Hey guys, a few notes: 1. If you like, for the firm sort of rice tofu, we have a full uncut version of the process. If you're making it for the first time - especially if you're opting for the firm sort - I'd recommend giving it a watch. These sorts of uncut videos are a little rough to watch of course, but they give a nice sort of... texture to the timing of the whole process. 2. So personally, I (Chris) prefer the firmer rice tofu, while Steph prefers the jiggly one. Completely personal preference. I think that if you're new to the product, the firmer sort *might* be a easier introduction. 3. Feel free to scale these recipes up. In Guizhou you can buy these at the market, and the vendors obviously make the stuff in these monster-sized woks. If you're making the firm sort, I'd at least double the recipe in order to get a bit of a better yield. 4. For the chili sauce, I just learned that our favorite version of Lao Gan Ma is translated as "Fried Chili in Oil" and not 'Chili Crisp' (the latter being a specific product called 香辣脆油辣椒)! Oof. Learn something new every day. In any event, you could totally sub in Chili crisp here - not a problem - but I decided to call for Fried Chili in Oil, mostly because we do kind of like it better. 5. Color-wise, rice tofu in Guizhou also coms in other colors. There's green, that's made with some spinach juice in with the liquid. There's orange, that's made with carrot juice. There's another kind of much firmer almost rice cake like rice tofu product that's called "灰碱粑", it's darkish grey and is made by soaking the rice with ashes from burnt plants. 6 Rice tofu is seen throughout southwest China, because itself doesn't have taste, it's eaten as a savory dish or a sweet dessert. We're going to Baise(百色) and Nanning(南宁) in Guangdxi next week and it'll be a journey for rice noodles, remember to check out our Instagram page for travel and food pictures: instagram.com/chinesecookingdemystified/ .
@@jameshaulenbeek5931 Keeps well in the fridge for three days. I also left it out in room temp (~20C) for two days and it's fine. The alkaline really helps it keep.
looks fab, and almost supermarket accessible! is there something inherent to pickling lime that's needed for this recipe, or would another strong alkali like sodium carbonate work too? also, my instinct would be to add a little salt, to enhance the rice flavour - is this likely to mess up the texture or anything?
@@IAmTheUltimateRuler Sodium carbonate can also definitely do the trick, but for this specific recipe the calcium hydroxide is traditional and seems to produce a slightly superior texture in the end. Calcium Hydroxide is readily sold in Mexican grocers (and online) as 'Cal', so depending on where you live getting the stuff really isn't too bad. But yes, you can use Sodium Carbonate :)
@@ChineseCookingDemystified great to hear, thanks! I'm trying not to add too much to my already-full cupboards, and I still have some baked baking soda from a noodle-making project.
“Because of Steph’s undying love for all things jiggly”…. Don’t be so hard on yourself Chris, a year of isolation has been hard on all of our physiques. 🤣
It's pretty interesting, we've got a similar dish in the state of Karnataka in southern India, but as a dessert. It's called "Haalbai" (kinda directly translates into milk-mouth but I'm not entirely sure). It's the same process but made with milk instead of water, and the additional sugar/jaggery with cardamom powder. Of course, minus the chilli oil.
If you follow HebbarsKitchen, you will find a recipe for Halbai (she calls it rice halwa), along with a step-by-step video. I believe she’s from Karnataka, so I think her recipe is what you are looking for. I have not tried it, but I love jiggly foods just like Steph, so I may have to make both recipes now.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified we need more meatless recipes. Chinese cooking has a rich history of meatless delicacies that are underrepresented in most Chinese cooking channels.
Agreed, vegans don't get a lot of love when eating East Asian food out at restaurants, but there's so many wonderful ingredients that can elevate our home cooking. Chinese food especially can be so vegan friendly, I'm having a great time exploring the ingredients :)
Wow, I bet it's delicious. It looks like square (Korean) Tteokbokki, which is unfermented and looks like the slightly firmer version you showed at the beginning. Thanks for the meatless sauce recipe - I look forward to tryinging it!
I inherited a bag of 2018 rice from my neighbour. I hate food waste so couldn't bare to watch him throw out an entire unopened sack of rice and I just knew there must be something I could do with it but didn't know what exactly. Now I finally have the solution! Thank you!
I love your videos. That's an understatement, I LOVE your videos. In addition to excellent recipes that are truly authentic and rarely fails, you offer such great information about history and culture. I watch many Asian cooking videos, even the non English ones and I always come back to you. Been a subscriber for years, love you even more today. ❤ from California
@@RamtheCowy People make a "jelly" out of mung bean starch. A white powder sold in Asian markets in one-pound bags. It's probably more bouncy than this, and has a slightly translucent appearance. Doesn't really taste like much but it's nice if you like rubbery food, and also since it's bland and watery you can just load it up with seasonings! I've only had this from Korean markets and restaurants. It's easy to make at home!
Wow ! This has got my mind racing. A new alternative to noodles, pasta, steamed rice, etc. Cut into different sizes, shapes, and thicknesses for a variety of dishes. Can't wait to get rolling on the experiments.
FINALLY this one, the best appetizer! When I describe it people likened it to 川北凉粉 but I always tell them that the textures and the flavors are wildly different.
