Often than not, most restaurants serve this dish beautifully in front of their guests. Topped with pinkish shrimp, every piece of tofu is neatly laid out on a plate in almost the same size. That size, however, rarely fit into my mouth. Even with the hardest effort, seldom do I get the WHOLE piece of stuffed tofu in one bite – either with the shrimp fallen apart or one portion of the tofu disintegrated. So, I decided to have my size of stuffed tofu today – one bite, one piece.
- Ingredients
- 400g soft tofu
- 200g shrimp (including shell)
- Seasonings for shrimps
- 1 tbsp finely chopped spring onion
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp corn starch
- 1 tsp ground white pepper
Method
1) Shell, devein, rinse shrimps and pat dry. Mince them with a food processor, add seasonings and stir well in one direction. Put in fridge for about half an hour before use.
2) Pat dry tofu, cut it into bite sizes and organize them on a plate. Use a small spoon to sprinkle some corn starch on top of each piece of tofu for gluing the topping (we need a little patient here as not to spill the corn starch on the plate).
Evenly spread a portion of the minced and chilled shrimp on top of tofu. Steam over medium heat for 4-5 minutes. Add soy sauce and oil to taste. Serve hot.
Tip
Spread the minced shrimp on tofu as we would do it with jam on bread. Difference is, we should do it gently in order not to disintegrate the tofu. Besides, the shrimp after minced is sticky, therefore, we may need two pieces of knives to play around. In shaping ‘shrimp paste’, wet knives to reduce the stickiness.
Revisions
1) Instead of getting a food processor to mince the shrimps, in a recent cooking, I simply use the board side of a Chinese cleaver to press the shelled shrimps and chop them with the blunt end until the ‘shrimp paste’ becomes sticky. To me, this is more efficient as I was working with a smaller amount of ingredients during this revision – only half portion of the original recipe.
2) Next, I cut the tofu into pieces of about 1cm in height (pictured on the right below) as compare to the last ones (left) which were close to 2cm thick and thus tended to slide at different angles. How do the following two look different to you? Love to hear your comments.
- Category: Featured . Shrimp . Tofu (Beancurd) .
- 11 comments
To get immediate updates and new recipes from my blog, you may also SUBSCRIBE them via RSS feeds. See you there.
What a pretty looking dish! I love this dish whenever I have dim sum – the shrimp filling is just so yum.
Hi there,
wish I had visited you when I was in HK…just returned a week ago, was there for a year and loved every bit of HK. π
guess I can keep the HK connection going on…with you π
If u so desire, would love to have you stop by my lil place too π
have a gr8 weekend ,hugs
Navita
I like the one on the right. Am going to try this as I am on a diet and it is perfect.
@Angela,
Thanks for telling me your thought!
Speaking of lighter eats, I’ve selected below a few previous recipes for you:
– Stir-fried King Oyster Mushrooms with Sichuan Pickled Mustard
– Braised Bok Choy, a Simple Shanghainese Dish
– Grilled Fish Fillets with Japanese Sake and Miso Paste
– Hawthorn Apple Tea
If you like tofu, check out this page as well. Enjoy!
Hihi! I tried the recipe and the prawn’s texture is mushy. Is there a trick to create a texture that’s chewy and “εΌΉη”!
@Ruru,
Let me first emphasize that the shrimp paste has to be stirred well even after it is minced. And, do make sure it is stirred in ONE direction (I use a pair of chopsticks). To perfect the action, it might need some practices, the more the paste is glued together and stickier it is, the more springy it will turn out.
The other way you may try is to scrap the shrimp paste altogether with a spatula (or even with your hand) and throw it into a bowl. Repeat the action until the paste becomes sticky.
Before stirring, make sure the salt and corn starch are added into the paste. Quality shrimps also help; we wonβt be able to make bouncy paste from deteriorated shrimps. Take note of the first step: put it in fridge before use.
Have fun cooking!
hello, I preferred the right one, it looks more appetizing and very white in color.
@evie,
Hello, I see. The tofu I used were the same, perhaps it is the lighting that affected the color, anyway, thanks for sharing your thought.
And the shrimps were not of much different – again, it should be the lighting.
[…] of my favorite recipes, though, is stuffed tofu (shrimp is ideal). I actually used to make a similar version at home, digging out the top of the […]
I wish you were my friend so I can try all your hk dishes