Tofu, Fresh

Increasingly packaged under the name tofu (pronounced toe-foo in Japanese), and less frequently under the name bean curd, soybean curd, and bean cake, this is the protein-rich, low-calorie food made from soy milk solidified by a coagulant that has fed the Chinese nation for centuries. The Chinese varieties are generally sold in small cakes, about 3–3½ inches square and 1–1 ½ inches thick, floating in water—either in a large open tub or tall can if you are buying them at the factory or an outlet, or sealed in a small container weighing about a pound if you are buying them in a store. The color is always pure white. The shape will be square-edged if it is the softer Chinese sort, or round-edged like a pillow if it is the firmer, denser Chinese variety called “old tofu” in Chinese (老豆腐 mandarin: lao-doe-foo, Cantonese: yao-dao-foo). Either variety is preferable for the recipes in this book to the Japanese sort, which is beautifully silky but tends to fall apart when subjected to the hubbub of Chinese cooking.