I recently made some chicken glutinous rice and needed to add some dried chestnuts. Since I was going to soften the chestnuts anyway, I thought I just cooked the whole packet and freeze half for later use. I just defroze the soften chestnuts in the refrigerator overnight for this dish. I bought this natural dried whole chestnut and thus the color was brown. Not good looking but tasted the same and healthier since it was not whiten.
This was like a braised soy sauce pork except I added a handful of dried chili peppers (not the bird eye dried chili) for some kick. Since my girls were eating this, so not much to create a huge kick, just a little that I didn't much notice but my little Edda said the tofu tasted spicy. Probably because I didn't soften it in warm water first, I just added some to stir-fry with the oil. Perhaps that was why it was less spicy. You can certainly add more if you like it spicier. You can also omit the dried chestnuts or substitute it with Chinese mushroom.
Ingredients:
- 2-3 boneless pork chops, cut into small pieces
- 12 dried whole chestnuts, rinsed and simmered for 1 hour until soften. (do it a day before)
- 1 block of extra firm tofu, cut into pieces
- 1 handful of dried chili
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 piece of ginger, smashed
- 1 or 2 star anise
Sauce:
LKK premium dark soy sauce, Hua Tiao Chinese cooking wine, Kikkoman soy sauce, 2 tsp. brown sugar, a little salt to taste.
Method:
1. Heat up a cooking pot, add a little oil. Stir-fry the ginger and garlic until brown. Add in the dried chili and star anise. Stir a little. Add in the pork, pan-sealed it. Add the Hua Tiao cooking wine, stir a little. Add in enough water to cover 3/4 of the meat. Add in the dark soy sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar and a little salt.
2. Add in the chestnuts, stir to mix well. Place the cut tofu on top, scoop some of the sauce to coat the tofu. Cover and let it simmer for 3 hours or until the pork is tender.
3. After 3 hours, lightly give it a quick stir to mix in the tofu, be careful not to break it. Serve hot!
Neat recipe. I love sticky rice, but admit I've never made it. I'm gonna have to try.
ReplyDeleteHomey and comfort food! I like.
ReplyDeleteI need to hunt down some chesnuts that are cooked and pre packed man! I saw some at my grocery store but need to roast them..and too lazy! LOL.
ReplyDeleteNever try dried water chestnut before. It looks more like chestnut to me. The combi sounds interesting.
ReplyDeleteoh yum! love braised tofu...and thanks for the inspiration, lemme go buy some chestnuts hehehe
ReplyDeleteI think what u hv there are chestnuts(fung lut/lut zi). Water chestnuts are ma tai. Is this correct?
ReplyDeleteFirst time I see water chestnuts added to this dish and I kind of like it. Yummy with rice!
ReplyDeleteBelinda, you will love the sticky rice. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Tigerfish.
Daphne, cooked and prepacked? Show a picture if you find it because I want to see how it looks like. :P
F4T, I think it's chestnut. For some reason I think the packet I bought said dried water chestnuts, since I copied it from the packet.
You're welcome Rita.
Thanks for the correction Anon. I thought it's the dried version of water chestnut, didn't know there is a difference. I changed it to dried whole chestnuts.
Thanks noobcook, but I think it's yummier in sticky rice pot or rice dumplings.
I realize you never post any egg tofu dish. Would like to see you come up with hot pan egg tofu dish =)
ReplyDeleteHi Jessica, do you mean the Japanese egg tofu? I have one in my blog. But if you mean some sort of tofu mixed with egg, etc then I don't have one. I also don't have a hot pan. :P
ReplyDelete