Silken Tofu Recipe with Fried Garlic and Black beans
A simple cold silken tofu recipe elevated with a savoury sauce, fried garlic, fermented black beans, and topped with pickled cucumber. It is truly one of the easiest Chinese tofu side dishes you can prepare that is utterly delicious to eat.
In a small mixing bowl, add rice wine vinegar, sugar and salt. Mix well until sugar dissolves.
Add sliced cucumber to the pickling mixture and sit for at least 10 minutes.
Add oil and chopped garlic in a small frying pan in a cold pan. Gently fry garlic over medium heat until lightly brown.
Add black beans to oil and continue frying until garlic is crispy and turns golden brown.
Scoop fried garlic and black beans from oil and place on a paper towel to drain the excess oil.
To assemble, remove silken tofu from packaging and place on a serving plate. Drain any excess liquid from silken tofu.
Drizzle soy sauce and sesame oil over cold silken tofu.
Scatter fried garlic and black beans over silken tofu.
Drain pickled cucumbers from the pickling mixture. Give them a good squeeze to remove any excess liquid. Gently place pickled cucumber on top of silken tofu.
Serve.
Notes
You can’t substitute silken tofu for regular tofu as they have very different textures and would not work for this recipe.
If you prefer warm tofu, you can steam the silken tofu for 2 minutes to heat through and then add fried garlic, black beans and pickled cucumber. Alternatively, leave it out of the fridge till it reaches room temperature.
If you are preparing ahead, best to assemble when ready to serve. Silken tofu will continue to seep liquid if left standing for too long. Drain any excess liquid to avoid the dish becoming too wet.
Use tamari instead of soy sauce for a gluten free recipe.
Other variations of toppings for silken tofu: - Use chopped green scallion or coriander in place of pickled cucumbers. - Add your favourite chilli sauce, such as Lao Gan Ma chilli oil or doubanjiang. -Substitute black beans with crispy shallots. - Use the Chilli Black Vinegar Dressing in our Tofu Skin Salad. - Add dried bonito flakes with soy sauce and ginger for a Japanese style chilled tofu dish. - Mix gochujang with scallions, rice wine vinegar, sugar and sesame seeds for a spicy sauce. - Those who are more adventurous can try adding black century eggs (Chinese preserved duck eggs) and sliced ginger on silken tofu. This is a popular Chinese cold appetiser.