December 8, 2006
Mr Leek and Mrs Tofu Recipe
Mr Leek and I are not lovers. We are not even friends. My mom introduced Mr Leek to me back in Singapore. Sometimes she paired Mr Leek up with Miss Pan-Fried Fish, and sometimes she had Mrs Tofu to come along.
I’ll probably call this dish a mom’s dish, cos from the other food blogs I read, it seems like moms make great tasting leek dishes! Maybe I will too when I get that status.
This is my first attempt to get to know Mr Leek better myself.
But I have a confession to make. Mr Leek came as a party of three and I broke them up sneakily. Mr Leek in the US is a much bigger built than his Asian counterparts and I did not want to have to deal with a party of three (bundled up with a rubberband), so I looked left, I looked right… when I was sure no one was looking, I chose the most handsome Mr Leek, pulled him out of his rubberband bundle and put the other rejects back where they belonged.
Mr Leek and Mrs Tofu get along very well together. It’s like they are meant to be together. Although Mr Leek is very dirty (lots of soil in between), Mrs Tofu doesn’t mind as long as he is cleaned up thoroughly before they get together. Here’s my easy Chinese recipe :
Ingredients (serves 2):
- 1 leek
- 1/2 “block” firm tofu (bean curd)
- 1/4 lb pork
- dashes of salt, pepper
- 1/2 tsp corn flour
- 2 pcs fresh chilli
- 1/2 tsp minced garlic
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
Cooking Method:
1. Cut leek into slices at the white bulb and light green stalk. (The edible portions are only the white onion base and light green stalk.) Cut firm tofu into smaller pieces, about 1 inch by 1 inch. Cut pork into thin slices, season with salt, pepper and mix with corn flour. Cut chilli into smaller pieces.
2. Heat up about 1/3 inch height of vegetable oil in a wok. High heat. Pan fry the tofu for about 5 minutes on each side, until they turn light brown. Set aside.
3. Remove excess oil, leaving about 2 tbspful in the wok. Add chilli, garlic and pork and stir-fry until pork changes color.
4. Add leek and tofu and mix well.
5. Add oyster sauce and mix well. (You will usually add oyster sauce only at the end or the dish will have a metallic taste.)
6. Serve with plain white rice, porridge (rice congee) or instant noodles.
Mr Leek and Mrs Tofu - together they make a great, healthy dish. (Mr Pork was the third party, but we’ll talk about that some other time.)
Bite This!
More recipes:
Fish With Leeks And Fermented Soy Beans
Tofu - Who’s For Healthy Living?
Tofu And Fishballs In Black Bean Sauce
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December 8th, 2006 at 8:35 am
Never thought about the debanding technique before. Yep, it’s really annoying when you only want one of something and the store bundles it in a set of 2000 or something like that.
December 8th, 2006 at 9:11 am
Yeah, you can also snap off one parsley leaf from the 2000 to use it as soup garnish.
Oops… shhh…. we are supposed to do this sneakily.
December 8th, 2006 at 11:59 am
Oh….do you really do that…about snapping?
Is this leek or a scallion on steroids? Or are they the same thing?
You are 2 mths early for CNY…you should eat leek during CNY so that got lotsa $$$ to “suan” (leek, in mandarin or some dialect)
HAHA!
December 8th, 2006 at 2:04 pm
It’s a super Canon 20D with a macro lens and me holding the camera in a weird angle that supersized the scallion.
No. Of course it was a leek! And of course I was kidding about the parsley. :)
January 11th, 2007 at 11:26 am
Mr Leek and Mrs Tofu is what my mummy used to cook. She stopped cooking tofu dishes because dad had gout and should not be eating tofu dishes.
I miss it. I posted something about Tofu today and linked it to your tofu dishes :-)
April 24th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
Hi,
just came across ur site last week. did tried out the Mr Leek & Mrs Tofu (both of which are my favourites) and it came out very nice. It’s nice to have a change from the usual leek cook with prawns recipe.
April 24th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Hi Delia, Thanks for giving feedback on the recipe. I appreciate it! It has been a while since I made this. You just reminded me to cook it again. Yippee!
April 27th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
[…] A few days ago, a reader by the name of Delia tried my Leek and Tofu recipe and commented that it “…came out very nice” and was “… nice to have a change from the usual leek with prawns recipe.” Thanks Delia! […]