I really love leek. This week we got a bunch of fresh organic vegetables from a local farmer, including about a dozen leeks. I decided to cook a dish that centers around leek.
This is a basic Chinese stir-fry recipe and really easy to make. With proper ingredients – fresh leek and fresh tofu – it tastes delicious! I’ve adapted this from a meat dish in the Finnish book Syödään kuten Kiinassa.
This is what I used:
- 200 g leek (about 3 small leeks)
- 250 g tofu
- 1 tablespoon dry sherry or rice wine
- 3 tablespoons oil for frying (or less, according to taste)
For the thickening:
- ½ tablespoon corn starch
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons water
For the marinade:
- 2 tablespoons dry sherry or rice wine
- 4 tablespoons soy sauce
I began by putting the rice in the cooker. I then dried and pressed the tofu. We were really hungry, so I didn’t do it as carefully as I usually want to do it. I’ve found that using a thin cloth or tissue to absorb some of the water from the tofu really makes a difference in the taste. This time I just wrapped the chunk of tofu in some paper tissue and put a weight on top of it for a few minutes. After cutting the tofu into small cubes, I mixed it with the marinade in a box with a lid. While finishing the rest of the preparations, I shook the box every couple of minutes to make sure the marinade was evenly distributed among the tofu cubes.
I mixed the thickening ingredients and set them aside. Then, I cut the leeks in half lengthwise and rinsed them carefully to get rid of all the grit hidden between the layers. Anni was finished preparing the cabbage salad by now, and she cut the leeks in tiny matchstick-like pieces.
It was time to fry the food. I heated the oil in a wok until it was really hot, and tossed in the tofu along with the remnants of the marinade. I fried the tofu for a couple of minutes, stirring continuously with two wooden spatulas. Next I added the sherry, and stirred again, until it was dissolved.
Now I added the leek, and fried it for a few minutes, tossing the tofu and the leek around the pan frivolously. Finally I added the thickening, and stirred for a short while until the thickening started to boil. Now it was time to eat!
This is a great recipe if you want something delicious really quick.
3 Comments
I made this a while back and really enjoyed it although I found it overly salty. I’ll definitely make it again, but will reduce the amount of the soy sauce. Thanks for the recipe.
Hi Lynn, thanks for commenting!
Now that I take a new look at the recipe, 4 tbsp of soy sauce for 250g of tofu is a bit on the salty side. Of course, soy sauces differ in their saltiness too. We’ve been trying out different brands lately, but I think this dish was originally cooked with Amoy light soy sayce.
Hmm, I think I’m going to cook this tonight, I just love stir-fried leek!
Hi Heikki,
Thanks for your reply. I used Kikkoman soy sauce which probably explains why it turned out so salty if you yourself used light soy sauce. I totally agree that soy sauces really differ in their saltiness. Now after seeing the photo of the dish, I think I’ll be cooking this tomorrow night. :)