That's a pretty cool thing. The world of starch gels is fascinating. It kind of reminds me how Italians will make polenta, then chill it and cut it, then grill or fry it. I bet this would be glorious fried. Please try that.
As a person with insane allergies that make me follow a gluten-free, plant-based diet, I'm excited about this one!!! On the Chinese cooking channel I watch (particularly from Shanxi), I've seen hosts present a "jelly" noodle made from washing buckwheat to get the starch to make a dish similar to this. I've even purchased the round jelly noodle cutter. I would love you to explain this recipe in your measured, easy to recreate style.
@@earlystrings1 soaking grain in an alkali bath then washing it is 100% nixtamalization. My question is this to de-mycenate old potentially contaminated rice or does it help with the gellification of the starches?
@@lushedleshen In modern practice, they are for the gelatinous texture. Noticeably, there are a lot of alkaline rice food in China. But they might originate for the purpose of decontaminate old rice in ancient time.
@@jackyl110 Just like how nixtamalization for corn originated for the purposes of making sure it was safe to eat but it had the side effect of improving the texture and freeing up vital nutrients? There’s a vitamin deficiency called Pellagra that ravaged Europe and parts of the southern US that still kills people in 3rd world countries, and it all stemmed from Christopher Columbus deciding that nixtamalization was just local superstition when he brought Maize back to Europe.
Very interesting recipe. Basically just...cooked rice. In another form. My wife should not have any soy products so this is a great one to try as a tofu alternative. Thanks!
In India we always love using aged rice. What that simply means is that it's rice that's always dried for a little longer and then eaten. It's a lot more translucent than young rice (newly harvested rice dried for a short time) because it loses a lot of water. We prefer this aged rice because it doesn't go all mushy when it's cooked
Oh i haven't heard of this before, but like someone else mentioned before, it reminded me of chickpea tofu (/Burmese tofu) which we had while in Yunnan and really enjoyed! This looks so great. I'd love to see you make that on day. I really love how much care and effort you both put into researching and creating these videos.
One of the most interesting things in global cuisine is the value of ingredients. In china aged rice is cheap and fresh sticky rice is expensive. While in india its the exact opposite. Indians love our hard grain, aged rice. Coz primarily it goes better with curries and sambars. So here the fresh sticky rice is basically used for only one real use. Making batters for dosa/Idli/Vada(all from south india).
i adore your videos!! well done, and i especially LOVE the dairy free! due to my diet restrictions. although, i have pretty good results subbing asst veg milks for regular dairy. thank you so much~
It's fascinating to me, though not surprising, how many cultures make leftover cooked grain porridges, set up and sliced. In Italy it's polenta, in the US it's fried mush.
@@lowrider81hd There's a Vietnamese dish that's a rice starch jelly, which is then cut up and fried. It looks like fried potatoes as you would see here for breakfast. It's very nice! Anyway, I don't think the starch jelly is reversible, it might get soft but probably won't melt. I can definitely see how it would be good in a hot-pot if it would hold together. Great idea!
There’s something similar called 水粿 which is made with non-aged rice flour and water and then steamed, traditionally in sauce dishes. It’s a breakfast food that’s usually eaten with (spicy) 菜脯. My family usually cooks the 水粿 chopped into cubes and stir fried with spring onions/chives and prawns. Sambal/XO sauce on the side is optional 😋
@@MarcelloBrazzoli There’s no suitable English translation. You’re better off copying and pasting to Google Translate. The names won’t make any sense to mandarin speakers either so you can feel better about that.
Do you have any mild topping ideas? I want to make it, and I'd like the heat, but I don't think my bf would survive the color of the Guizhou chili sauce, let alone actually eating it.
Sure, there's tons of different ways that this's used, but for a similar sort of 'cold salad' kind of approach, maybe try using the topping from the three sliver salad recipe we put out a while back (cut back the sauce quantity from the following recipe by at least half, I'd say): www.reddit.com/r/Cooking/comments/992hhy/recipe_threesliver_salad_northern_liangban_sansi/
@@ChineseCookingDemystified awesome! Thank you so much. I sent him the link to the video, and before he even watched it, he mentioned the chilis 😂 He will appreciate it when I don't make his tongue catch fire.
Realizing - in the US, while food grade Sodium Carbonate is tough to find, and a big pain to make, slaked lime, aka Cal Mexicana is readily available. It is a bit more alkaline than Na2CO3, but does all the same stuff.
I would like to add a tip here. All that water that is used to rinse the rice can be saved and used in the garden for areas that have gotten too acidic. I would have a hard time wasting all that water myself so that is what I would use it for. Not sure of amount in one area but a little of it here and there wouldn't hurt most soil.
first time I been exposed to a "Rice tofu" was when I studied burmese food, in addition to the chickpea Burmese tofu, I learned that they also had a rice version
@@ChineseCookingDemystified That would make a lot of sense, as Yunnan borders Burma, I hope to see how it looks in the future! (Yunnan is one of my favorite places to study)
I do make a similar thing to "Burmese tofu" and I used to call it "chickpea polenta" until I found out that Ghana and its neighbours make a similar product (with black-eyed peas) they call "moi-moi". Since then, I call mine moi-moi as well because it sounds so cute.
