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Fried tofu (tofu puffs)

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Re: Fried tofu (tofu puffs)

Postby Sakkarin » Wed Aug 26, 2020 5:58 pm

The first half of the process looks very similar!

In the Masterchef Australia programme they made a really big deal of the Khandvi dish, both in the first round, where contestants had to guess all 20 ingredients (the person everyone seems to expect to win only got 4...).

In the second half, the three losers had to make the dish from scratch, and although it was more complex than the one I've linked to, they harped on and on and on about what a difficult dish it was to make, so much so that it seemed to leave the contestants in a state of semi shock. They really made it sound like it was the most difficult dish they'd ever had on their version of Masterchef.

The contestants by the way are all previous contestants going back as far as 10 years, many of whom are already celebrities in their own rights for the work they've done since appearing. The standard of cooking is exceptionally high.

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Re: Fried tofu (tofu puffs)

Postby scullion » Wed Aug 26, 2020 8:13 pm

Stokey Sue wrote:Here's MiMi's recipe from Manadalay, which is the version I will make

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/bur ... s-tohu-jaw


pretty sure that's the recipe i mentioned that i'd made a few months back. surprisingly good for so few ingredients and so easy to make.

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Re: Fried tofu (tofu puffs)

Postby Earthmaiden » Wed Aug 26, 2020 9:18 pm

It looks like something that would be very nice when freshly made.

I bought a bag of puffed tofu once but wasn't thrilled with it. I can understand why someone suggested re-frying it. It might help.

By the by, I found it interesting that the recipe using gram flour was still considered as tofu.

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Re: Fried tofu (tofu puffs)

Postby scullion » Wed Aug 26, 2020 10:42 pm

it was quite good the next morning, too - what was left of it!

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Re: Fried tofu (tofu puffs)

Postby Stokey Sue » Wed Aug 26, 2020 11:30 pm

I haven't made the Shan tofu yet, but I have eaten it in Burma, and enjoyed it

It was served with a cauliflower and egg scramble there

https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recip ... ble-recipe

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Khandvi, Chickpea flour "pasta" rolls

Postby Sakkarin » Thu Aug 27, 2020 4:32 pm

Wow. Made my khandvi, and it's better than that dhokla! As they describe it, "melt in the mouth", with a slightly sour edge to the "pasta".

My first three attempted rolls broke, but by then I'd got the knack, and these three came off near perfect. It took 10 minutes to cook the "dough", I don't know how they managed to drag it out for 20 minutes on Masterchef.

I sprinkled coconut and fresh coriander on the "pasta" sheet before rolling, and the tarka is mustard seed, green chilli, sesame seed, curry leaves, asafoetida, coconut and a pinch of salt.

I used the Indian lady's recipe that I gave a few posts earlier.

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Re: Fried tofu (tofu puffs)

Postby Stokey Sue » Thu Aug 27, 2020 5:16 pm

Those look good Sakkarin

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Re: Fried tofu (tofu puffs)

Postby Sakkarin » Thu Aug 27, 2020 5:37 pm

Ta. I spread the "dough" out on my not-very-forgiving plastic worktop which was slightly awkward to release it from, for anyone with a stainless worktop it would be an absolute breeze.

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Re: Fried tofu (tofu puffs)

Postby karadekoolaid » Thu Aug 27, 2020 7:46 pm

Well there´s another new one for me. Khandvi - never heard of it, but it looks like a winner!
That´s going into my recipe book and i´m going to try it out at the weekend.

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Re: Fried tofu (tofu puffs)

Postby Sakkarin » Thu Aug 27, 2020 8:01 pm

karadekoolaid wrote:I´m going to try it out at the weekend.


:thumbsup

Warning: I had to turn the gas down to minimum after a couple of minutes as it was thickening too quickly, and added more water later as I'd gone halfway between another recipe which had a 1:2.33 ratio of water/yog to gram flour and this recipe which had 1:3 ratio. It needed the 1:3 (0.5 cup gram, 0.5 cup yog, 1 cup water).

I had my timer set to 10 minutes and needed all of it at the lower heat.

It's quite sour anyway so easy on the salt. The version on Masterchef was served with a coconut sauce.

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Re: Fried tofu (tofu puffs)

Postby Earthmaiden » Thu Aug 27, 2020 9:52 pm

Looks wonderful, Sakkarin, really impressive. Can you get the Indian lady's recipe to translate to written or spoken English?

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Re: Fried tofu (tofu puffs)

Postby Sakkarin » Thu Aug 27, 2020 10:36 pm

Fortunately the ingredients appear on screen written in English, I had to stop frame a few times to get them all. Also I watched quite a few other videos, so the technique I'd already sussed. I tried the "closed captions" button, but they didn't translate. Here's what I wrote grabbed from the video:

Batter:
0.5 cup chickpea flour
0.5 cup yoghurt
1 cup water
0.5 tsp salt
1/4 tsp turmeric
2 green chillies*
* I only used one chilli, and I added it to the tarka. In other videos where they add the chilli to the batter, it is briefly marinated, but then sieved out at the last moment.

