Viet World Kitchen

Asian Tofu Sneak Peek: Sample Video and Recipes

Woohoo -- now I can finally share a bit of the Asian Tofu cookbook with you! I've been cooking from my one copy and petting its cover, which has spot-gloss text so that all the letters are slightly reflective and raised. (That's the book design geek in me.)

Asian Tofu releases next week on February 28. Preview copies have been going out to media folks. I've been waiting for the green light to show you the insides of the book. Yesterday, Ten Speed Press and Random House posted sample content for public perusal at their Recipe Club website. For your convenience, I'm reposting the information here.

First up is one of the videos from the Asian Tofu enhanced ebook. The clip offers tips for understanding different kinds of tofu textures, which can be tricky to figure out at the store. I cover the main types used in the book:

 

Video by Ten Speed Press and Jaded Palate Productions

Along with these kinds of instructional videos, we also embedded travelogue videos in the enhanced edition. Those are among the great add-ons that you can include in digital publications. 

Asian Souper Bowls (my Wall Street Journal article)

Last week was kind of a neat media week. Along with the Asian tofu story coming out in Martha Stewart Living magazine, the Wall Street Journal ran a piece I wrote on Asian soups. Why is the Wall Street Journal doing food? It’s been doing it for years. In fact, the Journal regularly published great food stories. Some are reportorial and business-y while others are practical with recipes.  

I was assigned to write about wintry Asian soups so I came up with a concept built on a master chicken stock recipe and four (4) soup recipes based on that stock. The pan-Asian collection of soups included Chinese hot-and-sour soup; Thai tofu, pork, and seaweed soup; Vietnamese chicken and cellophane noodle soup; and Japanese gyoza dumplings in smoky chicken soup.  The Chinese and Thai recipes are from the upcoming Asian Tofu cookbook so if you're inclined, give them a try!

Asian Tofu in Martha Stewart Living!

The February 2012 cover of Martha Stewart Living magazine says it all. I ♥ this issue. It just hit the newsstands and I’m in it. Seriously. Here’s the photo of executive food editor Lucinda Scala Quinn and me shopping at New May Wah market on Clement Street in San Francisco:

Look for the story on page 76 of the print edition, or in the table of contents in the digital version, which is what I decided to get for posterity. Lucinda and I were on the tofu trail.

Don’t know Lucinda? Along with her high level position at the magazine, she has a monthly column in Martha Stewart Living magazine and hosts the Hallmark Channel's Mad Hungry. She also wrote the show’s namesake cookbook and is working on a new book with her son. Lucinda focuses on the joys and challenges of cooking the daily family meal. She’s an ultra busy woman who champions taking time out to prepare food for people you love. It’s a major quality of life issue for her. 

Pan-Seared Egg Tofu "Scallops" with Sweet Chile Sauce Recipe

Welcome to 2012! As you may know, I’ve been preoccupied with tofu. My obsession has mostly been with the kind made from soybeans – the typical stuff eaten by countless people in Asia and beyond. But "tofu" is also a generic term used to describe a wide range of jelled and solidified foods in the Chinese repertoire. For example, some Chinese cookbooks use “almond tofu” to denote the sweet almond–flavored dessert solidified with seaweed-based agar agar. (In the Viet mindset, that’s a type of thach/jelly.) Burmese tofu, also called Shan tofu, is made like polenta with ground beans and water. Japanese sesame tofu is delicate and divine; find out more about goma dofu from Just Hungry. 

Then there’s egg tofu that comes in a tube. It looks like a tiny torpedo and feels like a filled balloon in its plastic casing. Sold at Chinese markets, egg tofu is made with eggs and soymilk, with an eggy richness that prevails. Egg tofu is popular with my Taiwanese and Hong Kong friends, who enjoy it simply fried and bathed in sauce.