Thank you for this recipe! I'm soy intolerant and have been missing out on so many tofu dishes. I can handle small amounts of soy sauce for cooking but have to avoid the protein as much as possible. I also want to try egg tofu someday.
The US used to have nine years of grains/beans in storage. A way to control prices and provide emergency food stores in case of droughts and other disasters. Sold it all to the Soviets. That's why it doesn't take forever to cook beans anymore.
omg I almost forgot about this rice tofu! In Thailand this can be found only in the north-est province of Thailand (my hometown) I believe but don't know if it's popular or not. It's like fading away from the my system now that's will be one of my to do list when I go back there.
Hi, thanks for sharing this! I am wondering whether you eat the rice tofu hot or cold. Drawing from the process, I would say it is cold. Could it also be enjoyed hot? I am also very interested in how you combine it in meals - like what would be served with it or what would not be too great.
"Old rice"...LOL...I go through at least 10-20 lbs a month, even more if I'm cooking at home often. Also, while I'm not (at least not yet) a fan of tofu in any form I've tried it, this rice tofu seems like it could work. "Worst" case [if you can even call it that], I still have rice cakes 😋😋😋😋
After a quick bit of Googling(tm) I'm seeing that pickling lime is not as available as it once was due to some people dying as a result of botulism in the home canning process. Apparently people didn't always rinse off the lime well enough and it neutralized the vinegar that was necessary to kill the bacteria. This of course wouldn't be an issue in what you are doing but it doesn't change the availability (or lack of) the pickling lime. If all that is required is a strong base, I'm thinking that you could substitute some "washing soda" (Na2CO3) by heating some sodium bicarb (NaHCO3) for a few hours at 200C. I've seen this done as a short cut for making ramen noodles out of spaghetti. As long as the calcium part of the pickling lime isn't key to the process, making your own washing soda should work just as well. I mean, doesn't everyone have a box of sodium bicarb kicking around?
You can get pickling lime on Amazon, at Mexican grocers, and at *some* supermarkets. You can also use Sodium Carbonate as you say, but lime is a stronger base & will produce a bit of a superior texture.
What is the mirror on the lower cupboard door for? Haven't seen one there like that. I always like to check out other people's kitchen arrangement. Love your channel, like that you give background and educate too.
A guess, but I think it's to reflect light into the dark corners of the cupboard when you're looking for something. Much easier than installing lighting or using your phone as a flashlight.
Hi @Chinese Cooking Demystified ! It's the first time ever i post answer to a video, i hope you'll be able to answer some of my questions. Im not a chinese speaker but can you write the name of the granary system you mentionned in introduction ? Also, is this system still in use nowadays ? Can you tell me more about it ? Thanks really !
Jiggly rice tofu sounds wonderful. I can’t find aged rice, so I’ll have to wait 3 years to make it. I made a reminder with an alert for 3 years from now with a link for this video.
I have a question- I made the firmer type recently and I found that my rice batter solidified SUPER quickly, like within seconds of me having it on med-high heat. I am wondering if it is because I have a cheap blender that generates a lot of heat, and the batter started cooking while blending. Or, is it because I used very old rice? (Like, probably over 5 years old? 😬) I did keep cooking it for a while after this, it got the sheen, and looking at it this morning it did set (I haven't tried it yet, although it's not like I would know if the texture is correct). Just wanted to see what you think.
It does set super fast, especially with the lower rice:water ratio. As long as you cook it for long enough and you see the sheen, you should be fine. You can also check out the uncut video we suggested within the video to check out the whole process and have a general feeling. If it doesn't taste "chewy" and "firm" but mealy instead, then very likely it's uncooked through.
It does set super fast, especially with the lower rice:water ratio. As long as you cook it for long enough and you see the sheen, you should be fine. You can also check out the uncut video we suggested within the video to check out the whole process and have a general feeling. If it doesn't taste "chewy" and "firm" but mealy instead, then very likely it's uncooked through.
This one, yeah? ua-cam.com/video/-ItKK-2ymJ0/v-deo.html That's corn liangfen, a very similar product :) Nice video too. This sort of 'rice tofu' could be thought of as a sub-category of sorts.
Hi, thank you for the wonderful recipes I lived in Beijing in 2008 and all I remember doing was eating. I think I visited a few amazing places as well while eating. I have a website and live in Japan. I like to post recipes and videos of foods that are and have always been gluten free. Can I link to your video in a post? I have my rice soaking now, but I already know I’m going to love it.
Great video!! I'll definitely give this recipe a go sometime. Just curious, is rice tofu a common translation of the dish? I've seen this dish (or at least ones similar to it, made from rice as well), and though I don't recall what they were called, I don't remember hearing rice tofu.
This dish is pretty similar to "Khao Ram Fuen" of Shan people. It could be found in Chiang Rai province of Thailand and area with Shan community. It could also be made from pea, peanut, and Lentil.
So the name "Ram Fuen" is very similar to the name 凉粉 in Chinese and I'd assume they both mean the noodle jelly. But what does "khao" mean? I see that a lot and still trying to figure out what it means.
Interesting, I've never heard or seen rice tofu anywhere here...unless it goes by another English name. I"ve seen rice cake but usually as a sweet dessert, or like this but as a Korean dish rather then Chinese. I may try this as I usually stock up on jasmine rice when it goes on sale here, so I can easily have some rice that is 1.5 - 2 years old.
