Hey guys, a few notes: 1. So you can use this basic approach to make your own block tofu, but you'll need a tofu press. You'll want the sort that's more like a box (some tofu presses don't have sides) - either wood or plastic is ok. 1-2 hours for soft tofu, half a day for firm tofu. 2. So not only are there a ton of sauce varieties, there's also a ton of tofu varieties! Some mix other kinds of beans (e.g. black beans) into their tofu, some add peanuts, some let the tofu soak in peanut milk... this is one of those things that's more of a *category* of food than a dish per se. 3. For the sauce, some use grilled fresh chilis, some use Sichuan peppercorns in place of the Mujiangzi oil, some will drizzle in some smoking hot melted lard, some use smoked chili flakes... there's a lot of different choices. 4. In hindsight, we ate at that restaurant again last night, and we think that maybe we should've pounded the chilis a bit more thoroughly. Feel free to use a food processor. 5. So right, lemongrass oil.What I was thinking in my head was a product like this: www.amazon.com/Pure-Lemongrass-Extract-Natural-bottle/dp/B00F7YC0ZM But honestly... thinking on it again I wonder if making something homemade might be better. If you have a good idea for how best to do that we're all ears... what I'd probably play around with is pounding fresh lemongrass until super fine, mixing in with a neutral oil, and leaving it to infuse for a couple days. 6. When making the douhua, the sides will inevitably be less firm than the center. That said, a bit reason why our sides were less than beautiful was because we didn't have a flatter basket. In Sichuan they use something like this: bit.ly/2HnzltZ Still doesn't matter too much in the end, but yeah it could've been prettier. 7. Oh! Almost forgot the restaurant information. Will update the description box with it when I update with the Reddit link. In the meantime, the name's “高三姐豆花饭” www.dianping.com/shop/22637660 . If you ever find yourself in Shenzhen and want directions, let us know. In addition to the Douhua, their Suanni Bairou is outstanding. 8. Apologies again for the late upload, these last few videos have been... intense.
The standard I try to keep for the videos is (1)anything where where precision is important: weight (2) something you buy at the store and use up for the recipe: weight (3) something you'd have lying around where precision isn't important (e.g. soy sauce in a stir fry): volume. That said, we do our tests using weight (or eyeballing), and convert it for the video... so sometimes I forget to convert. As an aside, while I (Chris) actually find myself defending the Imperial system (all systems are ultimately arbitrary, and Fahrenheit is a nice scale to express weather...), I firmly believe that ounces are enormously stupid unit for cooking. From time to time we get comments from people upset we use metric... but barring the 'dram' making an unlikely comeback (=1.77g, 1/16 oz), there's no chance.
Hello you two! How do you spell the name of the Sichuan sauce in English? 😅 Maybe can you guys put an ingredients list in the description for us normies? 😛 No need for instructions. Thats what the video is for. But, it does help for reference while cooking. I love all your recipes! Thank you so much for this channel! I really enjoy how the English speaking husband(?) cooks and narrates while the wife(?) is the taster. You guys remind me of me and my wife. Very wholesome and a joy to watch!
Professional tofu maker here...seriously good run through of the process. One key tip however where many people run into trouble is you must not over disturb the curds when cuddling. You were careful not to over mix the goods when adding the nigari but, it cannot be understated how much you need to mix in the nigari thoroughly without breaking the curd too much. Your texture will become crumbly if so. You guys always surprise me, my boss and I are obsessed with your channel, keep it up!
I've made this from this recipe a few times. I've had some issues getting it as beautiful and unburned as theirs turns out, but holy smokes....even my less than perfect version is amazing. I literally have dreams about eating this dish and every time I have a free-ish weekend I decide if I'm going to spend it making this dish again. So good, and if you've got the ambition to try this, it is so worth it.
"Press down with as much pressure as you would massage your eyelid" is a amazing description!! I've never made tofu before, this was amazing to watch!! You guys are so amazing and you make great videos!
You guys have seriously out done yourselves. This is what I love about your channel; uncompromising recipes for authentic chinese dishes. I have been wanting to make my own tofu for a while now, but I've lacked a recipe that's good enough to warrant the extra work. I think this dish will be the one. Seriously bravo, great work all around.
I started making my own tofu about a year ago and love it! Fresh, homemade tofu is so much creamier and tastier than the store-bought stuff, and you can use the whey and okara in other recipes so there really is no wastage. I hope you enjoy it when you try it out for the first time!
Just made this...it's so damn good! The chilli oil will keep for months so once you've taken the time to make that, it's not difficult to quickly knock the dish up whenever you like. Super worth the effort, thanks for the video!
Me seeing the thumbnail: "Spicy tofu rice? Finally! This one sounds like it should be pretty simple!" Me watching the video: "...dear god, no." Me in general: *still loving you guys and watching the vids*
Hey! So I had never heard of white cardamom, so I did a bit of research ^_^ It looks like in the west 'white cardamom' is actually just bleached normal (green) cardamom, which has a much less pronounced flavour, and is used to avoid imparting colour to a dish. What it seems you're using (and matches the appearance of the spice in the video) is Siam or Thai Cardamom, which is a different variety altogether, and historically has been very popular in china as what has been termed as the 'best' cardamom type (due to the warming fragrance and spicy feeling that the Chinese traders enjoyed upon first introduction). As always, awesome content!!
telkmx I really wouldn’t , it has a totally different flavour profile than this ‘true white (Siam) cardamom’. Having just stumbled across it at a hotpot place in Chinatown, I can assure you they’re very different ingredients - using green cardamom may result in your dish tasting like Indian cuisine..
The Pinyin for it is Bai Dou Kou. You can find it from chinese herbal medicine exporters since it is also used in the medicine. Just make sure you get the whole herb instead of a powder or pill.
White Cardamom - China Lesser known than the green variety, White Cardamom is a cooking staple in some parts of Central Asia and China. It lacks the peppery overtones of green or black cardamom, but has a fresh aroma that brightens dishes. It compliments stews and adds freshness to the flavors of broths and stocks - from spicetrekker website
i cooked this tonight and it was off the wall delicious. I took a few liberties with the spices and lemon grass oil (had to make my own and ended up tasting like nothing). Aside from the few things I missed this was still insanely good.
Yup so I made this last Monday. First time making soymilk and tofu. I've been wanting to do it for -years-. WOW. Anyways, dish came out amazing. Sauce is incredible. I've been throwing it on everything including pasta leftovers. It's midnight and I am hungry so I'm watching food videos. Anyways, food is one of my favorite things in life. If I get a tattoo, it'll probably be a sleeve of all the foods that I've really enjoyed. Going to a restaurant late night with a group of friends and ordering family style (my go-to is always the eggplant with garlic sauce) is one of my favorite moments in life. Recreating that in the home is such a privilege. Hope to visit China someday to eat the real deal. But in the meantime San Francisco isn't bad. Cheers
That’s amazing! I’m from luzhou, douhuafan is easily my favorite dish when I was back there. It’s kinda crazy to see this on TH-cam, since even in Sichuan province outside of luzhou, this is a very underrated dish. Luzhou locals like to put a piece of solid lard in the sauce when serving, the lard will melt under the warm toufu and add an extra flavour to the dish!
Hahahaha, yeah, we love the Luzhou version so much! Regarding the lard, I saw people melting it and adding it to the dipping sauce, I guess that works similarly too? It's always so nice to introduce this kind of underrated dish to people and they like it~ especially when we're really passionate about it.
I made this chilli oil last weekend after watching this video (I make and eat a lot of tofu and love to find new ways to eat it). The chilli oil was so amazing, that I finished the whole lot off in a week! I'm up at 6am on Saturday morning making another (double) batch. Thank you very much for sharing.
I absolutely love your channel. After finding simple cooking channels for Korean and Japanese, I’m super happy to start trying Chinese and your amazing recipes.
What kind of Korean and Japanese cooking channels do you watch? I've been trying to expand my eastern-Asian recipes and have been looking for some good channels, hahaha.
Fro On a Mission simple Korean and Japanese cooking and holy s**t Chinese cooking. BTW now many young people don’t learn Chinese cooking anymore just because the complexity
@@Yumeimusik i don't know about miss fro, but i love future neighbor and the korean vegan if i want to satisfy my korean fix. Japanese... Tabieats. Very quality videos from all three channels. Amazing stuff.
