The Sinosphere · Volume 29, The Delta, the Salt Road and the Mountain Behind It
Wensi tofu, hair-thin tofu soup
Yangzhou
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 45 minutes
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
Yangzhou. Huaiyang cuisine's own demonstration piece, a decade of practice made edible.
As tradition built it
Serves 4. 45 minutes, most of it knife work.
Ingredients
- 1 block (about 300 g) very soft silken tofu, well chilled
- 30 g shiitake mushroom, cut into matching fine threads
- 30 g bamboo shoot, cut into matching fine threads
- 20 g carrot, cut into matching fine threads
- 800 ml clear chicken stock
- 1/2 tsp salt, 1/3 tsp white pepper, 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine salt, white pepper, a little Shaoxing wine
Method
- Cut the chilled tofu block with a cross-hatch technique: a series of close, even horizontal cuts almost through the block, followed by close, even vertical cuts, producing several thousand fine threads that separate cleanly.
- Lower the threads gently into a bowl of cold water to separate them fully without breaking, then drain carefully.
- Bring the stock to a bare simmer, season with salt, white pepper and a little wine.
- Add the matching threads of mushroom, bamboo shoot and carrot, simmer briefly until just tender.
- Slide the tofu threads into the hot stock at the very last moment, off direct heat if needed, and serve immediately so they hold their shape.
What a modern chef changes
The cut itself is the whole dish; the elevation is in the stock and the presentation.
Rung 2
Method
- Clarify the chicken stock properly, low heat and continuous skimming as in this chapter's other clear-broth dishes, so the tofu threads billow visibly in a genuinely transparent liquid rather than a merely pale one.
- Practise the cut on a cheaper block first, treating the ten-year skill the sources describe honestly: budget several attempts, and accept a coarser thread on the first try rather than forcing speed.
- Serve in a clear glass bowl rather than a ceramic one, so the visual effect the dish is built for, threads suspended and drifting in clear stock, is not hidden by an opaque vessel.