Yes. The famous dessert from Yibin Sichuan (the town of the famous "burning noodles") is basically the same thing but served with high quality brown sugar syrup.
Never had Korean muk, but just like this product, Tibetan laping could be thought of as a sub-category of 'liangfen'. So definitely related, but IIRC laping is made of mungbean
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Yeah, same with muk. But since both rice and mungbean have a very mild/neutral flavor, I thought muk/laping would be very similar to this.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Tibetan laping is a variant of LiangPi, which is very popular in central and northwest China. LiangFen has a different texture with LiangPi.
I once accidentally ordered this from a Chinese place in Boston and I didn’t love the texture. Could have been very influenced by my expectations because I thought I ordered a noodle dish.
I had to play the video back five times because I’m about to start making this but when I would hear “to 100 grams of basmati rice” and then get up to go measure that my brain kept telling me “200 grams of basmati rice.” Lol
Just out of curiosity, do you think this will work if you start out with rice flour? Not the glutinous kind but the kind you normally use in Indian cooking?
I'm not familiar with the Indian rice flour, it depends on what kind of rice they use and how they grind it. It needs to be aged rice or rice that's not sticky at all. The Chinese/Thai style rice flour wouldn't work.
Sooooo.....this is basically RIce liang fen? Being from the north I've never seen this dish made with rice before, only with mung bean and sweet potato starch.
Yes, in Sichuan it's called 米凉粉 I believe and it's basically the same thing as 凉糕 in Yibin. Using rice to make liangfen and also the famous liangxia is a very southwest China thing.
Hey guys, a few notes:
1. If you like, for the firm sort of rice tofu, we have a full uncut version of the process. If you're making it for the first time - especially if you're opting for the firm sort - I'd recommend giving it a watch. These sorts of uncut videos are a little rough to watch of course, but they give a nice sort of... texture to the timing of the whole process.
2. So personally, I (Chris) prefer the firmer rice tofu, while Steph prefers the jiggly one. Completely personal preference. I think that if you're new to the product, the firmer sort *might* be a easier introduction.
3. Feel free to scale these recipes up. In Guizhou you can buy these at the market, and the vendors obviously make the stuff in these monster-sized woks. If you're making the firm sort, I'd at least double the recipe in order to get a bit of a better yield.
4. For the chili sauce, I just learned that our favorite version of Lao Gan Ma is translated as "Fried Chili in Oil" and not 'Chili Crisp' (the latter being a specific product called 香辣脆油辣椒)! Oof. Learn something new every day. In any event, you could totally sub in Chili crisp here - not a problem - but I decided to call for Fried Chili in Oil, mostly because we do kind of like it better.
5. Color-wise, rice tofu in Guizhou also coms in other colors. There's green, that's made with some spinach juice in with the liquid. There's orange, that's made with carrot juice. There's another kind of much firmer almost rice cake like rice tofu product that's called "灰碱粑", it's darkish grey and is made by soaking the rice with ashes from burnt plants.
6 Rice tofu is seen throughout southwest China, because itself doesn't have taste, it's eaten as a savory dish or a sweet dessert.
We're going to Baise(百色) and Nanning(南宁) in Guangdxi next week and it'll be a journey for rice noodles, remember to check out our Instagram page for travel and food pictures: instagram.com/chinesecookingdemystified/ .
About how long would this keep, if you didn't eat it right away?
@@jameshaulenbeek5931 Keeps well in the fridge for three days. I also left it out in room temp (~20C) for two days and it's fine. The alkaline really helps it keep.
looks fab, and almost supermarket accessible! is there something inherent to pickling lime that's needed for this recipe, or would another strong alkali like sodium carbonate work too?
also, my instinct would be to add a little salt, to enhance the rice flavour - is this likely to mess up the texture or anything?
@@IAmTheUltimateRuler Sodium carbonate can also definitely do the trick, but for this specific recipe the calcium hydroxide is traditional and seems to produce a slightly superior texture in the end. Calcium Hydroxide is readily sold in Mexican grocers (and online) as 'Cal', so depending on where you live getting the stuff really isn't too bad.
But yes, you can use Sodium Carbonate :)
@@ChineseCookingDemystified great to hear, thanks! I'm trying not to add too much to my already-full cupboards, and I still have some baked baking soda from a noodle-making project.
“Because of Steph’s undying love for all things jiggly”…. Don’t be so hard on yourself Chris, a year of isolation has been hard on all of our physiques. 🤣
It's pretty interesting, we've got a similar dish in the state of Karnataka in southern India, but as a dessert. It's called "Haalbai" (kinda directly translates into milk-mouth but I'm not entirely sure). It's the same process but made with milk instead of water, and the additional sugar/jaggery with cardamom powder. Of course, minus the chilli oil.
that sounds soooo good!
Damn son I needed this dish yesterday. Is it more on the firm or jiggly side?
If you follow HebbarsKitchen, you will find a recipe for Halbai (she calls it rice halwa), along with a step-by-step video. I believe she’s from Karnataka, so I think her recipe is what you are looking for.
I have not tried it, but I love jiggly foods just like Steph, so I may have to make both recipes now.
