Red-braised tofu knots

I got into discussion recently with a fellow Oxford foodie, and we ended up on the topic of pop-up restaurants and supperclubs. "What," she asked, "would you cook if you ran a pop-up of some kind?". Oh, Mediterannean, definitely, I replied. I understand Italian and French cuisine in a far deeper way than any other: I'm just not capable of making up, say, a Chinese dish.

This, my friends, is bollocks. For a couple of years now, I've been gradually educating myself about Chinese food (thanks to Fuchsia Dunlop, mainly). I know how to do roll-cuts and horse-ear slices; I know to smack a salad vegetable before tossing it with a dressing; I actually *like* the texture of wood-ear mushrooms, once described as simultaneously slimy and crunchy.

I know the difference between red-braising and red-braising, because this word describes two very different cooking sauces, depending on where in China you are. Sichuan red-braising is fiery, made with a fermented paste of chillis and dried beans. Hunanese red-braising is aromatic and sweeter, made with five-spice, wine, and sugar.

Personally, I'd take the Sichuan version anyday, but with a slightly less chilli-fiend friend coming over for dinner, I decided to take the heretical route and produce a mixture of the two. Best served with rice and a green vegetable of some kind, when it will serve four, or as part of bigger Chinese meal for eight or so.


Red-braised Tofu Knots

2 onions
4 sticks celery
2 tbs Sichuan chilli bean paste
3 tbs hoi sin sauce
1 star anise
1 stick cinnamon
2 tbs light soy sauce
4 tbs shaoxing rice wine
300g dried tofu knots

Finely chop the onions and celery, then saute in a generous amount of flavourless oil (e.g. vegetable or groundnut, not olive), in a large casserole dish, over a low heat for twenty to thirty minutes. They should be soft and faintly translucent and just starting to get golden round the edges.

Turn up the heat a little, chuck in the chilli bean paste, and stir-fry quickly for a few seconds, until the oil in the pan has taken on its red colour. Tip in all the other ingredients, and pour over enough water to easily cover the knots: this will be around 300ml, but will depend largely on the size of your casserole dish.

Bring to a simmer, and then reduce the heat to low, and leave to gently blurp away to itself for a couple of hours. Check occasionally to ensure that there is still enough liquid in the pot to cover the knots: they will absorb the sauce as they cook, so you may need to add more. At the end of that period, remove a tofu knot, to ensure that they are soft through. Check for seasoning, adding more soy if needed.

The dish will very happily sit for an hour, or could even be chilled and re-heated later in the day.