Another Tofulogy

Finally, I got to make my first tofu balls!

I received an email from my long-time friend, Grace Dee Consumido, telling me to try her hubby's Tofu Balls recipe.  I've known the couple for decades and both make good non-MSG dishes. I can't forget one of my random visits at their previous residence in Paco-- I  almost finished more than half a kilo of a no-fuss dish of thinly sliced pork belly crispy fried to perfection and it only had salt and pepper for seasoning! 

Grace is my "adoptive mom" in Manila.  She knows my life story and, of course my tummy (read: my passion for food). So our meetings and catching up with the latest gossips in town would always be over good food, either in newly-discovered restos in the city or in her modest kitchen where she would whip up delicious meals in a jiffy.

Before I end up writing a novel of our escapades for the last 3 decades, let me copy paste her tofu  balls recipe, quick!

Ingredients:

• 2 blocks tofu
• 1 can tuna in water ( this is only salted with no other seasoning)
• ground/or powdered pepper
• 1 large onion- minced very finely
• around 5 pesos worth of kinchay - also minced very finely
• a few tsp of cornstarch just to bind
• salt

1. Drain the tofu very well so that the mixture will not be too liquidy.
2. Once drained, shred and finely churn it into a paste (as in best using your fingers).
3. Do the same things with the tuna (such that it will be difficult to identify the tuna when they are mixed)
4. Mix everything else into the paste.
5. Form into balls and fry.  The size will depend upon your own taste.
6. You can use any kind of sauce for it. (Try sweet and sour, mayo, mayo-mustard-honey, kechup, etc. )

 There!  Happy testing!

P.S.
I did experiment on my own tofu balls.  Instead of kinchay, I used parsely and added cheese to the mixture. The tofuballs went well with mayo-based dressing.



Grace and hubby Henry (back row) with our good friend Gerry (left) in one of our  bonding moments.

The Secret is In the Sauce

My love for dips and sauces takes its inspiration from gourmet-chef Conrad Calalang, the man behind the popularity of all-you-can-eat Mongolian barbecue and Pasta Festival in my country. I have known the seasoned chef for years having worked with him and his family promoting and drumbeating  their restaurants. 

Conrad's Mongolian barbecue created a craze in the city.  I remember the extra tables he had to set up outside the restaurant in the once burgeoning Mile Long strip in Makati and, 3 weeks after, had added another outlet in the same buiding just to accommodate the ever growing set of Mongolian lovers.

The secret, indeed, was in the sauce.  Conrad had a knack for whipping up sauces that resembled like a symphony in the mouth, i.e., you can use 5 different kinds of sauces in one dish and you come up with a dish that's 5 times tastier the dish that came with the basic sauce!   Now that's hard to duplicate.  For his Mongolian barbecue, he was kitchen-genius enough to premix the sauces so diners can choose from either of these formula-- sweet, sweet and sour, regular and spicy-- without having to worry about the taste afterwards.

And so my love for sauces continues and, the sauce that I will be sharing with you today is my signature recipe-- this is the same sauce that sent call center agents craving for my siomai (honestly I don't make tasty siomai but what the heck-- they bought it just for the sauce!)

So here it is:   SauceChinoy (best with dimsums, fried fish, steamed prwans or just anything to your delight!)

Note:  You can play around with the ingredients and its quantity depending on your taste. : )

INGREDIENTS:

• 10 tbsp dark soy sauce mixed with 2 tbsp water (approx. 3/4 cup mixture)
• 6 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 3 large bulbs of garlic or approx. 36 cloves finely chopped
• 1 Red cayenne thinly sliced (depending on how spicy you'd like your sauce to be)
• 4 tbsp oil
• achuette seeds
• 1 tsp onion finely chopped (optional)
• 1/4 tsp ginger finely chopped (optional)

1. Heat oil and achuete seeds in a pan (use low heat or you end up the achuette seeds in your eyes-lol).  Remove achette seeds once oil turns reddish-yellow.
2. Toss in thinly sliced cayenne. Fry for a few seconds (careful not to burn it!) and remove from oil once done.  Set aside.
3. On the same oil (add more oil if needed), brown (but not too brown) finely chopped garlic. Add in onion and ginger.
4. Add remaining ingredients including the red cayenne. Bring to a boil.

Happy saucing!  

I don't know why I'm here on this page but I do know I want to write about tofu discoveries. 

I began appreciating this veggie food when Patis Tesoro, my then boss at Katutubong Filipino Foundation, treated us to a small Chinese restaurant in San Juan years years back (don't ask me about the name because honestly,  I only remembered the moment but not the name of the  place). That was my first taste of steamed tofu and boy!, my tongue had a blast of its sauce!  From then on, I experimented on how best I can eat and play around with tofu (recipes of which I am going to collate--I hope I can remember!-- and share later on.

Today, I received a text message from a dear high school friend, J, telling me she'll drop by for lunch.  Oh no!   What's on the table? -- all leftovers from yesterday. But thanks to my sister Gigi who gifted me last Sunday with -- what else-- tofu!

Today's spur-of-the-moment dish:  fried tofu squares seasoned with salt and spices with my signature siomai sauce for dip.

More of the signature sauce in my future posts.  Bon appetit!

This is my good friend J.  Food and music bond us together.