I love it when you guys have meatless recipes. :)
Ha! Accidentally vegetarian again without even realizing it. Appreciate the reminder, I can update the tags haha
@@ChineseCookingDemystified we need more meatless recipes. Chinese cooking has a rich history of meatless delicacies that are underrepresented in most Chinese cooking channels.
@@ElieBei seconded! it would be super interesting and valuable
Agreed, vegans don't get a lot of love when eating East Asian food out at restaurants, but there's so many wonderful ingredients that can elevate our home cooking. Chinese food especially can be so vegan friendly, I'm having a great time exploring the ingredients :)
yup!
The tofu I always needed but never knew it!!
Wow, I bet it's delicious. It looks like square (Korean) Tteokbokki, which is unfermented and looks like the slightly firmer version you showed at the beginning. Thanks for the meatless sauce recipe - I look forward to tryinging it!
I inherited a bag of 2018 rice from my neighbour. I hate food waste so couldn't bare to watch him throw out an entire unopened sack of rice and I just knew there must be something I could do with it but didn't know what exactly. Now I finally have the solution! Thank you!
It reminds me of starch jelly, usually made with mung bean starch or acorn starch. I think it's basically the same thing but with rice
I was thinking of the exact same thing. Reminds me of Liang Fen
@@klau8947 yes! It uses a method like that
my thought too
I love your videos. That's an understatement, I LOVE your videos. In addition to excellent recipes that are truly authentic and rarely fails, you offer such great information about history and culture. I watch many Asian cooking videos, even the non English ones and I always come back to you. Been a subscriber for years, love you even more today. ❤ from California
man it's wild how many dishes from china i am unfamiliar with despite being born and raised there, as well as being really into food lol
That’s my favourite part of this channel!! It’s interesting to learn more about different regions I don’t know 😅
It's a whole beauty of Chinese cooking, isn't it? :)
I'm thankful for the vegetarian or no-meat recipes you teach, it's really helpful for me who's trying to be healthy. Keep it up! Great content!
This recipe sounds like it would be an amazing alternative to mung bean liang fen! I appreciate the little tidbit of history about the granaries too.
what's mung bean liang fen?
@@RamtheCowy People make a "jelly" out of mung bean starch. A white powder sold in Asian markets in one-pound bags. It's probably more bouncy than this, and has a slightly translucent appearance. Doesn't really taste like much but it's nice if you like rubbery food, and also since it's bland and watery you can just load it up with seasonings! I've only had this from Korean markets and restaurants. It's easy to make at home!
@@leonardpearlman4017 oh cool thanks!
Wow !
This has got my mind racing. A new alternative to noodles, pasta, steamed rice, etc.
Cut into different sizes, shapes, and thicknesses for a variety of dishes. Can't wait to get rolling on the experiments.
Will immediately throw several plastic bags of jasmine rice marked 2021 into the back of my pantry shelf. But in the meantime...
Damn I wanna like ur comment but its
✨69✨
Hello from 2024! It's time to make some rice tofu!
FINALLY this one, the best appetizer! When I describe it people likened it to 川北凉粉 but I always tell them that the textures and the flavors are wildly different.
That's a pretty cool thing. The world of starch gels is fascinating. It kind of reminds me how Italians will make polenta, then chill it and cut it, then grill or fry it. I bet this would be glorious fried.
Please try that.
Be careful w blending wet rice ! Some lower wattage motors can’t handle the texture and the blender will have issues!
As a person with insane allergies that make me follow a gluten-free, plant-based diet, I'm excited about this one!!!
On the Chinese cooking channel I watch (particularly from Shanxi), I've seen hosts present a "jelly" noodle made from washing buckwheat to get the starch to make a dish similar to this. I've even purchased the round jelly noodle cutter. I would love you to explain this recipe in your measured, easy to recreate style.
Happy to see you guys upload on my birthday, making my day even better ! Love it
Nixtamalized rice. Yes!
Not exactly, but yeah I got you :-)
@@earlystrings1 soaking grain in an alkali bath then washing it is 100% nixtamalization.
My question is this to de-mycenate old potentially contaminated rice or does it help with the gellification of the starches?
@@lushedleshen In modern practice, they are for the gelatinous texture. Noticeably, there are a lot of alkaline rice food in China. But they might originate for the purpose of decontaminate old rice in ancient time.
@@jackyl110 Just like how nixtamalization for corn originated for the purposes of making sure it was safe to eat but it had the side effect of improving the texture and freeing up vital nutrients?
There’s a vitamin deficiency called Pellagra that ravaged Europe and parts of the southern US that still kills people in 3rd world countries, and it all stemmed from Christopher Columbus deciding that nixtamalization was just local superstition when he brought Maize back to Europe.
I already know how the paste should taste like from making way too many pastry creams. Brilliant comparison.
Very interesting recipe. Basically just...cooked rice. In another form. My wife should not have any soy products so this is a great one to try as a tofu alternative. Thanks!
In India we always love using aged rice. What that simply means is that it's rice that's always dried for a little longer and then eaten. It's a lot more translucent than young rice (newly harvested rice dried for a short time) because it loses a lot of water. We prefer this aged rice because it doesn't go all mushy when it's cooked
Oh i haven't heard of this before, but like someone else mentioned before, it reminded me of chickpea tofu (/Burmese tofu) which we had while in Yunnan and really enjoyed! This looks so great. I'd love to see you make that on day. I really love how much care and effort you both put into researching and creating these videos.