"With about as much force as you'd massage your eyelids with"... guys, you are amazing. The amount of work and effort you put into these videos is awe-inspiring.
Wow am from Sichuan and it’s rare to see people introduce 豆花饭 (not even mention making the set of this meal from scratch!) impressive!!! (And makes me hungry now too)
Tofu is like... soy cheese... kinda. You take the milk, and add your coagulant/enzymes (Rennet/Nigari) and wait for the curds and whey to separate, then squish the curds together until it forms a nice solid mass.
Go to any large Asian supermarket and they will often have pixian broad bean paste. It probably isn’t exactly what he has, but it will be close enough. Get tofu and rice and good to go.
That was mesmerising. Will attempt to make that delicious looking and sounding sauce. Watching from Kenya. I think I can get the ready made paste and chilli's thanks to our new community of Chinese working on infrastructure projects. As for the tofu and the special oil.... I wish.
Would the tofu gods rebuke me if I used medium tofu that was commercially made? I really want to try this especially the Chili sauce. But making tofu is a bit much for me.🥺
After replaying this video about twenty times and salivating over it for the past few months, I just finished making it and am loving it right now! Although, I think I burnt the chili but it still tastes absolutely delicious and worth every bit the effort!
Honestly. I love you guys. Since I found your channel you brought so much happiness, knowledge and skill into my life. And I am happy to spread the love, everything I cook for my friends and family I found here is being heavily adored. You guys are mouthwatering up my life. THANK YOU!
Yeah! If you ever find yourself in South Sichuan though, just be aware that some versions toss a bit of melted lard in. In testing, we thought it was basically equally tasty either way, so we thought to ourselves "eh, might as well opt for the variety that's vegetarian on the tin" :)
I wouldn't call it that restrictive, although it can be a pain cause there's a lot of stuff sold/made that could easily be made vegan if the majority of people just realized we shouldn't eat meat/animal products
@@localvoidlander8093 It doesn't have to be restrictive at all no, but when it comes to recipes because that use animal products, it can be hard to recreate, especially if you don't have good substitutes.
You have outdone yourselves! Bravo! I can only imagine how "intense" it's getting~you both put so much time, effort and precision into every dish and best of all~the narrative. You explain so perfectly how exactly to do everything. You are both doing a stupendous job of doing these videos! Steph is, I'm sure, a reeeeeally great cook. I take it you aren't a slouch in the kitchen either, Chris. Please, don't ever change your methodology. It's what caught my eye. So easy to follow and interesting. New equipment to try, a fixed sink and new ways to shoot~yes. It's the way you actually make these videos that's so wonderfully intuitive. I can picture myself in my kitchen making a dish as you make it in the video. It's homey. It's comfort. Really, really love this channel. Jenn 💖
Cheers! Always great to hear from you - and no worries, no plans on changing anything about the methodology :) Just step by step looking to up the audio quality & video quality to make things easier on the eyes/ears. And yeah, Steph's gotten *really* good at cooking. When we started the channel I think we were about neck and neck, so the first few videos were like half me and half Steph cooking. But as we started devoting more time into this project, it's made a lot of sense for me to focus on video and Steph to focus on cooking. In the process, she's lapped me lol. Like... I never would've been able to figure out how to make Char Siu Bao. That's crazy. That said, I *do* feel like it'd be weird for me to do the narration/written recipe if I couldn't cook the stuff myself, so often I'll be in the kitchen with her testing ... I can usually keep pace haha, with the notable exception of wrapping stuff like Har Gow (a dumpling is about the ceiling of my skill level there). Also, I really try to ensure that at least one video a month's me behind the wok (e.g. this year Dim Sum beef balls, eggs & shrimp, stir fry 101, chili fried tangyuan, Sichuan beer duck) - keeps me sharp and gives Steph a break/more time to focus on researching some harder stuff :)
@@ChineseCookingDemystified I can sleep well tonight then! ☺ Knowing you'll probably work on the technical side is great, learning should be a daily thing, so it's fun to see improvements as you go. It's the way you present them that I love so much. It's wonderful to hear your story Chris and Steph. Thank you. Jenn 💖
This was dope! This was easy to follow, and the filming helped to visually translate the process in a way that intuitively makes sense to me. Kind of like making ricotta, or a farmer's/cottage cheese, in some sense, and it's ready when it looks like a broken sauce, etc. Might sound kind of strange, but this made a previously intimidating project appear more accessible. Thank you for sharing!
Have tried this and the taste is absolutely BOMB. I introduced this to my vegan friend from the US and their minds were just blown away. That chili sauce is everything. But I have to admit that the recipe is unquestionably complex. The dish was made by my friend's mom who knows this.
The trippiest part of this video is seeing all the care that goes into making quality chili oil and then watching him dump it into a plastic container instead of something glass.
In Guizhou province, we have a dish very similar to that. But instead of rice, we serve it with noodle in soymilk. When you eat it, you transfer some noodle and Tufo into the dipping sauce, and you can drink the soymilk at the end after finishing the noodle. My favorite ingredient is actually mint in the dipping sauce.
@@thisissteph9834 I can only speak for Europe. Rice noodles usually are easy to source either online or in Thai or Vietnamese shops. Most supermarket chains also have them on the shelf. Go-tan is a very popular brand and even produced in The Netherlands. . Unless of course a totally different kind of rice noodle is used in China. I'm a big noodle fan and actually prefer noodles over rice.
I get a lot of new TH-cam video notifications in my inbox but none of them have made me as delighted as this one. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart for sharing this amazing recipe. I have a feeling it is one of those "life changing" moments in my cooking career right here.
Awesome dish! Actually Litsea Cubeba oil is marketed in the west as a beauty product (or as an "ancient Chinese remedy") under the name "May Chang". According to some web page this product could be consumed in very small amounts to "aid digestion", But I don't know... Probably wouldn't use beauty products as food.
@Carloshache Great info, thanks. I didn't even start looking (learned a lesson here) as I thought the aloysia citrodora oil I already have in my pantry would be close enough . Now I can see that I can get litsea oil everywhere they sell essential oils. It's approved for external and internal use in very small quantities and not expensive at all. Re beauty products: don't worry but check the label. In my country mustard oil is not approved for consumption due to its slight toxicity when consumed raw. When heated properly like it's done in Indian cooking it's not toxic anymore. To be able to sell it, the asian merchants place it on the shelf with shampoo, soap etc. :-)
Just made the chili sauce. It’s so awesome. I thought it was going to be difficult, but it wasn’t. I used the food processor, but next time will try my m&p as it was a bit difficult to get consistency in the fp. Anyway, it’s now in the fridge and I’m looking forward to making the tofu tomorrow. Will let you know how it goes......from Indianapolis.
i keep coming back to this recipe for this absolutely insanely delicious Chili Sauce. I usually make a big batch but it never lasts long because I just put it on everything I eat.
I need to get a really good bag of Szechuan peppercorns. I absolutely need to be able to make a sauce that has a really strong numbing sensation on my tongue. I think you guys could start doing videos on just preparing sauces. Since honestly after watching all of your videos you have to prepare a sauce in the first place for many of the dishes and I think a comprehensive video about the different sauces would be really helpful
Very good tutorial! congrats ! with a lot of explanation and script to indicate the ingredients used and chronology . I really like it . Anand from Mauritius.
Instead of gypsum and magnesium chloride, you can also use apple vinegar or other acidic agent for the coagulant. It has semi soft and coarse texture of tofu.
