amounts (e.g. as the main vegetable).
It'd have to be eaten in impractical amounts for it to have ill effect, just like with green (by which I mean unripe) tomatoes
My favorite is beet leaves, I think I like them more than beets
Wow I had never seen this dish outside my hometown until this video!!
I love that the dog is always there at the end and he has his own seat.
I love this! I have soybeans I bought a while ago for making tofu but only did it once because I’ve been too lazy to make it again😂. This dish includes all the fiber and nutrients in the soy pulp too!
Some of the comments today are… weird.
I immediately thought of taho (a Filipino snack of essentially silken tofu but served with syrup and tapioca balls) when you guys first said “lazy tofu” but this seems to stop earlier. Way earlier. 😂 And in any case, this sounds yummy.
Yeah there’s some weird algorithmic things going on as of late. Feels likes some of the videos aren’t getting pushed as much to the core audience, but rather randos. Comments seem to reflect that a bit
yeah I came here from instagram cause your UA-cam videos haven't been showing up in my feed for the last month or so, going to throw on the bell and watch the vids I missed in the last month
You two are forever the best cooking channel. Every video a masterpiece, so educational and the food always looks AMAZING!
Great recipe! When cooking vegetarian one option I like to use is a handful of dehydrated mushrooms. I forage a lot so I’ll use a combination of various bolete, shiitake and lobster mushrooms. The soaking liquid also makes a great stock. I’ll use it minced in place of pork in mapo tofu for example. Would work great in this and adds a wonderful umami kick. For the smokey aspect adding some smoked paprika to the oil at the end might be nice and would also add color.
Really jealous of the self-foraged mushrooms haha!
I always find smoked paprika to not really have quite the right flavor to sub a smoked meat. I would suggest trying liquid smoke or smoked salt instead. I'm not entirely sure why it doesn't work well but I think it might have something to do with the choice of wood used
You might try lightly smoking your dried mushrooms, as well. That would give them amazing extra flavor!
I just made this for the first time, and it's definitely going into the rotation! It's hard to source zhacai where I live, so I subbed in oyster mushrooms for a veg version of the topping instead. I can't wait to try it with zhacai as well. Thanks for another awesome recipe, guys.
Made this tonight, and it was even better than i thought it would be. one thing that happened was that in the first 10 min the milk boiled over which was not so fun-- i thought it could be avoided with mixing until it was too late! Thank you for an exciting, delicious, and pretty easy recipe!
😂 this must've been one of the easier ending segment for Steph. "Mix, spoon, rice, mouth"
this remind me of a dish we eat. we call it 炒豆渣, basically chopped 毛豆 stir fried with blanched and chopped green veggie, with some chili and garlic seasoning. so basically same dish but made at a different time since soybean is like matured and dried edamame
This is awesome. I love completely new dishes and techniques. Not the prettiest but definitely looks delicious.
Thank you very muchfor the recipe!
I tried it today - or a close approximation, since I didn't have many of the ingredients
I used white beans instead of soy
I used bok choy, since for some reason that's the only kind of greens I found in the supermarket
And I don't have a fermented chili paste, so I did most of the rest of the veg version.
It still came out really delicious!
The recipe is so forgiving, you can change pretty much all the ingredients, and it's still good!
This is simply amazing. Have already made this twice. Thank you!
This is straight up the best coocking channel on youtube, thank you so much, I'm already buying the beans to try it out!
I think I could eat this for breakfast YUM! It looks delicious. I look forward to making it. 😃
this channel is amazing! Love the detailed explanation and alternatives given
Easy cooking tofu looks delicious, nice sharing👍👍
Made it today for the guests with home-made chilli oil, worked great
I think the best veg for Indonesian if any wants to make this is... sweet potato leaves. Yes. We eat sweet potato leaves, and it is one of my favourite leafy vegetables.
Yes! Sweet potato leaves is another common choice for people in Hubei since it's equally abundant when in season.
Tried this recipe first with white rice which was great and the rest of my lazy tofu together with steamed pumpkin which I liked even more - keep up your amazing work!
my own lazy methods:
version one (really super lazy): take 1 box plain asian soymilk (i use vitasoy). add 1/2 tsp gypsum or your coagulant of choice. mix and steam for 10 mins in a rice cooker. enjoy
version two (still very easy): take 1 pack asian instant soymilk powder (i use yon ho) and add enough hot water to make a cup of soymilk. now you have soymilk! proceed to the steps above. enjoy
Would store bought soymilk cook down in the same way it does in the video? I can get soymilk much more easily than I can get soybeans.
@@caskwith same question. i can easily buy soybeans but i dont have a blender available
This looks so good omg
FYI, 懒豆腐 is widely popular in Yunnan as well. Before watching the video, I thought this is a dish unique in Yunnan，however in Yunnan, we normally make this with fresh Edamame (毛豆) instead of the dried ones.
