Nothing to it…

My girl and I bought this…

…for our steamboat dinner that night of the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節) or the Zhōngqiū Jié, also known as the Mooncake Festival on 15th last but the mum decided not to include it as there were simply too many things already for us to finish…and yes, true enough, we didn’t manage to eat everything.

My girl likes these that we can buy at our local supermarkets a lot more than our own Sibu-made ones sold at the wet market in town. They are softer and silkier and smoother…and they definitely will not have that smoky smell that we may get sometimes with our own tofu when they do not make it well.

I guess everyone would know by now my beta noire – how I just can’t stand seeing thing sitting idle in the fridge for too long so I just had to take it out and cook it. Incidentally, it says on the pack to “keep freeze 2°C – 5°C” [SIC] but I see them all the time at the supermarkets on the slightly chilled shelves and not in the freezer. Is it that cold or cold enough the way they are displayed?

Anyway, I did not feel like having soup that day so I decided to do it like how they do it in the restaurants…

*Archive photo*

– with minced meat and salted fish but of course, mine would be very much simpler, I guess. Nothing to it, really! These were the ingredients that I prepared for use…

I did not have any salted fish in the house so I substituted it with ikan bilis (dried anchovies) that I fried till golden brown…

…and then crushed it all up with my batu lesung (mortar and pestle).

Using the same oil, I fried the ginger slices before throwing in the sliced chili and minced meat and then I added dark soy sauce and a bit of sugar to counter-balance the salty taste and finally, I added the crushed fried ikan bilis before pouring everything over the tofu that I had taken out and placed on a plate.

I steamed it for a while as I was not too sure about having the tofu cold and once done, I garnished it with some chopped spring onions…

…and served.

Yes, it was very nice…

…but no, it was not like those at the restaurants. For one thing, the ikan bilis did not taste anything like salted fish but it was nice in its own way and perhaps, I could have added some thinly-sliced dried shitake mushroom as well. I am pretty sure we have some somewhere in the house.

Ok, now that I’ve got the tofu out of the way, let’s see what else I can find sitting in the fridge…