The last Monday of the month of Healthy January has arrived and that means that today I’ll share my last method of preparing tofu with you! Before I give you the recipe that I have devised for you, I’ll first tell you a little about my tofu adventure.
There are many different ways to prepare tofu that I have not yet shared with you. I actually wanted to make a tofu scramble today, or maybe a dish with steamed tofu. But I couldn’t choose, so that’s why I chose both ways, with a lovely jacket around it!
What is difficult in the vegetarian or vegan world, of course, is that all so-called meat substitutes often first have to be precooked, or prepared in some other way, before they can be used in a dish or before they even taste like anything. If you don’t have much time and just want to prepare something quickly, this can become a source of annoyance.
Scrambled tofu is a handy solution for this, because you can simply remove the tofu from the packaging and add it to your dish right away! No fuss, no tofu press needed and no crushing accidents where the tofu explodes. And no wasted food of course. Scrambling or steaming is of course very simple and quickly done. You only have to add spices or a sauce! It is simple and easy and, and last but not least, very tasty!
There are a few things I really love about the culinary world and Asian cuisine is one of them. I especially love the refined snacks such as dumplings, dim sum and fresh rolls. When I came to live here in Spain, I found it difficult because I couldn’t find Asian shops (we call them tokos) like I had in Amsterdam. That was a real downer of course. After some time I found a few, but sometimes they turned out not to sell everything I was looking for. I am also not a fan of endlessly buying things from amazon, because I prefer to be able to have products in my hands and see if it really is what I want.
And luckily last week I found a shop that sells rice paper and wonton wrappers ready-made! So I bought them, in case my own dough didn’t work out. Actually, that’s really a wrong thought, because I want everything to work out, or that everything remains a challenge, so that in the end I can get it done! So what I really want to say is that today I made wonton dough for the first time and I thought it went quite well!
Today I present to you a homemade wonton with a delicious filling of scrambled tofu and mushrooms! It was fun to do, but I’m not a hero in closing the wontons, so I will definitely have to practice with that! Making the dough is not that difficult in itself. It is of course a bit of a challenge because it remains a dough and you want it to be okay.
To make the dough, this time I followed a recipe from Whiskaffair, as I saw that many people had similar recipes, and her instructions are clear and well written. One thing I’d like to say: It’s better to roll out the dough with cornstarch rather than flour, as flour makes the wrappers a bit gummy. I have just tested that, and it turns out to be completely correct. That’s why I used cornstarch.
The tofu scramble came out very tasty with the different sauces I used. In the future I will cook with hoisin more often, because it tastes very good indeed and with a little soy it becomes a bit saltier and more sour. And I am sure I can make special combinations with it!
Below is my recipe for the filling for the wonton! You can of course use this recipe for anything and even in something other than a dumpling! The craziest thing is that the dumplings taste like there is just real meat in them, so you don’t miss that at all. Shall we get started on the recipe, because I can always write for hours about food and cooking!
Ingredients
With these quantities you can fill up to 30 wontons, depending on how big you make the wonton skins.
- 500 gr firm tofu
- 100 gr oyster mushrooms, in small pieces
- 4 cm ginger, minced meat or a large tablespoon of ready-made ginger paste
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 spring onions, chopped
- sunflower oil (or any other oil of your choice but no olive oil)
- salt and pepper
- 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds (optional)
- 1 tablespoon chili flakes (optional)
- 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons of hoisin sauce
- 2 tablespoons of sesame oil
Preparation
Before you start, make your wonton dough. You can read the recipe here. I used about 150ml of cold water. Because there were no milliliters, I poured it very carefully into the dough until I just didn’t think it was getting too sticky. If your dough is too sticky, add a little more flour again but no more after that! Let the dough rest for at least 30 minutes.
Put a large frying pan on the fire and heat enough sunflower oil. Add the mushrooms and let it fry for a minute, then add the ginger, garlic and spring onion. Stir well and let it fry for a few minutes over medium heat.
Crumble the tofu over the pan and stir it through the mushrooms. Let the tofu bake for a few minutes again. Make sure your crumbs are small enough. If you leave too large chunks whole, you will have trouble filling the wontons later.
Then add the sesame oil, hoisin and soy sauce while stirring. Make sure it doesn’t burn on the pan and keep driving it for a few minutes. Add more salt and pepper, and sesame seeds and chili flakes if you want, and stir well a few more times. Taste and see if you think the flavor is strong enough, because now you can still add some more!
If you like the filling, turn off the heat and let it cool. Grab your dough and knead it for a few more minutes before rolling it out. Sprinkle cornstarch on your countertop and roll your dough into small balls. Crush a ball on the countertop and roll it flat until it is a thin sheet. Cut out circles of about 8 cm with a dough cutter or a glass.
Now comes the part that is a bit tricky. Place the filling in the center of a circle and grab the side of the sheet between your fingers. Squeeze the wonton while you keep turning it. Repeat this process until the wonton is completely closed in the middle. Press the middle a little longer and voilà! Your dumpling is finished. This of course sounds quite difficult, and it is also just difficult to describe. Maybe this video is a good example of what you can use. Repeat until you have the desired amount and you can easily freeze the rest of the dough.
Put a pan of water on the stove and place your steamer basket on top of the pan. Place a cabbage leaf or wafer-thin carrot slices in the month. Place your wontons on top of these vegetables and let it steam on a medium heat for about 10 minutes. Serve immediately with a little soy sauce, but not too much, otherwise the taste of the tofu will disappear!
Voilà, a delicious and healthy snack for everyone! And don’t forget to eat the cabbage from the basket, because it tastes really delicious when steamed!
The result
It was a lot of fun learning to work with steam baskets, and making these wontons brought me back to the times when I went to eat dim sum at the food halls in Amsterdam. At that time I always opted for the pork and gambas filling. For some reason that is my favorite filling!
You can of course buy pre-prepared leaves for the wontons, but it’s a lot of fun learning to make them yourself. For me it was the first time and certainly not the last time that I will make them! And just in case, I will always have those pre-made leaves in the freezer, in case I want to make it faster.
In the neighbourhood where I live I keep discovering all kinds of small Asian stores with stuff that I really love. That really makes me so happy because I hate it when I really want to make something and can’t do it because I don’t have the right stuff!
It is a different recipe than usual at Casa de la Vida, mainly because we used some recipes from others. And because it was quite disappointing to describe the squeezing of the wonton, I put a link to a video about it in this recipe. Sometimes you just have to show things that are hard to describe! That is also a good lesson for us, and a new project to work on in the future!
Have a nice Monday, my friends and see you soon!
Everyone has a favorite filling of dumplings, now I’m curious about yours! Or did you make this recipe? And I wonder if you have tips or tricks or a photo, so maybe we can share them?
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regards
Thank you, I am really in love with writing blogs and especially about food! Hope you can find more recipes you like!