Hi, love your video. I''m from Chongqing which counts as Sichuan long ago. To my knowledge, very few Sichuan people make the chilli sauce like you do. The proper way to do this is: 1. Wash dried Erjintiao Chilli pepper in water (don't soak too long), this was mainly to clean the pepper, because those pepper might be dried on the ground and gathered a lot of dust. 2. In the wok without oil, simmer the pepper until it's dried again. 3. Divide those pepper into 2 batches, 50/50. Pound one batch into coarse pieces, and one into finer pieces. This way the hotness from the pepper has more layers. 4. Ground spices into powder. 5. In a wok, put enough Rapeseed oil (it has to be rapeseed oil, or else it won't have those special flavor. If you can't find rapeseed oil with flavor, peanut oil will do just fine). Heat the oil and put in onions, green onions, ginger slices. Fry them until golden. 6. Filter out those onions and ginger. Heat up the oil until it just starts to smoke. 7. Mix spices powder and the pounded pepper in a large container that can sustain heat(don't use china), pour the hot oil into mixture in several batches(2~3 times is enough usually). Mix the chili oil between batches. 8. You have classic sichuan chili oil. To make the sauce, just fry Sichuan Chili paste with the chili oil and put in some green onions. Here's a professional Sichuan Chef preparing the chili oil, but it's in Chinese: th-cam.com/video/6wlDqKt2ADo/w-d-xo.html
Hey, so you're describing 红油, yeah? That's what Wang Gang's making... this sauce is a different sauce - 香辣酱. It's meant for the 蘸水 for this sort of Douhua dish specifically. We do have a chili oil video that we posted a while back though, so feel free to watch and tear into that one if you like :) th-cam.com/video/mrXPNq3QdfY/w-d-xo.html
@@ChineseCookingDemystified We use chili oil to make dippings for douhua. Ive never seen anyone using spices with water. Its almost always used with oil to extra the flavor. Even when we 卤, we use oil to fry those spices first before adding water. Its only in sichuan cuisine that spices are always used with oil. Ive never seen any sichuan chef use spices with water directly. It makes sense because almost all the fragrant molecues are non-polar, thus they dissolve more easily in non-polar solutions like oil than in polar solutions like water.
@@MyCarllee Please allow me to jump in here. 蘸水(zhan shui, which is the final product in the video mixing with the chili crisps, aromatics, soy sauce and such) means dipping sauce and has nothing to do with water although it got the character "水/water" in the term. So what Chris was talking about is not about water, he's talking about the dipping sauce. The term is widely used in Sichuan (at least in the south), Guizhou and Yunnan. Now let's get back to the chili oil. So we were not making Sichuan chili oil to begin with. If you have quality chili oil at home, I think it'll be a quick and easy ingredient to be used in the douhua dipping sauce. But we're so obsessive with this douhua dish that we feel the need to make the chili crisps according to what they do in Luzhou/Fushun. One characteristic in the Southern Sichuan douhua dipping sauce is that the chili should be crispy and you gotta fry them for a while. The method of pouring hot oil into the chili when making chili oil won't be hot and long enough to create that result. So frying the chili is a necessary step. As for spices and oil, while in Fushun the standard practice is to infuse the oil (ideally soybean oil) and soy sauce with spices for a few days, we took a short cut and add in spice mixture into hot oil to get the flavor. I hope this clarifies some misunderstandings about our approach here. Thanks for sharing your way of making chili oil, I like the method of pounding chili in two batches in order to achieve a better texture and flavor~ I'm gonna give it a go next time when I make hongyou.
@@thisissteph9834 Look here. They use the classic "running oil" technique in 富顺豆花, too. baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%AF%8C%E9%A1%BA%E8%B1%86%E8%8A%B1 As I said, spices in Sichuan cuisine is almost always used with oil, and most of time with "running oil". You can't get the same flavor by simply soaking spices in water. P.S: By "running oil", I mean pouring hot oil over ground spices to extract flavor.
@@MyCarllee Well not sure if you get my point, I never said anything about using spices with water. And isn't in that page they also say "豆油在富顺豆花儿蘸水中是重要角色。把*若干豆油装于大垆缸内，将适量丁香、广香、肉桂、胡椒、花椒、大料、砂仁、紫草、甘松、甘草等用纱布包着放入其中，泡四至五天，再把豆油放到锅里煎，烧开即可*。最后，把豆油舀到小瓦缸里兑上味精、胡椒和其它香料粉"?
Hi CCD, Both a friend and I have tried making douhua a couple of times and we are potentially encountering the same problem of burning our soy milk. First, before straining the raw soy milk there were some black particles and were scraped from the bottom of the wok. Also, after emptying the wok there is a layer of hardened soy milk stuck to the bottom. While the top layer wasn't black, underneath it was clearly burnt-ish. The main problem is that I think that it gave the broth this note of burnt taste. Of course, since I have no frame of reference because I never tried the dish made by a pro, I cannot tell whether the taste should be there or not. While cooking the soy milk at first and when raising the temperature to 90 degrees, I continuously stirred the soy milk in the way it is shown in this video. Moreover, it wasn't on a high flame. So my question would be whether, when you are making the douhua, there is a layer of stuck on the bottom and whether when stirring the wok, you also scrape the bottom to prevent the soy milk from sticking and eventually burning. Nevertheless, the douhua turned out still great with room for improvement. The chili sauce was just outright amazing, truly addictive as you say.
How much of a licorice taste do you get from the anise and fennel? If those aren't tastes you prefer, what substitutions can be made? Thank you for this channel.
These are my favourite recipes. The thumbnail looks so simple, but it hides complexity, no doubt refined over centuries. Then again, there's XO sauce I guess. "Let's just mix up all the expensive stuff we have in the kitchen and call it something fancy".
I made this tonight! And I can report that using a stock pot for the soy milk is perilous: real easy to burn stuff on the bottom, and hard to stir/scrape effectively without burning your hands. I recommend halving the tofu if you're going that route. Otherwise, all is bliss.
Hi Steph and Chris! Thank you for posting this. I'm super excited to make this dish but I have a question about the type/style of tofu you are making. From my brief research online, I see a lot of street vendors using a soft "pudding" type of tofu. I've definitely had this style of tofu before (in a sweet form with maple syrup) and loved the softness of it. From seeing videos of street vendors, they seem to use this same tofu pudding style for both a sweet and savory version interchangeably (using the same types of savory condiments as you both demonstrate here) Your method requires more stirring to create curds which are then pressed to form tofu. The other method I've seen online is to briefly mix the soymilk with the coagulant, let it sit off the heat, the tofu will then solidify into a pudding like texture. Is the style of tofu you make in your video a specific type of tofu from Shenzhen? I'm just curious as to how this dish is best served since a semi-soft tofu would have more texture than the super soft pudding texture that the street vendors use.
Hello, I'm new here and so glad to find your channel. I have access to quite a few Chinese ingredient sellers online here in the UK and I've managed to find all the right sauces etc, even Laoganma. I would like to try and find the jar of sauce you showed but can't quite get the name right, could you spell that out for me? Thanks very much.
I've been lurking here for some time now, and have only recently got started actually following your recipes. Which, might I add, work spectactularly. Belgian "Chinese" cuisine is mostly a dumbed-down Cantonese bastardisation (I guess), and, truth be told, not that interesting, but after picking up a few of your recipes, I got the whole family looking forward to sichuan staples like Dan Dan noodles and Ma Po Tofu. This, I have to say, looks both daunting and delicious, so I'll be sure to tru this out as soon as I find the time (and ingredients). Love your channel, love your recipes. Keep doing this!
Not sure if you still monitor this, but when attempting to coagulate the tofu (at 90-85C) very small grains formed, but never larger 'popcorn-sized' clumps. I continued to add the magnesium chloride, eventually adding all 20mL of the liquid to the wok while stirring gently. I then added an additional 20mL, but the clumps remained small. After pressing, and, later, firm pressing in a cheesecloth, it never stuck together and is quite bitter. My theories are 1) I over-agitated during coagulation - Can this happen? 2) The soy milk was too thick because I boiled for over 20min due to a stove-related error 3) I added way too much MgCl and this ruins it. - Can you add too much? Or too fast? Thanks for the share! The Xianglajiang came out decent, although I supplemented heaven-facing peppers (which I find too mild) with 50% Thai chili (because I could not find erjing tiao in Ohio), and it's really spicy. While fun for me, no one else can eat it right now, so I have to redo with less of the hot chilis.
So our guess is that you likely stirred too quickly in the beginning, and then the bitterness is *definitely* from adding too much. Next time, try to stick to the cutting motion... and don't overdo it on the nigari :) If you add the correct amount, than worst comes to worst you could squeeze it all in a cheesecloth like you did and get *some* sort of tofu-like object. But yeah, this isn't an easy one. Sorry for obviously not communicating it all quite well enough :/
@@KronosIV Making douhua's definitely a bit tough, so if you don't have any lucky with this recipe again... obviously feel free to explore other soft tofu recipes instead of banging your head against the wall... then swirl back to this one later :) Let us know how it works out, and you can also take pics of the process which can help troubleshooting! I'm usually much more responsive on Reddit, so usually it's the best bet to PM me/leave a comment over there and I'll be sure to get back to it. Usually on TH-cam I only hang around in the comments either (1) on posting day or (2) when I'm procrastinating (like now haha)
I'm Chinese and I find your videos such amazing! The instructions are super clear just like you are doing chemical experiment (also your voice is just like nilered xD).
