Vegetable Dishes 8: Frozen Tofu

Freeze tofu for one night, cut into square pieces, and boil them to rid them of their bean-like smell. Add them to a mixture of chicken broth and extracts, ham extract, and pork extract and braise. When serving, remove the chicken and ham and the like, leaving only the shitake and the winter bamboo shoots. …

Vegetable Dishes 7: Cheng Liwan’s Tofu

During the 23rd year of the Qianlong Emperor, I visited the home of Cheng Liwan with Jin Shanmen and had a pan-fried tofu that was unparalleled in deliciousness. The tofu was dry and golden brown on both sides without the least bit of cooking liquid. It also had a hint of the delicate savouriness one …

Vegetable Dishes 6: Prefect Wang’s Babao Tofu

Take tender tofu, then slice and cut it until thoroughly pulverized. Add to it pulverized1 shitake, pulverized mushrooms, pulverized pine nuts, pulverized melon seeds, pulverized chicken, and pulverized dried-cured ham. Put everything into concentrated chicken extract, and boil2 the mixture until boiling, then plate and serve.3 One can also used douhua in place of the …

Vegetable Dishes 5: Furong Tofu

Take douhua,1 add boiling water to it and soak for three times to rid it of its bean-like smell. Add it to chicken broth at medium boil. When plating, add laver and peeled shrimp. 芙蓉2豆腐 用腐腦，放開水泡三次，去豆氣，入雞湯中滾，起鍋時加紫菜、蝦肉。 Notes: 1I used "douhua" in the translation, but the actual term used in the Chinese text is funao 腐腦, …

Vegetable Dishes 4: Qing Yuan’s Tofu

Take a tea cup of douchi1, soak them in water until very soft, then add them to tofu and stir-fry them together in a wok.2 慶元豆腐 將豆豉一茶杯，水泡爛，入豆腐同炒起鍋。 Notes: 1Douchi is a fermented and dried soy-bean product. It's one of the oldest, and possibly first Chinese processed soybean food. This simplicity of this dish allows one …

Vegetable Dishes 3: Zhang Kai’s Tofu

Pound the dried shrimp until they are pulverized, then add them to tofu. Heat up a wok and stir-fry everything dry with seasonings.1 張愷豆腐 將蝦米搗碎入豆腐中，起油鍋，加作料乾炒。 Note: 1 What seasonings? My guess is light soy sauce or salt. And of course, oil for the stir-frying.

Vegetable Dishes 2: Yang Zhongcheng’s Tofu

Take tender tofu and cook it in water to rid it of its bean-like smell,1 next put it into chicken broth, and boil with abalone2 slices for several moments. Add zaoyou3 and shitake then plate the dish. The chicken extract used must be quite concentrated and the abalone must be thinly sliced.4 楊中丞豆腐 用嫩豆腐煮去豆氣，入雞湯，同鰒魚片滾數刻，加糟油、香蕈起鍋。雞汁須濃，魚片要薄。 Notes: …

Vegetable Dishes 1: Jiang Shilang’s Tofu (蔣侍郎豆腐)

Remove the skin on both sides of each piece of tofu. Cut each piece into sixteen slices and sun dry them slightly. Sear the tofu in hot rendered lard but only add them when whiffs of smoke appear over the lard. Sprinkle a large pinch of salt on the tofu, flip them, then add a …

Vegetable Dishes (雜素菜單)

Dishes can be split into those that are meat-based or vegetable-based, just like clothes can split into those worn over or under other garments. Those privileged and wealthy indulge themselves more on vegetable dishes than they do with meat-based dishes.1 The following is the list of “Assorted vegetable dishes”.2 菜有葷素，猶衣有表裡也。富貴之人，嗜素甚於嗜葷。作«素菜單»。 Notes: 1Saying that rich and …