Finally got around to making it, oh my it was GOOD! Will get some good veggie bacon for next time to try it that way, and to replace the chicken boulion powder I used half a tbs shittake stock powder, half a tbs of veggie stock powder and half a tbs of onion powder. The Zhacai worked really nicely.
Such a delicious meal.
This sounds great, and thanks so much for ideas for a veg version of the sauce! Can't wait to make some this week. I love tofu!
There are Chinese style 烟熏腊肉 locally produced in US available in most of Asian grocery stores now, at least on the west coast
In Europe as well! Because of the difficulties of importing meat, we just make these locally
I made it subbing the chilis with ladoubanjian, because that and gochugaru are the spiciest ingredients I've got at the moment. Great recipe.
since the pulp is still in I'd imagine this is a lot less wasteful for those who do not have a garden to toss the okara for composting
My grandparents add it to 鸡蛋饼 mixture and it’s great, I’m actually looking specifically for okara to remake it
This is great! I love making a batch of this in the blender, portioning into pint jars, then just making a serving for myself whenever. Zha cai go great in this imo.
This did turn out to be more involved than a typical weeknight meal, but maybe it was all the extra dishes that needed washing after dinner? I also don’t have an expensive blender, so it took a bit of macgyvering to get a smooth soy milk. After a few amusing mishaps I was able to really enjoy my lazy tofu over rice. I will definitely make this again, but next time I’ll block off a more realistic timeframe, especially about when the meal will be eaten. I’m thankful you’ve included vegetarian options again. I’ve made Burmese tofu with a delicious sauce for years now, since my daughter and I are the vegetarians while my husband and son are omnivores, so I’m always looking for tasty vegetarian dishes..
I made this today, and it was absolutely amazing. Im not sure what purpose the lard is fulfilling when boiling down the soy milk, though, as we’re not exactly frying it; is it simply to provide a bit more non-stick assistance? Also, Do you know of any other suggestions to do with smoked laurou, Other than making more chilli oil, that is?Additionally, I ate it with a side of kimchi as you two did as it was the only preserved vegetable I had on me at the time. I often see vacuum sealed clay pots at my Asian grocery store listed as "Preserved vegetables" - is this what would be traditionally served here? Im not sure what’s actually in them, I was thinking along the lines of pickled and/or fermented turnip or mustard greens, but perhaps you guys know more.
With the la rou (you can also look up lap yuk) arguably the most popular way is to have clay pot rice, add in some lap cheong too. My lazy way of eating it is throw it in the rice cooker with the rice (almost a clay pot rice but an extremely lazy version).
The oil helps the thing not boil over :) Lard is always nice too because it imparts a bit of richness, but any oil will do
I was wondering what the shelf/fridge life of this might be? Looks delish, and would definitely try but I'm living solo and hate food waste. Thank you as always for your insightful and wonderfully put together videos, your hard work is appreciated.
Roughly... one week in the fridge? You can also form them into little patties and pan fry them
Love your channel! Keep up the great work!
Can’t wait to try this out. My mother in law gave us one of those Joyoung soy milk machines, so we might up the laziness even further by trying that for the soaking and blending steps.
Thoroughly jealous of your Joyoung! I don’t think I would ever buy one for myself, but if I got one as a gift, I would use it ALL THE TIME.
Never use a soy milk machine myself, but I assume the machine separates the pulp and the milk for you already?
That dog must love spicy food by now
Just made this the other day for dinner. Very nice and quite easy recipe!
I made the vegetarian version of the chili oil (using sambal oelek), but I don't have access to zha cai. I just omitted it, and it worked out perfectly fine.
Also, for the vegetable in the tofu, i used frozen spinach reheated in a microwave oven, which also worked quite well.
I experienced a problem concerning the texture though: when blending the soy beans (which had been soaked in water overnight) in water, quite a lot of "pulp" was left in the bottom of thr blender. I don't think my blender is of very high quality, so that may be the cause.
I ended up using it anyway, and the texture ended up being a bit grainy.
Does anyone know how to avoid this? Or is this supposed to happen? I had expected the soy beans to turn into something with a milk-like consistency without any residue.
In order to avoid the grainy texture, i think I will boil the soy beans for ~20 minutes next time, before then using an immersion blender to blend it directly in the pan/wok, in hopes that it will make the beans softer.
Thanks for the great recipe! May I ask why not cook the cabbage together with the soy beans before reaching the right texture?
Kind of embarrassed to admit this on this channel, but I just don't enjoy tofu that much. Although, being a middle-aged Australian, that's very likely just due to culinary habits and tastes developed over decades in a nation where it's not a staple food.