When you strain the cooked soy milk 5:09. The product that is left in the bag, is that something that can still be used for something something, or is that just to throw away? I don't like throwing foods away, if possible I like to repurpose them into something else.
Hey! The product left in the bag is commonly known as okara, and there are lots of recipes that use it! One of my favourites is Indian style okara fritters
Thank you for sharing how to make this tofu dish. I am too scared to try and make my own tofu from scratch- might give it a go one day! However, I have been in search for a chilli oil sauce - so will be def making it this weekend. Just a question- i probably missed it, but what do you do to the stuff you placed into the cheesecloth bag? Thank you once again!
You guys are amazingggg! thank you for sharing both the local restaurant and how to make this yummy meal from scratch because, yes, I cant find any of those sauces where I live 😋
Hey, this is pretty out of the blue and barely related, but my wife is absolutely obsessed with the bowl you're using at 1:45; the one with three spouts. She's painfully disabled and thinks the design of that bowl could do a lot to make life easier for her in the kitchen. But we can't find it anywhere! We know it's by Temptations, but hours of searching have failed us. Any chance you can give us any identifying information you have? Like, the text on the bottom of the bowl, or what name Temptations uses for that type of bowl, whatever you can think of. Thanks in advance!
So all I can give you in the information on the bowl, I don't think it'll be overly helpful though :/ Steph bought it seven years ago, so it might just not exist anymore. temp-tations presentable ovenware by tara Made for CSA Inc. Old World - 1 QT Oven-Dishwasher-Microwave safe Made in China KFI That probably isn't any help, but yeah
You may be able to get the oil in the West, as well. Try looking up food grade litsea cubeba oil. In theory, it should be the same thing, although I can't confirm.
You can buy the Douhua at the Chinese supermarket, its called silken tofu. It is so similar, don't really need to go through that much trouble making the tofu.
I also enjoy this food and their restaurant very much! Recommend tofu and Huiguo Pork! My friend and me went to this restaurant in last year, we waited for 1 hours,but it totally be worth~~
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Actually I cooked Huiguo Pork many times at home, the biggest taste difference is that restaurant fry the pork until it without any oil. I didn't notice Suanni Bairou in the menu,but this food pay more attention to control knife, cutting pork thin as paper. Expect your mimicking!
Hi, love the video! Do you know if the process for making tofu here is the same for making the super firm five spice tofu? I looked on the packet I bought recently and it has the same coagulant. If so do I add more coagulant? Press for longer? Would love to know more if you had any tips. Thanks!
I love this channel. I used to eat this all the time. I used to always have tofu around too. This actually happened to me. *cooking chicken in a pan* *adds tofu* My White roommate: youre stupid!!! Tofu is a substitute for meat for vegans and vegetarians you dumb fuck! Me: -_- Feed him anyways lmao
omg I was like emmmm this looks exactly like what my aunt's version of dohua what a coincidence (because like they said, douhua is a dish that varies a looot) and then she said, it's a copy cat of the Luzhou style and that's where my aunt is from haha!!
Other way to remove froth form soymilk, is to add green vegetables like bokchoy or something sort. Indeed i also give greens, but when you strain it. It will be white in the end
I made tofu using these instructions, using CaCl2 bought from the pharmacy and an improvised chili sauce based on laoganma. It was altogether tasty, but there was no special flavor to the tofu. Am I right that this dish is principally about the texture? Or should I look for better soy beans? Relatedly, some recipes call for blanching the tofu to get rid of the "grassy" taste, but how does that make sense, given that the soy mixture gets heated through at various stages of its production?
Yeah there's not going to be any special flavor for the tofu. Some varieties of Sichuan tofu rice'll feature the douhua simmering in peanut milk, in which place'll obviously get a peanut-y flavor. I'd say that (all forms of) tofu is itself primarily a texture... and also say that homemade douhua is almost more of an eating out than eating in sort of thing. >Relatedly, some recipes call for blanching the tofu to get rid of the "grassy" taste, but how does that make sense, given that the soy mixture gets heated through at various stages of its production? Good question, I'm not sure what exactly defines a tofu as 'cooked' or not. I'll look into it for sure. (Nigari) tofu blocks that you buy outside can definitely have a palpable grassy taste if uncooked, but fresh douhua like this doesn't. Not really sure what's going on there, I'll try to look into it. There seems to be a blind spot in my tofu making knowledge there :)
Hey guys, a few notes:
1. So you can use this basic approach to make your own block tofu, but you'll need a tofu press. You'll want the sort that's more like a box (some tofu presses don't have sides) - either wood or plastic is ok. 1-2 hours for soft tofu, half a day for firm tofu.
2. So not only are there a ton of sauce varieties, there's also a ton of tofu varieties! Some mix other kinds of beans (e.g. black beans) into their tofu, some add peanuts, some let the tofu soak in peanut milk... this is one of those things that's more of a *category* of food than a dish per se.
3. For the sauce, some use grilled fresh chilis, some use Sichuan peppercorns in place of the Mujiangzi oil, some will drizzle in some smoking hot melted lard, some use smoked chili flakes... there's a lot of different choices.
4. In hindsight, we ate at that restaurant again last night, and we think that maybe we should've pounded the chilis a bit more thoroughly. Feel free to use a food processor.
5. So right, lemongrass oil.What I was thinking in my head was a product like this: www.amazon.com/Pure-Lemongrass-Extract-Natural-bottle/dp/B00F7YC0ZM But honestly... thinking on it again I wonder if making something homemade might be better. If you have a good idea for how best to do that we're all ears... what I'd probably play around with is pounding fresh lemongrass until super fine, mixing in with a neutral oil, and leaving it to infuse for a couple days.
6. When making the douhua, the sides will inevitably be less firm than the center. That said, a bit reason why our sides were less than beautiful was because we didn't have a flatter basket. In Sichuan they use something like this: bit.ly/2HnzltZ Still doesn't matter too much in the end, but yeah it could've been prettier.
7. Oh! Almost forgot the restaurant information. Will update the description box with it when I update with the Reddit link. In the meantime, the name's “高三姐豆花饭” www.dianping.com/shop/22637660 . If you ever find yourself in Shenzhen and want directions, let us know. In addition to the Douhua, their Suanni Bairou is outstanding.
8. Apologies again for the late upload, these last few videos have been... intense.
Say, do you guys measure your proportion in weight or volume?
The standard I try to keep for the videos is (1)anything where where precision is important: weight (2) something you buy at the store and use up for the recipe: weight (3) something you'd have lying around where precision isn't important (e.g. soy sauce in a stir fry): volume.
That said, we do our tests using weight (or eyeballing), and convert it for the video... so sometimes I forget to convert.
As an aside, while I (Chris) actually find myself defending the Imperial system (all systems are ultimately arbitrary, and Fahrenheit is a nice scale to express weather...), I firmly believe that ounces are enormously stupid unit for cooking. From time to time we get comments from people upset we use metric... but barring the 'dram' making an unlikely comeback (=1.77g, 1/16 oz), there's no chance.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified
Cool bean, thanks y'all magnificent creatures.
(agreed, fahrenheit are cool but ounces? come on.)
Hello you two! How do you spell the name of the Sichuan sauce in English? 😅
Maybe can you guys put an ingredients list in the description for us normies? 😛
No need for instructions. Thats what the video is for. But, it does help for reference while cooking.
I love all your recipes! Thank you so much for this channel! I really enjoy how the English speaking husband(?) cooks and narrates while the wife(?) is the taster. You guys remind me of me and my wife. Very wholesome and a joy to watch!
Professional tofu maker here...seriously good run through of the process. One key tip however where many people run into trouble is you must not over disturb the curds when cuddling.
You were careful not to over mix the goods when adding the nigari but, it cannot be understated how much you need to mix in the nigari thoroughly without breaking the curd too much. Your texture will become crumbly if so.
You guys always surprise me, my boss and I are obsessed with your channel, keep it up!
I've made this from this recipe a few times. I've had some issues getting it as beautiful and unburned as theirs turns out, but holy smokes....even my less than perfect version is amazing. I literally have dreams about eating this dish and every time I have a free-ish weekend I decide if I'm going to spend it making this dish again. So good, and if you've got the ambition to try this, it is so worth it.