One of the most interesting things in global cuisine is the value of ingredients. In china aged rice is cheap and fresh sticky rice is expensive. While in india its the exact opposite. Indians love our hard grain, aged rice. Coz primarily it goes better with curries and sambars. So here the fresh sticky rice is basically used for only one real use. Making batters for dosa/Idli/Vada(all from south india).
i adore your videos!! well done, and i especially LOVE the dairy free! due to my diet restrictions. although, i have pretty good results subbing asst veg milks for regular dairy. thank you so much~
It's fascinating to me, though not surprising, how many cultures make leftover cooked grain porridges, set up and sliced. In Italy it's polenta, in the US it's fried mush.
Interesting recipe. Would the firm ones be good in a hotpot, or would it fall apart do you think?
Sure, would be tasty I think. Just be sure not to cook it for too long.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified What would happen if you over cooked it? Turn mushy?
@@VulcanBaum687 presumably, it will melt and turn mushy
You can coat it in cornstarch for a bit, that’ll make it firm, it might work but I’m jot sure. It works with tofu.
@@lowrider81hd There's a Vietnamese dish that's a rice starch jelly, which is then cut up and fried. It looks like fried potatoes as you would see here for breakfast. It's very nice! Anyway, I don't think the starch jelly is reversible, it might get soft but probably won't melt. I can definitely see how it would be good in a hot-pot if it would hold together. Great idea!
There’s something similar called 水粿 which is made with non-aged rice flour and water and then steamed, traditionally in sauce dishes. It’s a breakfast food that’s usually eaten with (spicy) 菜脯. My family usually cooks the 水粿 chopped into cubes and stir fried with spring onions/chives and prawns. Sambal/XO sauce on the side is optional 😋
Jeremy, for non chinese person, can you point out the name of the dish or a recipe ? 🙏
@@MarcelloBrazzoli There’s no suitable English translation. You’re better off copying and pasting to Google Translate. The names won’t make any sense to mandarin speakers either so you can feel better about that.
@@MarcelloBrazzoli en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chwee_kueh
Do you have any mild topping ideas? I want to make it, and I'd like the heat, but I don't think my bf would survive the color of the Guizhou chili sauce, let alone actually eating it.
Sure, there's tons of different ways that this's used, but for a similar sort of 'cold salad' kind of approach, maybe try using the topping from the three sliver salad recipe we put out a while back (cut back the sauce quantity from the following recipe by at least half, I'd say): www.reddit.com/r/Cooking/comments/992hhy/recipe_threesliver_salad_northern_liangban_sansi/
@@ChineseCookingDemystified awesome! Thank you so much. I sent him the link to the video, and before he even watched it, he mentioned the chilis 😂
He will appreciate it when I don't make his tongue catch fire.
Love the content from this channel! Been living in Shenzhen myself and it's an amazing food experience anywhere I go in this great country!
It's so simple and yet so inventive!
Realizing - in the US, while food grade Sodium Carbonate is tough to find, and a big pain to make, slaked lime, aka Cal Mexicana is readily available. It is a bit more alkaline than Na2CO3, but does all the same stuff.
I would like to add a tip here. All that water that is used to rinse the rice can be saved and used in the garden for areas that have gotten too acidic. I would have a hard time wasting all that water myself so that is what I would use it for. Not sure of amount in one area but a little of it here and there wouldn't hurt most soil.
Maybe not the first couple rinse, but the rinse afterwards for sure.
Oh man, thanks for posting. Can’t wait to try this one!! You rock. 👍👍👍👍
You guys are so good at this!
first time I been exposed to a "Rice tofu" was when I studied burmese food, in addition to the chickpea Burmese tofu, I learned that they also had a rice version
Interesting! Yunnan also has a version of chickpea tofu but interestingly it's grey color.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified
That would make a lot of sense, as Yunnan borders Burma, I hope to see how it looks in the future!
(Yunnan is one of my favorite places to study)
In Thailand, this dish usually available near Myanmar border too. Usually linked to Shan people though.
I do make a similar thing to "Burmese tofu" and I used to call it "chickpea polenta" until I found out that Ghana and its neighbours make a similar product (with black-eyed peas) they call "moi-moi". Since then, I call mine moi-moi as well because it sounds so cute.
Thank you for this recipe! I'm soy intolerant and have been missing out on so many tofu dishes. I can handle small amounts of soy sauce for cooking but have to avoid the protein as much as possible. I also want to try egg tofu someday.
Very excited to take a try at this. One of my favorite dishes. Thank you!
This sounds like a firmer version of what I get when I attempt to make juk. Nice to know some intent can make it into something tasty!
You made Laoganma even better! Massive respect.
I can’t WAIT to make this oooooh! Yum! Thanks so much for the recipe! 💕
So much cool information in this video! 😍 A random thought is that alkaline water maeby could actually be used for soap making 😃
While explaining the granary policy, you took a few shots from what looks like a museum exhibit. Can you tell us where it is? Thanks.
