Back in time…

This is very old school – something that my mum would cook and I was eating during my growing-up years…way back in time. It is very simple actually, nothing really special but today, it is one of the more popular soup dishes at the Chinese chu-char places and restaurants here – what we call tauhu tier in Foochow…

In an earlier post, I mentioned that Annie-Q‘s mum gave me some of the organic tofu that she made herself…

…so I decided to cook that for dinner last weekend.

I just fried three slices of ginger in very little oil – about a table spoon before I added the minced meat…

…and just a bit of that will do.

The most essential ingredient would be the canned oysters…

*Archive photo*

…so that subsequently joined the minced meat and ginger in the wok…

…and after frying for a while, I added some water. Bone stock would be ideal but I did not have any so I just used plain water and added a pinch of chicken stock and brought it to boil. Then, I added the tofu cut into cubes…

…and left it to simmer for a while. If you order this at the shops, you may get something thick and if you prefer it like that, all you have to do is to dilute a tablespoon of cornflour in half a cup of water and pour it into the boiling soup slowly, bit and bit and keep on stirring until the soup has reached the consistency that you want.

I did not have any daun sup (Chinese coriander) in the house so I just sprinkled with the spring onions in my garden, chopped, and served. Some people love it with a bit of black vinegar added so you can do that if you are thus inclined.

We had that together with the other dishes that I managed to whip up that evening…

…including the made-in-Canada Ma Ling luncheon meat that I got from Philip, my friend in the US – fried with egg and Bombay onions, no oil added.

Thank you all for the goodies…and I must say thank you too to my cousin, Diana, in Miri who sent me this big jar of cincaluk (fermented shrimps)…

That got to me over the weekend and it certainly would come in handy in my cooking…and eating as well but of course, when I have anything cooked with that, I would need to resist the temptation of having a second helping of rice, that’s for sure! Hehehehehehe!!!!!