"Press down with as much pressure as you would massage your eyelid" is a amazing description!!
I've never made tofu before, this was amazing to watch!! You guys are so amazing and you make great videos!
You guys have seriously out done yourselves. This is what I love about your channel; uncompromising recipes for authentic chinese dishes. I have been wanting to make my own tofu for a while now, but I've lacked a recipe that's good enough to warrant the extra work. I think this dish will be the one.
Seriously bravo, great work all around.
I started making my own tofu about a year ago and love it! Fresh, homemade tofu is so much creamier and tastier than the store-bought stuff, and you can use the whey and okara in other recipes so there really is no wastage. I hope you enjoy it when you try it out for the first time!
Just made this...it's so damn good! The chilli oil will keep for months so once you've taken the time to make that, it's not difficult to quickly knock the dish up whenever you like. Super worth the effort, thanks for the video!
Where did you get the white cardamom?
This is one of the best channels on TH-cam. I've been subscribed and watching for a couple of months now. I'm so glad I found you!
Me seeing the thumbnail: "Spicy tofu rice? Finally! This one sounds like it should be pretty simple!"
Me watching the video: "...dear god, no."
Me in general: *still loving you guys and watching the vids*
Just buy tofu and laoganma from asian supermarket. And cook cook rice by self . . This is delicious.
OMG exactly how I felt LOL!
You can make the chili sauce yourself or you can buy something similar online, and then buy the tofu at a local store.
@@keyalthiqah2764 what kind of laoganma exactly? because there are different types of laoganma
You can go to any largish Asian supermarket and they will usually have the broad bean paste. Buy tofu and rice as well and you are good to go.
Hey! So I had never heard of white cardamom, so I did a bit of research ^_^ It looks like in the west 'white cardamom' is actually just bleached normal (green) cardamom, which has a much less pronounced flavour, and is used to avoid imparting colour to a dish. What it seems you're using (and matches the appearance of the spice in the video) is Siam or Thai Cardamom, which is a different variety altogether, and historically has been very popular in china as what has been termed as the 'best' cardamom type (due to the warming fragrance and spicy feeling that the Chinese traders enjoyed upon first introduction). As always, awesome content!!
Peraou wow
So i can juste use green cardamom ?
telkmx I really wouldn’t , it has a totally different flavour profile than this ‘true white (Siam) cardamom’. Having just stumbled across it at a hotpot place in Chinatown, I can assure you they’re very different ingredients - using green cardamom may result in your dish tasting like Indian cuisine..
The Pinyin for it is Bai Dou Kou. You can find it from chinese herbal medicine exporters since it is also used in the medicine. Just make sure you get the whole herb instead of a powder or pill.
White Cardamom - China
Lesser known than the green variety, White Cardamom is a cooking staple in some parts of Central Asia and China. It lacks the peppery overtones of green or black cardamom, but has a fresh aroma that brightens dishes. It compliments stews and adds freshness to the flavors of broths and stocks - from spicetrekker website
i cooked this tonight and it was off the wall delicious. I took a few liberties with the spices and lemon grass oil (had to make my own and ended up tasting like nothing). Aside from the few things I missed this was still insanely good.
To make this dish from scratch, first you must plant a Soybean plant.
no, you must first create the universe.
@@Koivisto147 no, that's the recipe for Apple pie
@@emboe001 i thought it was the recipe for clam chowder? correct me if im wrong.
no, you have to become God
@@Qwaibm7 I thought it was the recipe for disaster?
Yup so I made this last Monday.
First time making soymilk and tofu. I've been wanting to do it for -years-. WOW.
Anyways, dish came out amazing. Sauce is incredible. I've been throwing it on everything including pasta leftovers.
It's midnight and I am hungry so I'm watching food videos.
Anyways, food is one of my favorite things in life. If I get a tattoo, it'll probably be a sleeve of all the foods that I've really enjoyed. Going to a restaurant late night with a group of friends and ordering family style (my go-to is always the eggplant with garlic sauce) is one of my favorite moments in life. Recreating that in the home is such a privilege.
Hope to visit China someday to eat the real deal. But in the meantime San Francisco isn't bad.
Cheers
That’s amazing! I’m from luzhou, douhuafan is easily my favorite dish when I was back there. It’s kinda crazy to see this on TH-cam, since even in Sichuan province outside of luzhou, this is a very underrated dish. Luzhou locals like to put a piece of solid lard in the sauce when serving, the lard will melt under the warm toufu and add an extra flavour to the dish!
Hahahaha, yeah, we love the Luzhou version so much! Regarding the lard, I saw people melting it and adding it to the dipping sauce, I guess that works similarly too? It's always so nice to introduce this kind of underrated dish to people and they like it~ especially when we're really passionate about it.
I made this chilli oil last weekend after watching this video (I make and eat a lot of tofu and love to find new ways to eat it). The chilli oil was so amazing, that I finished the whole lot off in a week! I'm up at 6am on Saturday morning making another (double) batch. Thank you very much for sharing.
Cool! Glad you like it~ It's kinda my salad dressing too~
It isn't too spicy?
@@Mm-jz5ku Nah!
Wow, this is amazing. Reminds me of cooking school. I love that you guys involve the senses with your instructions. Like how something sounds.
wow! loving the veggie recipies, cant wait to try them :)
I absolutely love your channel. After finding simple cooking channels for Korean and Japanese, I’m super happy to start trying Chinese and your amazing recipes.
What kind of Korean and Japanese cooking channels do you watch? I've been trying to expand my eastern-Asian recipes and have been looking for some good channels, hahaha.
Fro On a Mission simple Korean and Japanese cooking and holy s**t Chinese cooking. BTW now many young people don’t learn Chinese cooking anymore just because the complexity
@@Yumeimusik i don't know about miss fro, but i love future neighbor and the korean vegan if i want to satisfy my korean fix. Japanese... Tabieats. Very quality videos from all three channels. Amazing stuff.
"With about as much force as you'd massage your eyelids with"... guys, you are amazing. The amount of work and effort you put into these videos is awe-inspiring.
Wow am from Sichuan and it’s rare to see people introduce 豆花饭 (not even mention making the set of this meal from scratch!) impressive!!! (And makes me hungry now too)
Tofu is like... soy cheese... kinda. You take the milk, and add your coagulant/enzymes (Rennet/Nigari) and wait for the curds and whey to separate, then squish the curds together until it forms a nice solid mass.
Holy smokes... that looks delicious but also like a lot of work.
Probably the reason why those restaurants exists.
@d3u1d4e I feel like the freshest high quality tofu is a big part of why this dish works so well.
It also looks like a lot of wok!
yeah, I can't find any gypsum or magnesium chloride in the La Choy aisle at Food Lion
Go to any large Asian supermarket and they will often have pixian broad bean paste. It probably isn’t exactly what he has, but it will be close enough. Get tofu and rice and good to go.
That was mesmerising. Will attempt to make that delicious looking and sounding sauce. Watching from Kenya. I think I can get the ready made paste and chilli's thanks to our new community of Chinese working on infrastructure projects. As for the tofu and the special oil.... I wish.
J I am from Kenya too! Did you ever manage to make this? If you did, where did you get ingredients? Thank you 🙏🏾
Would the tofu gods rebuke me if I used medium tofu that was commercially made? I really want to try this especially the Chili sauce. But making tofu is a bit much for me.🥺
Nope, go for it :) Blanch some soft tofu and serve with the sauce - we've done it and it's still great.
Thanks! You guys are awesome!
Came into the comment section to find this question + answer, thank you for asking and thank you for answering!
After replaying this video about twenty times and salivating over it for the past few months, I just finished making it and am loving it right now! Although, I think I burnt the chili but it still tastes absolutely delicious and worth every bit the effort!
Honestly. I love you guys. Since I found your channel you brought so much happiness, knowledge and skill into my life. And I am happy to spread the love, everything I cook for my friends and family I found here is being heavily adored. You guys are mouthwatering up my life. THANK YOU!
I love how this recipe is completely vegan. I love Chinese dishes but sometimes you just have to get creative with a restrictive diet!