The US used to have nine years of grains/beans in storage. A way to control prices and provide emergency food stores in case of droughts and other disasters. Sold it all to the Soviets. That's why it doesn't take forever to cook beans anymore.
omg I almost forgot about this rice tofu! In Thailand this can be found only in the north-est province of Thailand (my hometown) I believe but don't know if it's popular or not. It's like fading away from the my system now that's will be one of my to do list when I go back there.
Hi, thanks for sharing this! I am wondering whether you eat the rice tofu hot or cold. Drawing from the process, I would say it is cold. Could it also be enjoyed hot? I am also very interested in how you combine it in meals - like what would be served with it or what would not be too great.
Thank you for simple explanation. I will try the recipe and give you feedback soon. Loveeee
This looks really good and I think I’m really going to try it!
Mien people make a similar dish called Ka liang fen. We have tomato and tamarind broth and fermented bean paste and eaten like a cold soup.
Being completely honest, I despise rice cakes so I'm very happy to learn about this jiggly alternative :)
Do you have a recipe for Konica/bean jelly? Or even a cold shirataki noodles?
just scrolling through your channel wishing for a new video and then this shows up! and it's really neat!
Aha, not first again.
Another great recipe mate.
The people from Patreon making use of that early look to get 'first'. The *true* Patreon value-add
Thanks for the info on pickling lime.
"Old rice"...LOL...I go through at least 10-20 lbs a month, even more if I'm cooking at home often.
Also, while I'm not (at least not yet) a fan of tofu in any form I've tried it, this rice tofu seems like it could work.
"Worst" case [if you can even call it that], I still have rice cakes 😋😋😋😋
After a quick bit of Googling(tm) I'm seeing that pickling lime is not as available as it once was due to some people dying as a result of botulism in the home canning process. Apparently people didn't always rinse off the lime well enough and it neutralized the vinegar that was necessary to kill the bacteria. This of course wouldn't be an issue in what you are doing but it doesn't change the availability (or lack of) the pickling lime. If all that is required is a strong base, I'm thinking that you could substitute some "washing soda" (Na2CO3) by heating some sodium bicarb (NaHCO3) for a few hours at 200C. I've seen this done as a short cut for making ramen noodles out of spaghetti. As long as the calcium part of the pickling lime isn't key to the process, making your own washing soda should work just as well. I mean, doesn't everyone have a box of sodium bicarb kicking around?
You can get pickling lime on Amazon, at Mexican grocers, and at *some* supermarkets. You can also use Sodium Carbonate as you say, but lime is a stronger base & will produce a bit of a superior texture.
What is the mirror on the lower cupboard door for? Haven't seen one there like that. I always like to check out other people's kitchen arrangement. Love your channel, like that you give background and educate too.
A guess, but I think it's to reflect light into the dark corners of the cupboard when you're looking for something. Much easier than installing lighting or using your phone as a flashlight.
I have no idea, lol. It's there when we moved in this place. Probably from the previous tenant.
Excellent as always !
Aha now basmati is something we definitely DO have in the UK!
Hi @Chinese Cooking Demystified !
It's the first time ever i post answer to a video, i hope you'll be able to answer some of my questions. Im not a chinese speaker but can you write the name of the granary system you mentionned in introduction ? Also, is this system still in use nowadays ? Can you tell me more about it ?
Thanks really !
Steph, I'm with you on the jiggly foods. Respect the jiggle!
Jiggly rice tofu sounds wonderful. I can’t find aged rice, so I’ll have to wait 3 years to make it. I made a reminder with an alert for 3 years from now with a link for this video.
I have a question- I made the firmer type recently and I found that my rice batter solidified SUPER quickly, like within seconds of me having it on med-high heat. I am wondering if it is because I have a cheap blender that generates a lot of heat, and the batter started cooking while blending. Or, is it because I used very old rice? (Like, probably over 5 years old? 😬) I did keep cooking it for a while after this, it got the sheen, and looking at it this morning it did set (I haven't tried it yet, although it's not like I would know if the texture is correct). Just wanted to see what you think.
It does set super fast, especially with the lower rice:water ratio. As long as you cook it for long enough and you see the sheen, you should be fine. You can also check out the uncut video we suggested within the video to check out the whole process and have a general feeling. If it doesn't taste "chewy" and "firm" but mealy instead, then very likely it's uncooked through.
It does set super fast, especially with the lower rice:water ratio. As long as you cook it for long enough and you see the sheen, you should be fine. You can also check out the uncut video we suggested within the video to check out the whole process and have a general feeling. If it doesn't taste "chewy" and "firm" but mealy instead, then very likely it's uncooked through.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Thank you! It turned out delicious so I think I cooked it long enough! :)
finally, a type of rice my indian ass has lol. i remember how mortified my mom was when I told her I want to make rice, sticky, intentionally. lol
Oh wow, I think I've seen the same recipe in Dianxi Xiaoge channel. She made the jelly from rice, corn, mung bean and soybean.
This one, yeah? ua-cam.com/video/-ItKK-2ymJ0/v-deo.html That's corn liangfen, a very similar product :) Nice video too. This sort of 'rice tofu' could be thought of as a sub-category of sorts.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified God, that looks so good too. Love both of your channels; such a contrast between city and rural cooking.
