Salted Egg Braised Tofu & Salt-and-Pepper Shiitake

Cooked again — last week was spent at a wedding in Luoyang, after all.

This time the results were salted egg braised tofu & salt-and-pepper shiitake, recipes from Xiachufang.

The recipes cover the process, so I’ll just talk about how it turned out: the salted egg braised tofu was shockingly good. I nearly finished the whole plate myself — honestly it tasted no different from what you’d get at a restaurant. It’s also pretty simple to make; the key is probably the tofu you pick and how you handle the salted duck eggs. I kept the egg whites, and I couldn’t bring myself to use the ideal boxed silken tofu either, so there’s clearly room to improve. The starch slurry went in a bit late — getting that right would probably push it up another notch. The sauce wasn’t as yellow as the restaurant version; likely not enough salted egg. One more yolk and it’d probably be about right.

The salt-and-pepper shiitake can’t be called a success — “edible” is the honest word. I put too much water in the batter, so it was too thin, and when frying, not enough coating stuck to the mushrooms. Texture was so-so. That’s not even the worst part: the seasoning was all over the place. Too much at the start made it too salty, then I overcorrected and it ended up too bland. The final product looks passable, but the flavor isn’t balanced. Not inedible, though…

My mother’s been unwell these past few days, coughing nonstop, and the checkups haven’t turned up anything specific. Nothing I can do to help, so I just made her a meal. She was happy after finishing the salted egg tofu. Hope she recovers soon.