Yeah! If you ever find yourself in South Sichuan though, just be aware that some versions toss a bit of melted lard in. In testing, we thought it was basically equally tasty either way, so we thought to ourselves "eh, might as well opt for the variety that's vegetarian on the tin" :)
Vegan diet! Used to be the same as poverty diet, and Sichuan people knows poverty diet well!
I wouldn't call it that restrictive, although it can be a pain cause there's a lot of stuff sold/made that could easily be made vegan if the majority of people just realized we shouldn't eat meat/animal products
@@localvoidlander8093 It doesn't have to be restrictive at all no, but when it comes to recipes because that use animal products, it can be hard to recreate, especially if you don't have good substitutes.
@@sanne4419 ah yes, that aspect can be true. I thought you meant to say that veganism as a whole is restrictive.
Chris: "...you can press down on it, but gently, with about as much force as you'd massage your eyelid with."
The Mountain: "Okay."
Massively underrated comment! Hahahahaha!
This is exactly how my grandma makes Douhua. She is from a town next to Luzhou. It makes me really miss her!
You have outdone yourselves! Bravo! I can only imagine how "intense" it's getting~you both put so much time, effort and precision into every dish and best of all~the narrative. You explain so perfectly how exactly to do everything. You are both doing a stupendous job of doing these videos! Steph is, I'm sure, a reeeeeally great cook. I take it you aren't a slouch in the kitchen either, Chris.
Please, don't ever change your methodology. It's what caught my eye. So easy to follow and interesting. New equipment to try, a fixed sink and new ways to shoot~yes. It's the way you actually make these videos that's so wonderfully intuitive. I can picture myself in my kitchen making a dish as you make it in the video. It's homey. It's comfort. Really, really love this channel.
Jenn 💖
Cheers! Always great to hear from you - and no worries, no plans on changing anything about the methodology :) Just step by step looking to up the audio quality & video quality to make things easier on the eyes/ears.
And yeah, Steph's gotten *really* good at cooking. When we started the channel I think we were about neck and neck, so the first few videos were like half me and half Steph cooking. But as we started devoting more time into this project, it's made a lot of sense for me to focus on video and Steph to focus on cooking. In the process, she's lapped me lol. Like... I never would've been able to figure out how to make Char Siu Bao. That's crazy.
That said, I *do* feel like it'd be weird for me to do the narration/written recipe if I couldn't cook the stuff myself, so often I'll be in the kitchen with her testing ... I can usually keep pace haha, with the notable exception of wrapping stuff like Har Gow (a dumpling is about the ceiling of my skill level there). Also, I really try to ensure that at least one video a month's me behind the wok (e.g. this year Dim Sum beef balls, eggs & shrimp, stir fry 101, chili fried tangyuan, Sichuan beer duck) - keeps me sharp and gives Steph a break/more time to focus on researching some harder stuff :)
@@ChineseCookingDemystified
I can sleep well tonight then! ☺ Knowing you'll probably work on the technical side is great, learning should be a daily thing, so it's fun to see improvements as you go. It's the way you present them that I love so much.
It's wonderful to hear your story Chris and Steph. Thank you.
Jenn 💖
Absolutely loving this channel. I really appreciate all the vegetarian dishes. Really makes me want to take a trip to China!
This was dope! This was easy to follow, and the filming helped to visually translate the process in a way that intuitively makes sense to me. Kind of like making ricotta, or a farmer's/cottage cheese, in some sense, and it's ready when it looks like a broken sauce, etc. Might sound kind of strange, but this made a previously intimidating project appear more accessible. Thank you for sharing!
Your content is crazy addictive, and it’s probably my favourite cooking channel on the planet… ❤
Have tried this and the taste is absolutely BOMB. I introduced this to my vegan friend from the US and their minds were just blown away. That chili sauce is everything. But I have to admit that the recipe is unquestionably complex. The dish was made by my friend's mom who knows this.
This is my favorite new cooking channel, you are doing a great job! Learning so much
new?
Tom Smith new for me
The trippiest part of this video is seeing all the care that goes into making quality chili oil and then watching him dump it into a plastic container instead of something glass.
thank you so much for your vegan recipes! we appreciate. ❤️
Oh, I am making this one next! This channel is just art itself!
In Guizhou province, we have a dish very similar to that. But instead of rice, we serve it with noodle in soymilk. When you eat it, you transfer some noodle and Tufo into the dipping sauce, and you can drink the soymilk at the end after finishing the noodle. My favorite ingredient is actually mint in the dipping sauce.
Yes! douhua mixian, love it! I wish we can do more rice noodle dishes but people sourcing rice noodle is a big problem.
@@thisissteph9834 I can only speak for Europe. Rice noodles usually are easy to source either online or in Thai or Vietnamese shops. Most supermarket chains also have them on the shelf. Go-tan is a very popular brand and even produced in The Netherlands. . Unless of course a totally different kind of rice noodle is used in China.
I'm a big noodle fan and actually prefer noodles over rice.
My 3 favourite foods- chilli tofu and rice.
This looks so good.
Thank you so much for the veggie recipes!!
I get a lot of new TH-cam video notifications in my inbox but none of them have made me as delighted as this one. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart for sharing this amazing recipe. I have a feeling it is one of those "life changing" moments in my cooking career right here.
天啊，我一个中国人看一个老外的中国菜教学视频。真是羞愧啊！妈妈，我小时候咋没和你学一手呢！
Awesome dish! Actually Litsea Cubeba oil is marketed in the west as a beauty product (or as an "ancient Chinese remedy") under the name "May Chang". According to some web page this product could be consumed in very small amounts to "aid digestion", But I don't know... Probably wouldn't use beauty products as food.
@Carloshache Great info, thanks. I didn't even start looking (learned a lesson here) as I thought the aloysia citrodora oil I already have in my pantry would be close enough . Now I can see that I can get litsea oil everywhere they sell essential oils. It's approved for external and internal use in very small quantities and not expensive at all.
Re beauty products: don't worry but check the label. In my country mustard oil is not approved for consumption due to its slight toxicity when consumed raw. When heated properly like it's done in Indian cooking it's not toxic anymore. To be able to sell it, the asian merchants place it on the shelf with shampoo, soap etc. :-)
Just made the chili sauce. It’s so awesome. I thought it was going to be difficult, but it wasn’t. I used the food processor, but next time will try my m&p as it was a bit difficult to get consistency in the fp. Anyway, it’s now in the fridge and I’m looking forward to making the tofu tomorrow. Will let you know how it goes......from Indianapolis.
*WHO TF FIGURED THIS OUT FIRST?!?!*
Is always what I think when watching many traditional and scratch cooking things like this….🤣❤️
We love when the Balcony Sink is actually used.
Is that a thing there?
i keep coming back to this recipe for this absolutely insanely delicious Chili Sauce. I usually make a big batch but it never lasts long because I just put it on everything I eat.
I love this channel! Learning so much!
Thanks guys
I need to get a really good bag of Szechuan peppercorns. I absolutely need to be able to make a sauce that has a really strong numbing sensation on my tongue. I think you guys could start doing videos on just preparing sauces. Since honestly after watching all of your videos you have to prepare a sauce in the first place for many of the dishes and I think a comprehensive video about the different sauces would be really helpful
This video makes me happy as a Sichuanese
Love your channel, thank you so much! I just subscribed and currently binging most of your content, haha! I can't wait to start cooking!
Very good tutorial! congrats ! with a lot of explanation and script to indicate the ingredients used and chronology . I really like it . Anand from Mauritius.
Holy shit, a simple looking dish with a lot of work to make!!! LOVE IT!!
Such a good recipe! Also great to see a vegan recipe :)
Instead of gypsum and magnesium chloride, you can also use apple vinegar or other acidic agent for the coagulant. It has semi soft and coarse texture of tofu.
Silence!
Hi, love your video. I''m from Chongqing which counts as Sichuan long ago. To my knowledge, very few Sichuan people make the chilli sauce like you do. The proper way to do this is:
1. Wash dried Erjintiao Chilli pepper in water (don't soak too long), this was mainly to clean the pepper, because those pepper might be dried on the ground and gathered a lot of dust.
2. In the wok without oil, simmer the pepper until it's dried again.
3. Divide those pepper into 2 batches, 50/50. Pound one batch into coarse pieces, and one into finer pieces. This way the hotness from the pepper has more layers.