Filling:
Handful chopped coriander leaves (no stalks...)
1 tbs grated coconut (I cheated and used dessicated reconstituted with a bit of hot water)
Save a bit of each for garnish.

Tarka:
1 tbs oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp sesame seeds
1/4 tsp asafoetida
8-10 curry leaves

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Re: Fried tofu (tofu puffs)

Postby Earthmaiden » Fri Aug 28, 2020 12:44 am

Thank you so much! I didn't see anything like that at all :?. Yours look so good it would be fun to try.

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Re: Fried tofu (tofu puffs)

Postby Sakkarin » Sun Aug 30, 2020 12:40 pm

Good grief. Do I make the HsaBa version of that Chickpea Tofu, which takes a couple of days (can't find the recipe online, but I have the book)?

Or the Mimi one which takes 3.25 hours (as Stokey's link)?
https://nationalpost.com/life/food/cook ... m-mandalay

Or this version which takes 15 minutes and a 1 hour rest?
https://www.deliciouseveryday.com/burme ... fu-recipe/

And that third version is very close to the Khandvi "dough"...

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Re: Fried tofu (tofu puffs)

Postby scullion » Sun Aug 30, 2020 12:49 pm

when i made the mimi version for the second time i didn't bother with all the soaking. i put all of the ingredients into a saucepan and cooked it just like custard, stirring all the time, then poured it into the greased dish and left it to cool for use later.
i can't say that we noticed any difference from the long soak method and would use the second method every time in future

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Re: Fried tofu (tofu puffs)

Postby Stokey Sue » Sun Aug 30, 2020 12:58 pm

I’d be interested to try the HsaBa version, but my guess is that MiMi’s is very close to the version I ate in the Shan state, including the deep frying which as far as I know is how it’s always served in its homeland

The version I had was softer than most ordinary tofu, so to use it as a substitute you’d have to choose your dish carefully and/or adjust the recipe

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Re: Fried tofu (tofu puffs)

Postby Sakkarin » Sun Aug 30, 2020 1:36 pm

Given how easy the cheat version of that Shan Tofu is, I just wondered if real tofu might be as simple to make as simply boiling up some soya bean flour to a custard, so I checked out Sunflower's blog (bearing in mind it's probably 12 years since I read it when she posted, so had forgotten the finer details...).

PLASTER OF PARIS!!!!!!

http://sunflower-recipes.blogspot.com/2 ... -tofu.html

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Re: Fried tofu (tofu puffs)

Postby scullion » Sun Aug 30, 2020 6:44 pm

i used to make tofu (before you could get it in supermarkets and after the local chinese emporium closed). it's a pain in the butt doing it from scratch.
processing the beans - filtering it to get the 'milk', cooking it up with nigari to 'curdle' it, pressing it and then trying to chip away the concretion it leaves on the pan you've cooked it up in. the clean up job is the real pain and is time you'll (i'll) never get back!

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Re: Fried tofu (tofu puffs)

Postby Sakkarin » Sun Aug 30, 2020 7:03 pm

I guess the extra time for the Hsaba version (steep overnight, so 8 hours plus) is to allow a degree of fermentation, presumably giving it a more sour flavour, and that Mimi's version (2 hr steep) is a compromise for a quicker result. The Hsaba recipe also specifies leaving it to set overnight rather than for an hour. I shan't be using mine today so that bit WILL be an overnighter.

Plenty of time to hand but couldn't be bothered to do an overnight soak, so I made Mimi's version with a 2-hour soak, which is now cooling.

That Khandvi is pretty much identical dough, just cooked a bit longer, I got flashbacks to making the Khandvi the other day while I was cooking this. I have to mention that the recipe said "medium-high" flame, in fact it started to thicken almost immediately, so I turned it down to fairly low, at which heat it took 8 minutes from adding the besan mixture to the boiling water.

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Re: Fried tofu (tofu puffs)

Postby Sakkarin » Mon Aug 31, 2020 6:07 pm

A SUCCESS and a FAIL. Success with that first batch of chickpea tofu, and I made a tasty Shan Tofu Salad with half of it. The only niggle is that the recipe included a tiny bit of MSG, which I thought I'd not notice much, but I could taste excessive MSG in the "naked" tofu. It wasn't so pronounced when I put the salad together though, so it went down fine.

Round 2, was the fritters. I was in two minds what shape to do them. I had done a test run with a few of the small dice from the salad, and they were perfect - very crispy on the outside and very soft on the inside. However they shrunk, and were too weeny, so I thought I'd go for the bigger triangular ones as per one of the online recipes. FAIL. I cooked them in 4 small batches, but every one of the fritters exploded, leaving a load of dollops of "custard" floating on the surface of the oil. It reminded me of my first failed attempt at felafel, using canned chick peas, which ended up as a slurry floating on top of the oil.

FAIL:
http://www.sakkarin.co.uk/foodforumpix/ ... itters.jpg

SUCCESS:

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