| Chinese name: 家常豆腐 (jiā cháng dòu fǔ)
Style: Sichuan (Szechuan) Cuisine
Characteristic: Home-style tofu is ruddy-gold in color, tasting salt, fresh and a little bit hot and sweet. The tofu in it tastes rather soft and delicious.
A common flavor in Sichuan Cuisine, home-style flavor is mainly made by bean paste with chili, salt and sauce, summed up from the local Sichuan people’s daily cooking. Home-style tofu is a good dish to go with rice, nutritious but simple to cook. As a home style dish, it can be made according to personal taste based on its basic flavor. |  |
| Ingredients:
lean pork (or beef), 2 ounces; firm tofu, 8 ounces; 1 green pepper; 1 red pepper |  |
| Seasonings:
half a teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 teaspoon cooking wine; 2 teaspoons sauce; 4 teaspoons bean paste with chili sauce |  |
| Preparation:
1. Clean the lean pork and cut it into slices, about 2-3 cm long and 1-2 cm wide. Put it into a dish.
2. Clean the firm tofu and cut it into triangular or diamond-shaped slices. Put it into a dish.
3. Remove and discard seeds from chili pepper, then cleaned with water. Cut into chunks and put into a dish. |  |
Steps to Cook Home-style Tofu |  Step 1: Coat the lean pork slices by adding in sauce and corn starch (cooking wine, salt, chicken bouillon could also be added in to get rid of the fishy smell of the meat). Stir well it with chopsticks until you feel it is a bit sticky. |
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| Step 2: Place a wok over high heat until hot. Add in 1 tablespoons of oil, and add in the tofu chunks one by one with chopsticks when the oil is hot. Fry it for about 30 seconds over low heat until both sides turn yellow. Turn off the heat, and pick the tofu out of the wok into a colander on a small basin to remove the spare oil in tofu. |
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| Step 3: Turn on the heat, and add in 1 tablespoon of oil until hot, swirling to coat all sides. Add in bean paste with chili sauce to be stir fried for 5 seconds until fragrant. Add in the coated lean pork, 1 teaspoon of sauce and 1 teaspoon of cooking wine. Stir-fry it for about 15 seconds until the lean pork is 80% cooked and turns yellowish. |
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| Step 4: Pour in the fried tofu slices to be stir-fried for about 10 seconds until mixed. Pour in the chili pepper chunks, half a teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of white sugar. Stir-fry it for 15 seconds until well mixed. |
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| Step 5: Finally, home-style tofu completes. Turn off the heat, remove them out of the wok and put them in a prepared fine porcelain plate. |
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| A plate of typical home-style tofu comes out, with beautiful color and alluring fragrance. |
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Tips: Besides chili peppers, black fungus, winter bamboo shoot, carrot and garlic sprouts can also be used as the fixings to go with tofu in this dish according to your favorite.
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Travelers' Voices on Home-style Tofu