4. Ground spices into powder.
5. In a wok, put enough Rapeseed oil (it has to be rapeseed oil, or else it won't have those special flavor. If you can't find rapeseed oil with flavor, peanut oil will do just fine). Heat the oil and put in onions, green onions, ginger slices. Fry them until golden.
6. Filter out those onions and ginger. Heat up the oil until it just starts to smoke.
7. Mix spices powder and the pounded pepper in a large container that can sustain heat(don't use china), pour the hot oil into mixture in several batches(2~3 times is enough usually). Mix the chili oil between batches.
8. You have classic sichuan chili oil.
To make the sauce, just fry Sichuan Chili paste with the chili oil and put in some green onions.
Here's a professional Sichuan Chef preparing the chili oil, but it's in Chinese: th-cam.com/video/6wlDqKt2ADo/w-d-xo.html
Hey, so you're describing 红油, yeah? That's what Wang Gang's making... this sauce is a different sauce - 香辣酱. It's meant for the 蘸水 for this sort of Douhua dish specifically.
We do have a chili oil video that we posted a while back though, so feel free to watch and tear into that one if you like :) th-cam.com/video/mrXPNq3QdfY/w-d-xo.html
@@ChineseCookingDemystified We use chili oil to make dippings for douhua. Ive never seen anyone using spices with water. Its almost always used with oil to extra the flavor. Even when we 卤, we use oil to fry those spices first before adding water. Its only in sichuan cuisine that spices are always used with oil. Ive never seen any sichuan chef use spices with water directly. It makes sense because almost all the fragrant molecues are non-polar, thus they dissolve more easily in non-polar solutions like oil than in polar solutions like water.
@@MyCarllee Please allow me to jump in here. 蘸水(zhan shui, which is the final product in the video mixing with the chili crisps, aromatics, soy sauce and such) means dipping sauce and has nothing to do with water although it got the character "水/water" in the term. So what Chris was talking about is not about water, he's talking about the dipping sauce. The term is widely used in Sichuan (at least in the south), Guizhou and Yunnan.
Now let's get back to the chili oil. So we were not making Sichuan chili oil to begin with. If you have quality chili oil at home, I think it'll be a quick and easy ingredient to be used in the douhua dipping sauce. But we're so obsessive with this douhua dish that we feel the need to make the chili crisps according to what they do in Luzhou/Fushun. One characteristic in the Southern Sichuan douhua dipping sauce is that the chili should be crispy and you gotta fry them for a while. The method of pouring hot oil into the chili when making chili oil won't be hot and long enough to create that result. So frying the chili is a necessary step. As for spices and oil, while in Fushun the standard practice is to infuse the oil (ideally soybean oil) and soy sauce with spices for a few days, we took a short cut and add in spice mixture into hot oil to get the flavor.
I hope this clarifies some misunderstandings about our approach here. Thanks for sharing your way of making chili oil, I like the method of pounding chili in two batches in order to achieve a better texture and flavor~ I'm gonna give it a go next time when I make hongyou.
@@thisissteph9834 Look here. They use the classic "running oil" technique in 富顺豆花, too. baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%AF%8C%E9%A1%BA%E8%B1%86%E8%8A%B1
As I said, spices in Sichuan cuisine is almost always used with oil, and most of time with "running oil". You can't get the same flavor by simply soaking spices in water.
P.S: By "running oil", I mean pouring hot oil over ground spices to extract flavor.
@@MyCarllee Well not sure if you get my point, I never said anything about using spices with water. And isn't in that page they also say "豆油在富顺豆花儿蘸水中是重要角色。把*若干豆油装于大垆缸内，将适量丁香、广香、肉桂、胡椒、花椒、大料、砂仁、紫草、甘松、甘草等用纱布包着放入其中，泡四至五天，再把豆油放到锅里煎，烧开即可*。最后，把豆油舀到小瓦缸里兑上味精、胡椒和其它香料粉"?
Hi CCD,
Both a friend and I have tried making douhua a couple of times and we are potentially encountering the same problem of burning our soy milk. First, before straining the raw soy milk there were some black particles and were scraped from the bottom of the wok. Also, after emptying the wok there is a layer of hardened soy milk stuck to the bottom. While the top layer wasn't black, underneath it was clearly burnt-ish. The main problem is that I think that it gave the broth this note of burnt taste. Of course, since I have no frame of reference because I never tried the dish made by a pro, I cannot tell whether the taste should be there or not. While cooking the soy milk at first and when raising the temperature to 90 degrees, I continuously stirred the soy milk in the way it is shown in this video. Moreover, it wasn't on a high flame. So my question would be whether, when you are making the douhua, there is a layer of stuck on the bottom and whether when stirring the wok, you also scrape the bottom to prevent the soy milk from sticking and eventually burning.
Nevertheless, the douhua turned out still great with room for improvement. The chili sauce was just outright amazing, truly addictive as you say.
How much of a licorice taste do you get from the anise and fennel? If those aren't tastes you prefer, what substitutions can be made? Thank you for this channel.
"with about as much force as you'd massage your eyelid with"
Anyone else start massaging their eyes?
yup, write after grinding the chilis
Love that this doesn't have any animal products! Will be making this soon. The street style tofu has been a favorite.
These are my favourite recipes. The thumbnail looks so simple, but it hides complexity, no doubt refined over centuries.
Then again, there's XO sauce I guess. "Let's just mix up all the expensive stuff we have in the kitchen and call it something fancy".
Haha I enjoy XO sauce, but you're right - the stuff is *exactly* the sum of its parts.
I made this tonight! And I can report that using a stock pot for the soy milk is perilous: real easy to burn stuff on the bottom, and hard to stir/scrape effectively without burning your hands. I recommend halving the tofu if you're going that route. Otherwise, all is bliss.
Hi Steph and Chris! Thank you for posting this. I'm super excited to make this dish but I have a question about the type/style of tofu you are making. From my brief research online, I see a lot of street vendors using a soft "pudding" type of tofu. I've definitely had this style of tofu before (in a sweet form with maple syrup) and loved the softness of it. From seeing videos of street vendors, they seem to use this same tofu pudding style for both a sweet and savory version interchangeably (using the same types of savory condiments as you both demonstrate here)
Your method requires more stirring to create curds which are then pressed to form tofu. The other method I've seen online is to briefly mix the soymilk with the coagulant, let it sit off the heat, the tofu will then solidify into a pudding like texture.
Is the style of tofu you make in your video a specific type of tofu from Shenzhen? I'm just curious as to how this dish is best served since a semi-soft tofu would have more texture than the super soft pudding texture that the street vendors use.
Hello, I'm new here and so glad to find your channel. I have access to quite a few Chinese ingredient sellers online here in the UK and I've managed to find all the right sauces etc, even Laoganma. I would like to try and find the jar of sauce you showed but can't quite get the name right, could you spell that out for me? Thanks very much.
It amuses me how even the substitutes for some of these spices I have never heard of before.
Love your videos. Vegan here and appreciate so many tofu options. Thanks.
This channel outdoes itself with every video. Please publish a book guys!
I’m surprised I’m so addicted to this!! So tasty!
吃过那么多川菜，还是只对豆花饭念念不忘。豆花饭是真好吃，很对我的胃口。一份也才5块钱
现在在深圳，一份十块钱啦～
I'M FROM LUZHOU OMG!
豆花饭
荤豆花
风萝卜蹄花汤
街角的苍蝇馆子的巨大的蒸（zèn）子饭和鱼香肉丝
etc etc
小时候大北街的人声鼎沸我现在都历历在目
That's an incredibly beautiful process
I've been lurking here for some time now, and have only recently got started actually following your recipes. Which, might I add, work spectactularly. Belgian "Chinese" cuisine is mostly a dumbed-down Cantonese bastardisation (I guess), and, truth be told, not that interesting, but after picking up a few of your recipes, I got the whole family looking forward to sichuan staples like Dan Dan noodles and Ma Po Tofu.
This, I have to say, looks both daunting and delicious, so I'll be sure to tru this out as soon as I find the time (and ingredients).
Love your channel, love your recipes. Keep doing this!
That sauce would literally make anything taste good.
tofu in particular
Thanks for satisfying my tofu cravings after the epic comments on the Ma Po Dou Fu video!
This was my favorite when I was a boy in Guiyang.