But that chilli oil topping sounds pretty incredible for use over all sorts of dishes! Thanks for that recipe.
Edit: Also love the fact that I learn a little more about Anglicised-Chinese pronunciations in every video e.g. "Larou" is pronounced "la-row" not "la-rue". Thanks guys :)
Love all of your videos! Will you do one on Hong Kong milk tea.
Great and informative video for tofu lovers
Looks delicious! Anyone think doubanjiang would work as the chili paste substitute?
Wrote this a bit further down if you don't mind the copy/paste: "Hmm... it'd be a bit different, but you could play with it for sure. Maybe dial it back to 2 tbsp, double up the optional chili powder?"
Is doubanjiang ok instead of fermented pickled chili?
Hmm... it'd be a bit different, but you could play with it for sure. Maybe dial it back to 2 tbsp, double up the optional chili powder?
it's always so weird to me that kale in the us is a hipster superfood, whilst here in germany its a traditional food, mostly eaten by elderly people together with fatty sausage, potatoes, beer and spirits
Yeah it’s a shame, because I really like kale as a vegetable and think it would be perfect here.
It just wouldn’t be five time more perfect than a more economical green like collards, though. Good to see that Germany at least has more sensible kale pricing
@@ChineseCookingDemystified kale is dirt cheap and you can buy it frozen in every supermarket. the best kale (and the priciest) is the one in winter after the first frost: then it's silghtly sweet.
fun fact: back in the days of black and white films and tv, they used kale fields for areal shots of forests bc the plants look a bit like trees from above
I think sambal would work pretty well. I'm gonna try it if I can find soy beans
So cool. Really reminds me of mexican refried beans and rice. I want to try it! and perhaps see what happens if I use a different type of bean witht eh same technique. I know you can make tofu with other beans
I'd like to make this dish for some vegan friends. I'll substitute lard for oil but am not entirely sure what to sub the larou with. Perhaps just omit it or substitute some minced rehydrated shiitake mushrooms?
I love those chopped chiles and now I have a recipe that can do that awesome labeling justice. I'd just toss it into ramen or whatever.
I'm too lazy to even soak soybeans, so I think I'll try the chili oil topping over some custardy steamed egg :)
I'm wondering if that would work with Virginia country ham
Chinese bacon seems to be pretty easy to find here in the south east of England however the price of it would make this dish a treat!
kale in holland is super traditional for homecooking if anyone tried sellingit for health food price the country would colapse
but pumpkin and daikon both drow in my garden zo the would be the easiest
Would blended pre-formed tofu work? Or is this something that really needs that good soak and blend action?
Especially at that age, if you keep bringing them to do it they'll take right to it. You'll end up with a bouldering cat before you know it, and I'd watch that content all day!
Mmm... So, some questions:
As a hella white poor person, we only have one wok; it's castiron. I have to imagine it'd be hell having a porous wok being subjected to that.
Is it relatively still possible in a pot or pan? I figure probably, but as a more awkward and attentive process because of the higher surface area and less concentrated heat sink.
Secondly, if all we're doing is effectively reducing this, is it hypothetically possible and lazier to just take your average store soymilk and getting the same product?
I speculate a weaker result since it likely will have additives or lack of pulp that alter the texture and flavor.
Thirdly, and maybe this is a silly moot point, but hear me out:
Say you have some leftovers with tofu, some soup base and veggies if gracious.
But you're just CRAVING that simpler more homey texture and setup. If it's already made tofu, can you just throw that crap in a blender and reduce similarly?
(I suppose there's going to be differences with fresh raw tofu and already cooked tofu though.)
Well, if y'all decide to answet my hella bachelor questions, thank you so much for entertaining my silly ideas and the advice!
I have soy beans waiting in the cupboard, I could totally make this with some sort of sauce that is more local, I have some smoked fish in the freezer I could use. Could be used for meal prep too I imagine!
Black Eyes Peas going in to soak now. :) I am out of soy beans, so I am going to "wonder if..." until I make my way over to PAT Mart in Mississauga (Canada's version of H Mart in the USA).
the youtube channel Mary's Test Kitchen is 95% videos like this. using traditional tofu making methods but with different beans/lentils/peas etc
Thank you @@ididntknowtheyhadwifiinhell I did come across her channel when looking into lentil dishes recently, I will for sure look deeper into her channel!
Even lazier .. I might try this with some bought tofu first , just to try some toping hacks cuz , ingredient availabilities. Maybe chili paste , and bacon with beef jerky and greens ,, looking for easy healthy things to have for lunch. going out i$ getting expen$ive .
