East-Asian inspired, marinated, then slow cooked tofu and vegetables

Reward your lazy self with this dish, which doen't require much effort from you. The acidic marinade will season all ingredients with strong East-Asian flavors (and do 80% of the cooking job for you).

Serves: 3 to 4

Preparation: 20 minutes (excluding marinating time)

Cooking: 2 to 3 hours

The dish, served in a plate with cashew nuts as topping - CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Sometimes being lazy can be a good thing, if it leads you to be creative, and to seek the maximum efficiency over effort ratio. Marination is such a trick, provided you can plan ahead, and afford to wait for hours before enjoying the result. In the present case, it was a time I wanted some comfort food for the coming days. Lazy, but still a gourmet! I had some leftover vegetables in the fridge, after I cooked several Thai-inspired recipes. I thought about soaking them in a spicy, flavor-rich, marinade; I browsed online for inspiration, and came with my own idea of what to prepare. I hadn’t found Thai recipes using Shaoxing wine (Chinese ones do, of course); I found that, beside a very welcome liquid for the marinade, it brings the sweet taste that the sugar usually does. I tend to replace sugar in recipes with other ingredients (vegetables or liquids) which can provide a smaller fraction of its sweet taste; if you’re looking for reduced sugar. On one side, this recipe is quick to prepare: peel, chop, slice, cut, cover with liquids — done. On the other side, it’s long to cook: it has to rest for hours in the marinade (which already “cooks” the ingredients a first time), then it cooks for hours with the marinade under the lid of a deep-sided pan.

Fun fact: the laziness I mention above extended beyond cooking, as it took me several sessions to complete the writing of this article (-_-’).

About Shaoxing cooking wine

A Shaoxing cooking wine bottle - CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Shaoxing wine is a traditional Chinese wine made from fermented rice - hence the term of rice wine. The Wikipedia page I linked to mentions Shaoxing wine is widely used as a beverage and a cooking wine in Chinese cuisine. The bottles I’ve found so far bear the mention “not for drinking”, so I’ve only used it for cooking. Shaoxing wine brings a light sweet taste to the recipe, which differs from European recipes which require red wine. I initially bought it to prepare chow mein (a recipe for this dish will come), and I extended its use to other marinades afterward — including the present one.

Ingredients

Since it was a time I tapped into what was left in the fridge, neither had I thought about taking pictures of the ingredients, nor had I counted or weighted most of them. I recommend you go with your mood, and with what you have in stock. I use tofu and carrot in most of my East-Asian recipes. I had no cabbage, however it would work well, too. For those who still like to have a more precise guidance, I’ve tentatively provided weight and count ranges.

• 200 g firm tofu¹

• 1 carrot

• Half a zucchini

• 3 soup spoons of strong chili pepper flakes

• 1 soup spoon of turmeric

• 4-6 shallots (or onions if you don’t have shallots)

• 2-6 garlic cloves

• Crushed black pepper

• Fresh coriander

• 5 (or more) soup spoons of Shaoxing wine

• 5 (or more) soup spoons of soy sauce²

• 1 soup spoon of mushroom sauce (see my previous recipe “stir-fried rice noodles with scrambled tofu and veggies (pretty much a pad thai)” where I explain what mushroom sauce is)³

• 5 (or more) soup spoons of lime juice

• 5 (or more) soup spoons of groundnut oil⁴

• Thai jasmin white rice (optional)

• Cashew nuts for topping (optional)⁵

Preparation

With a marinated dish, you need to prepare all ingredients before they rest for hours in the fridge. Ingredients will cook slowly afterward, barely attended; the Preparation steps below consist in most of the work this recipe requires from you.

1. Cut the tofu in 1.5-2 cm large cubes

2. Peel the carot, cut it into matchsticks

3. Peel the half zucchini, cut it into thick sticks

4. Peel the shallots and garlic, chop them into thin slices

5. Finely chop the fresh coriander

6. In a large bowl, pour the liquid ingredients, mix with a spoon

7. Add all ingredients but the rice and the cashew nuts (both are optional, though) to the bowl

8. Mix gently (you don’t want to break any of the ingredients, especially the tofu pieces), and ensure the fewest possible solid ingredients surface over the marinade; you want them to soak evenly, so add more liquids (Shaoxing wine, lime juice, soy sauce, and oil) to cover them

9. Cover, refrigerate for hours (I left it overnight)

All ingredients, ready for a last stir before resting in the fridge - CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Cooking

Do you know the saying “laziness pays twice”? If not, it’s normal, I just invented it. The marinade has done 80% of the cooking job while you were minding your own business; all ingredients have absorbed the flavors while resting. Now, it’s only a matter of heating and cooking the ingredients slowly. Obviously, you can’t start cooking without having completed the steps in section Preparation beforehand.

1. Heat a large deep pan, or a deep-sided skillet on medium flame/power

2. Put in the marinade and its content, stir gently

3. Lower the heat to low/medium and cover for 2-3 hours

4. Stir occasionnally

5. If you’ve chosen to add Thai jasmin white rice, add it (cooked), and mix

6. If you’ve chosen to add cashew nuts, use them as topping

The marinated ingredients, in the deep sided skillet (step 2) - CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

You can serve immediately, and enjoy it right away. The Thai jasmin white rice is optional, and you can also serve it separately. I tend to prefer white rice when I mix it with the dish, and whole (brown, red, or purple) rice when I serve it separately. You can refrigerate the dish to enjoy it later, or even freeze it. In both case, re-heat the dish the same way you cooked it: slowly, on low heat/power, and covered.

The dish, with (a lot of) rice - CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Enjoy!

If you’ve tried the recipe, and would like to comment - whether you loved it, or hated it - please do so. I’m welcoming ideas, even if these are non-vegan recipes I’ll have the challenge to “veganize”.

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Here’s a tip before you go

If your fridge is large enough, you can prepare the ingredients and marinade in the very same container you will use to cook. This avoids loosing (or spilling) liquid when transfering from the container to the deep-sided pan. Pans and pots with a removable handle are great for this exercise. Yes, it’s yet another lazy smart idea!

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1. Be cautious: tofu is made of soy, which is a know allergen

2. Be cautious: soy sauce is made of soy and wheat; both are know allergens

3. Be cautious: mushroom sauce contains soy sauce, which is made of soy and wheat; both are known allergens

4. Be cautious: groundnut oil is made of nut, which is a know allergen

5. Be cautious: cashew nut, like all nuts, is a know allergen