7:32 ohh. so that's what the acronym MSG stands for
Not sure if you still monitor this, but when attempting to coagulate the tofu (at 90-85C) very small grains formed, but never larger 'popcorn-sized' clumps. I continued to add the magnesium chloride, eventually adding all 20mL of the liquid to the wok while stirring gently. I then added an additional 20mL, but the clumps remained small. After pressing, and, later, firm pressing in a cheesecloth, it never stuck together and is quite bitter.
My theories are 1) I over-agitated during coagulation - Can this happen?
2) The soy milk was too thick because I boiled for over 20min due to a stove-related error
3) I added way too much MgCl and this ruins it. - Can you add too much? Or too fast?
Thanks for the share! The Xianglajiang came out decent, although I supplemented heaven-facing peppers (which I find too mild) with 50% Thai chili (because I could not find erjing tiao in Ohio), and it's really spicy. While fun for me, no one else can eat it right now, so I have to redo with less of the hot chilis.
So our guess is that you likely stirred too quickly in the beginning, and then the bitterness is *definitely* from adding too much. Next time, try to stick to the cutting motion... and don't overdo it on the nigari :) If you add the correct amount, than worst comes to worst you could squeeze it all in a cheesecloth like you did and get *some* sort of tofu-like object.
But yeah, this isn't an easy one. Sorry for obviously not communicating it all quite well enough :/
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Thanks for the advice. I'm trying again tonight. I think your instructions were fine, I just messed with it too much.
@@KronosIV Making douhua's definitely a bit tough, so if you don't have any lucky with this recipe again... obviously feel free to explore other soft tofu recipes instead of banging your head against the wall... then swirl back to this one later :)
Let us know how it works out, and you can also take pics of the process which can help troubleshooting! I'm usually much more responsive on Reddit, so usually it's the best bet to PM me/leave a comment over there and I'll be sure to get back to it. Usually on TH-cam I only hang around in the comments either (1) on posting day or (2) when I'm procrastinating (like now haha)
Thank you for sharing this is from my Mother's tribe... in Sichuan..
♥️♥️♥️
She from South Sichuan too?
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Yes but we currently live in the Philippines.😊 we go home every 2 years.
My father is from Guangzhou😁
This is also one of my favorite in my Sichuan life!
I'm Chinese and I find your videos such amazing! The instructions are super clear just like you are doing chemical experiment (also your voice is just like nilered xD).
Feel u xD
This video is AMAZING! I love this dish. Thank you!
homemade tofu is the best! I have nigari and soybeans & everything else needed, so I'll have to try this out!
When you strain the cooked soy milk 5:09.
The product that is left in the bag, is that something that can still be used for something something, or is that just to throw away?
I don't like throwing foods away, if possible I like to repurpose them into something else.
Hey! The product left in the bag is commonly known as okara, and there are lots of recipes that use it! One of my favourites is Indian style okara fritters
Also used in Korean cooking to make strew. th-cam.com/video/aBbQ4F0jBug/w-d-xo.html
Add flour and egg making some delicious pan fried pancake😋 my family used to do that after making soy milk
Thank you for sharing how to make this tofu dish. I am too scared to try and make my own tofu from scratch- might give it a go one day! However, I have been in search for a chilli oil sauce - so will be def making it this weekend.
Just a question- i probably missed it, but what do you do to the stuff you placed into the cheesecloth bag?
Thank you once again!
We tossed it. It can be chicken food or mix in with some egg, herb and seasoning to make some small pancakes.
You guys are amazingggg! thank you for sharing both the local restaurant and how to make this yummy meal from scratch because, yes, I cant find any of those sauces where I live 😋
Hey, this is pretty out of the blue and barely related, but my wife is absolutely obsessed with the bowl you're using at 1:45; the one with three spouts. She's painfully disabled and thinks the design of that bowl could do a lot to make life easier for her in the kitchen. But we can't find it anywhere! We know it's by Temptations, but hours of searching have failed us. Any chance you can give us any identifying information you have? Like, the text on the bottom of the bowl, or what name Temptations uses for that type of bowl, whatever you can think of. Thanks in advance!
So all I can give you in the information on the bowl, I don't think it'll be overly helpful though :/ Steph bought it seven years ago, so it might just not exist anymore.
temp-tations
presentable ovenware by tara
Made for CSA Inc.
Old World - 1 QT
Oven-Dishwasher-Microwave safe
Made in China
KFI
That probably isn't any help, but yeah
You may be able to get the oil in the West, as well. Try looking up food grade litsea cubeba oil. In theory, it should be the same thing, although I can't confirm.
Yep, that's the scientific name for the stuff. If you can find it, that's totally it.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified So, this?
www.aftelier.com/Litsea-Cubeba-Chef-s-Essence-p/chefs-litseacubeba.htm
@@kengle1 Looks like it, mujiangzi seeds are often used to extra essential oil in China, so I'm guessing this is one of the products.
You can buy the Douhua at the Chinese supermarket, its called silken tofu. It is so similar, don't really need to go through that much trouble making the tofu.
I also enjoy this food and their restaurant very much!
Recommend tofu and Huiguo Pork!
My friend and me went to this restaurant in last year, we waited for 1 hours,but it totally be worth~~
We literally go there almost every week, lol.
Their suanni bairou's also outstanding. If and when we do that dish, we'll be mimicking theirs haha
@@thisissteph9834 I am playing sports and balance my diet.So long time didn't try sichuan food,miss them so much┭┮﹏┭┮...
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Actually I cooked Huiguo Pork many times at home, the biggest taste difference is that restaurant fry the pork until it without any oil.
I didn't notice Suanni Bairou in the menu,but this food pay more attention to control knife, cutting pork thin as paper. Expect your mimicking!
@@megandu2667 Suanni Bairou is a new addition to their menu and an absolutely awesome version.
1:30 I went to the local Asian market about 20 minutes from where I live (in South Carolina) and they had it.
Wow, very ambitious. And I thought the laborious task of making Lebanese grape leaf rolls was a challenge. Nice work.
Hi, love the video! Do you know if the process for making tofu here is the same for making the super firm five spice tofu? I looked on the packet I bought recently and it has the same coagulant. If so do I add more coagulant? Press for longer? Would love to know more if you had any tips. Thanks!
I love this channel. I used to eat this all the time. I used to always have tofu around too.
This actually happened to me.
*cooking chicken in a pan*
*adds tofu*
My White roommate: youre stupid!!! Tofu is a substitute for meat for vegans and vegetarians you dumb fuck!
Me: -_-
Feed him anyways lmao
New here, you had me at tofu, great channel! Gonna try tomorrow, thank you!
What did you do with the remaining tofu inside the cheese cloth?
How interesting and delicious looking .
I was at this dingy little Chinese market today, and I think a heard this Chinese lady there watching your video while shopping.
omg I was like emmmm this looks exactly like what my aunt's version of dohua what a coincidence (because like they said, douhua is a dish that varies a looot) and then she said, it's a copy cat of the Luzhou style and that's where my aunt is from haha!!
Hahaha, yeah, we love the Luzhou style. That mujiangzi oil is like crack!
That looks amazing.
Other way to remove froth form soymilk, is to add green vegetables like bokchoy or something sort. Indeed i also give greens, but when you strain it. It will be white in the end
I made tofu using these instructions, using CaCl2 bought from the pharmacy and an improvised chili sauce based on laoganma. It was altogether tasty, but there was no special flavor to the tofu. Am I right that this dish is principally about the texture? Or should I look for better soy beans?
Relatedly, some recipes call for blanching the tofu to get rid of the "grassy" taste, but how does that make sense, given that the soy mixture gets heated through at various stages of its production?
Yeah there's not going to be any special flavor for the tofu. Some varieties of Sichuan tofu rice'll feature the douhua simmering in peanut milk, in which place'll obviously get a peanut-y flavor. I'd say that (all forms of) tofu is itself primarily a texture... and also say that homemade douhua is almost more of an eating out than eating in sort of thing.
>Relatedly, some recipes call for blanching the tofu to get rid of the "grassy" taste, but how does that make sense, given that the soy mixture gets heated through at various stages of its production?
Good question, I'm not sure what exactly defines a tofu as 'cooked' or not. I'll look into it for sure. (Nigari) tofu blocks that you buy outside can definitely have a palpable grassy taste if uncooked, but fresh douhua like this doesn't. Not really sure what's going on there, I'll try to look into it. There seems to be a blind spot in my tofu making knowledge there :)
@@ChineseCookingDemystified thanks, looking forward to it!