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This amazing one-pan egg tofu is cooked with minced pork and Chinese style fermented black beans is one of our family favorite weeknight meals and will quickly become yours.
One-Pan Egg Tofu with Minced Pork and Black Beans
MINCED MEAT, TOFU, AND BLACK BEANS COMBINATION IS A CLASSIC CHINESE DISH
I can probably say that almost every Chinese household will use the combination of minced meat (usually pork), tofu, and Chinese style black beans in a dish more often than not. I am obviously one of them. I like to add soft to medium texture tofu cubes. In this recipe, I use egg tofu, which my kids love a lot! The taste is very similar to Mapo Tofu and Mapo Steamed Eggs I made a while ago.
EGG TOFU (JAPANESE TOFU-TAMAGO TOFU)
Egg tofu is Japanese style tofu made with eggs and soymilk. They are incredibly soft and smooth. If you have eaten chawanmushi before, then you will know what I mean in terms of texture.
INGREDIENTS
You will need: egg tofu, garlic, ginger, Chinese black beans (douchi), ground meat (pork or meat of your choice)
The three things that you may need to make a trip to the Asian grocery store are probably egg tofu, oyster sauce, and Chinese black beans or sometimes called fermented black beans or salted black beans. Just to show you what I use, but you can use whichever brand you prefer. The black beans are salted and fermented and give you that intense saltiness. A little sure goes a long way. It gives you that little burst of savoriness in a dish like this.
SUBSTITUTION FOR EGG TOFU
You can simply use regular tofu, from soft to medium texture to substitute for egg tofu.
WHAT KIND OF GROUND/MINCED MEAT TO USE
In Asia, we usually call ground meat as minced meat. Here in the U.S., the term minced is almost non-existence 🙂
I used minced pork in this recipe, but feel free to use ground turkey, ground chicken, or other ground meat of your choice.
WHY YOU’LL LIKE THIS RECIPE
1. NO DEEP FRYING
My mom used to deep fry the egg tofu, but there’s no need to do that. By pan frying, I can get the same golden brown on the surface of the egg tofu
2. ONLY ONE PAN
Yup, you only need one pan to make this dish. Less things to wash
HOW TO COOK EGG TOFU WITH MINCED PORK AND BLACK BEANS (IN FEW SIMPLE STEPS)
1. PAN FRY THE TOFU
Preheat a large pan or skillet with cooking oil over medium heat. When it’s hot, add the tofu slices and pan fry until they are golden brown on both sides.
You can see a thin crust form on the surface of the tofu.
Remove from the heat and arrange on a serving platter
2. MAKE THE MEAT SAUCE
In the same pan or skillet, add aromatics and stir fry for about 30 seconds.
Add the pork and stir fry until the pork just turned opaque. If you want to add vegetables like broccoli, or carrots, you can add them here
Add the seasonings and stir to mix everything for about 30 seconds.
Add the chicken stock and bring to a gentle simmer. If you added veggies earlier, cover the pan with a lid to let the steam cook the veggies briefly until tender, but not mushy.
3. THICKEN THE SAUCE
Once it boils, gives the corn starch slurry a stir and pour into the pan or skillet.
Continue to stir until the sauce thickens. Have a final taste and add more soy sauce and/or sugar if needed. It should be savory in taste
4. GARNISH
Garnish with chopped green onion and it is ready for your tummy!
I don’t make this dish spicy because of my kids. Though they can tolerate a bit of heat, but I didn’t make it spicy. You can do so by getting spicy douchi if you like.
DID YOU MAKE THIS EGG TOFU WITH MINCED PORK AND BLACK BEANS RECIPE?
I love it when you guys snap a photo and tag to show me what you’ve made 🙂 Simply tag me @WhatToCookToday #WhatToCookToday on Instagram and I’ll be sure to stop by and take a peek for real!
One-Pan Egg Tofu with Minced Pork and Salted Black Beans
Ingredients
- 500 gr egg tofu
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil
- 200 gr minced pork/ground pork or ground meat of your choice
- 1 cup chicken stock
To marinate meat:
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- ½ tsp sugar
- ¼ tsp ground white pepper
Aromatics:
- 3 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 2 tsp minced fresh ginger
Seasonings:
- 1 Tbsp Chinese black beans
- 1 Tbsp oyster sauce
- 2 tsp soy sauce or more to taste
- 1 tsp sugar
To thicken the sauce:
- 1 Tbsp corn starch
- 2 Tbsp water
Garnish:
- 1 stalk green onion finely chopped
Instructions
Things to prepare:
- Cut the egg tofu into about 1-inch slices. Mix the corn starch with water to thicken the sauce later
- Put the meat in the bowl along with marinade ingredients. Stir to combine and let it marinate while you are preparing other things
Pan fry the egg tofu:
- Preheat a large pan or skillet with cooking oil over medium heat. When it's hot, add the tofu slices and pan fry until they are golden brown on both sides. You can see a thin crust form on the surface of the tofu. Remove from the heat and arrange on a serving platter
Cooking:
- In the same pan or skillet, add aromatics and stir fry for about 1 minute. Add the pork and stir fry until the pork just started to turn color and no longer pink. If you want to add vegetables like broccoli or carrots, add them here. Add the chicken stock and bring to a gentle simmer and then cover with a lid briefly to cook the vegetables until they are soft, but not mushy. Add the seasonings and stir to mix everything for about 30 seconds.
Thicken the sauce:
- Once it boils, gives the corn starch slurry a stir and pour into the pan or skillet. Continue to stir until the sauce thickens. Have a final taste and add more soy sauce and/or sugar if needed. It should be savory in taste
- Remove from the heat and pour the meat sauce over the pan-fried egg tofu. Garnish with chopped green onion and serve immediately
11 comments
Delicious! It was my first time trying egg tofu and I loved the texture and flavor. With a bit of chopping to prep, this cooks very quickly and tastes excellent. I used dry fermented black beans that come vacuum sealed shelf stable and I usually give them a quick rinse so they aren’t too salty. I was worried that with vegetables added there wouldn’t be enough sauce but there was plenty – we used Chinese cauliflower, black woodear mushrooms, and red bell pepper. Will definitely be making this again and looking for more ways to cook egg tofu. Thank you.
Hi Katy, I’m glad you enjoy egg tofu. We love egg tofu too. The texture is so silky smooth! Great additions with cauliflower, woodear mushrooms, and bell peppers. Some crunch and great colors too!