Hi, thank you for the wonderful recipes I lived in Beijing in 2008 and all I remember doing was eating. I think I visited a few amazing places as well while eating. I have a website and live in Japan. I like to post recipes and videos of foods that are and have always been gluten free. Can I link to your video in a post? I have my rice soaking now, but I already know I’m going to love it.
Great video!! I'll definitely give this recipe a go sometime. Just curious, is rice tofu a common translation of the dish? I've seen this dish (or at least ones similar to it, made from rice as well), and though I don't recall what they were called, I don't remember hearing rice tofu.
The one made with rice is either called rice tofu 米豆腐 or rice liangfen 米凉粉.
Interested to try these!
This dish is pretty similar to "Khao Ram Fuen" of Shan people. It could be found in Chiang Rai province of Thailand and area with Shan community.
It could also be made from pea, peanut, and Lentil.
So the name "Ram Fuen" is very similar to the name 凉粉 in Chinese and I'd assume they both mean the noodle jelly. But what does "khao" mean? I see that a lot and still trying to figure out what it means.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified rice lol
@@kaizerkoala Shan people have some similar food as the food from southwest China.
"appreciate the Jiggle" -steph
That needs to be on a t-shirt
Better not on a woman's t-shirt though ;-)
Booobies
Im fr.Philippines 🇵🇭
I love chinese food
Healthy & yummy ..
Formerly Work fr.Macau w/❤
I fully appreciate the jiggle!
Thanks for another great video
Is this a relative of Korean Tteokbokki? Our "large Warehouse store" started selling kits... which I've taken up as a lazy dinner with glee.
I think it's closer to the Korean mung bean jelly or acorn jelly.
Reminds me of Li Ziqi cooking, she made this quite often (although not with rice but mungbeans)
What she made is Liangfen, popular especially in Northern China.
Looks delicious
Oh wow tofu made out of rice milk. That's cool
Cheung Fun is good. When the rice for cheung fun soaks is it in fridge or room tempereture?
Usually room temp, it can be soaked for a shorter period if weather is hot.
Is the finished product freezable and is it possible to add flavorings to it before firming it up in the fridge?
Interesting, I've never heard or seen rice tofu anywhere here...unless it goes by another English name. I"ve seen rice cake but usually as a sweet dessert, or like this but as a Korean dish rather then Chinese. I may try this as I usually stock up on jasmine rice when it goes on sale here, so I can easily have some rice that is 1.5 - 2 years old.
Amazing channel
love the channel! . . . have ya'll considered a beverage episode? . . . tea of course
I'm actually pretty certain we have 3 year old rice in a jar on our counter. But it's mixed with brown rice. What effect might that have?
Interesting & looks yummy. Is this the same as Steamed Rice Cup Cake (缽仔糕)?
can it be eaten with sweet stuff? like a dark sugar syrup or something like that
Yes. The famous dessert from Yibin Sichuan (the town of the famous "burning noodles") is basically the same thing but served with high quality brown sugar syrup.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified oh nice thanks for the info I'll try it for sure
This looks very similar to Tibetian laping or Korean muk. How does it compare to those in terms of texture or flavor?
Never had Korean muk, but just like this product, Tibetan laping could be thought of as a sub-category of 'liangfen'. So definitely related, but IIRC laping is made of mungbean
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Yeah, same with muk. But since both rice and mungbean have a very mild/neutral flavor, I thought muk/laping would be very similar to this.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Tibetan laping is a variant of LiangPi, which is very popular in central and northwest China. LiangFen has a different texture with LiangPi.
I once accidentally ordered this from a Chinese place in Boston and I didn’t love the texture. Could have been very influenced by my expectations because I thought I ordered a noodle dish.
I remember seeing it in China and wondering what would happen if you deep fried it. Never thought to make it at home, that's for sure!
Do you have a suggestion for a chili-free sauce?
I had to play the video back five times because I’m about to start making this but when I would hear “to 100 grams of basmati rice” and then get up to go measure that my brain kept telling me “200 grams of basmati rice.” Lol
Is there any way to do this without the lime? Would be great if there was some way to avoid "wasting" all that rinsing water.
Just out of curiosity, do you think this will work if you start out with rice flour? Not the glutinous kind but the kind you normally use in Indian cooking?
I'm not familiar with the Indian rice flour, it depends on what kind of rice they use and how they grind it. It needs to be aged rice or rice that's not sticky at all. The Chinese/Thai style rice flour wouldn't work.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Thanks so much! It's definitely not sticky, so I might give the recipe a go with it!
Is it possible to use rice flour instead of blitzing your own rice?
The dog steals the show, omg!!!
Sooooo.....this is basically RIce liang fen? Being from the north I've never seen this dish made with rice before, only with mung bean and sweet potato starch.
Yes, in Sichuan it's called 米凉粉 I believe and it's basically the same thing as 凉糕 in Yibin. Using rice to make liangfen and also the famous liangxia is a very southwest China thing.
So now i tried your recipe with quinoa. Lets see how it worked out... :)
Undying Love for All Things Jiggly
They look like they have the consistency of polenta when cut into thin bars.
Sooo what's the end product going to look like if I attempt to make this with non-aged rice? ☺️
Mush
Great video!!