I made this and I liked doing it! I was trying to find variations (such as can I add a coagulant to make it more crumbly? Are there vegan cheese recipes using it?) for it and could not find anywhere. On tiktok, I was able to find only one recipe for it from a woman who was living in China. I thought it might have been because it was written on chinese, so I tried searching in chinese (which I believe is 懒豆腐), but also did not find anything other than edamame soup (which seems close but not quite). Why is that? I think I might be because China's internet is somewhat siloed, but I was also wondering if there is another name for it.
A kitchen beer is great but if you put it close to the burner it’s going to get warm!!! You know this!
Better drink it fast!
I tried this and it was very good! But 750 grams of vegetables seems way too much... I used 400 grams of kale and it already feels like too much. It doesn't have the "hummus-like" texture, it's more like tofu coated kale. Still delicious though!
Will gochujang work as the fermented chilli sauce?
The way Steph looks at the lazy tofu at around 6:20 and beyond, Chris, if I we're you, I'd be worried. I think she's in love 😍
Chris, Steph, and Chinese food exist in a throuple
Maybe my ignorance talking but this kinda reminds me of egusi stew
Do you need to use a cheesecloth to seperate the soybean solids from the milk?
Could I make this even simpler by using about two packages of silken tofu, smushing them up together in the wok to heat them? Might be a bit dryer than shown in this video but I think it would still be very good.
Theoretically you can, but maybe firmer tofu would be better since the texture of this dish is a bit coarser than silken tofu.
I work in healthcare, lazy nutrition is all I can muster after a long day at work 😅
I was just thinking of buying some Laura soybeans (from Iowa in the states), but I can't stand the process of making tofu, especially since I can never make more than 2 blocks at a time, so this looks right up my alley.
I have a sudden unexpected need for Chang beer…
Where do you go to buy a large wok like that?
Actually, I don't like tofu, but I watch all your videos.
THank You! This looks delicious! Will definitely try it out!
I’m too lazy so I’ll just cube up some tofu. Looks delicious!
Would bok choy work well in this?
How did you comment an hour early? Patreon?
Sure, totally!
If I was even lazier what kind of premade tofu should I use...
I thought 小白菜 is just Bok Choy, not young Napa Cabbage. When I go to the Bok Choy wikipedia page and click on the chinese version, it also says 小白菜 as the title.
小白菜 is confusing, I believe the Wiki page is more influenced by Cantonese speakers since we do call bak choy as 小白菜, but in other parts of China (especially north), it is also 小白菜...
What relationship does this lan dou fu have with the same named dish from yunnan/zhaotong area? In that version, edamame is used instead and generally the green is chinese celery.
They're basically the same thing/same idea. The Yunnan version uses edamame, elsewhere use soy bean. And soy bean is the matured version of edamame. Kinda similar to the idea in the north where people would eat young tender wheat grains when they're still green.
Can one just start with a jug of soy milk?
TIL finally how to pronounce Lao Gan Ma
Are the soy beans dried?
Kikely the best smoked sub is strangely country Ham but to get it more on point smoke it more in... well a smoker for 3 hours. Or even buy what my store calls hame steak (One if not the cheapest protein we sell) smoked for 6 hours. BTW Ham steak is just the end of a ham we try to make it look nice. I am not sure this has a unified name. I know my local bitcher and HEB (A Texas grocer) use it though.
Yeah, looking for pictures when cutting the video, I realized that maybe country ham might've been a closer sub
This is a cool recipe but to be honest I have no problem buying tofu of various firmness depending on the dish being made.
That looks delicious.
Gonna try to make it next weekend.
I love the meme that embodies me so much
YES PLEASE! ❤️❤️❤️
Thank you Friends!
Question about Hunnan chopped chilis: my jar kept growing mold at the top layer, which I thought was really strange since I assumed it was actually a pickle and how the hell could mold grow in a brine. Is that normal?
Yeah it’s a ferment, not a pickle. per se. The jars that you get are long dead and can be susceptible to molding, which is why we personally keep ours in the fridge.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified So I even kept it in the fridge, did I just contaminate it?
@@absinthe_apostle Probably, remember to use clean utensils (no water, no oil, no licking...) to fetch it. My mum drilled that down in me growing up because jars of these kinds fermented tofu and such grow mold pretty easily.
Alternatively ... Silken tofu?
This looks so good to me
Are you secretly Not Just Bikes or NileRed?
Could you use bought soy milk?
I am also wondering this.
no LongYao???
China is opening up again now, are you planning on going back to there anytime soon?
Is it allowed to cheat and blend already made tofu? Wonder how that would end up haha(he laughs as the point of easy to make from the beans passes over his head)
诶 你们是搬到泰国了？
Hey guys, I love your channel. Lucky enough here in Canada to find most ingredients. I am going to attempt to make scorpion lamb. Really difficult to find any instructions on the web. Any suggestions?
Maybe it the alcohol
But I'm not even a fan of tofu
And 2 min into the video
I have to say
I love y'all