Crispy skin stuffed tofu, or Cui Pei Doufu (脆皮豆腐), was a dish my parents used to order frequently when we would make the trek out to Chinatown from upstate New York.
Stuffed and deep fried, these little bricks of tofu are crispy on the outside and soft and delicate on the inside, with a small mound of ground shrimp filling to top it off.
A Disappearing Cantonese Dish
It’s been a long time since I had this dish, and I don’t remember ever seeing it on a menu anywhere in China. Perhaps I was simply never looking for it, or maybe it was conceived here in the US by immigrant chefs. If anyone knows, drop us a line in the comments!
If you’ve ever eaten this at a Cantonese restaurant, you might say that this crispy skin stuffed tofu is relatively expensive for what you get. It’s priced similarly to a meat dish, despite being relatively simple. But hey, what’s a couple of bucks for a tasty dish when you’re eating out, right?
I only mention this because usually when we would order it all those years ago at our favorite Chinatown Cantonese restaurants, there would be some comment from the more frugal (and usually more senior) diners about it being too expensive for a simple tofu dish. Good old-fashioned frugal immigrant grandparents for you…Sometimes a short discussion would ensue that went something like this:
“No tofu. It’s not a good deal…tofu is too cheap!”
My dear mom would say: “But little Billy likes it. It’s okay!”
So we got the crispy skin stuffed tofu—oh, the power of kids, even back then!
We wanted to try it at home, and add the recipe to our archives. Usually, the stuffing in restaurant versions of this dish use a quarter or less of what we have used here, maybe to emphasize the tofu or boost margin, but feel free to put however much you want or even leave it out completely to make a vegan tofu dish.
Whatever you decide, pick up one of these babies delicately with your chopsticks, dip it thoroughly in the light soy dipping sauce, and enjoy with a bowl of rice. Be careful when eating because the crispy skin stuffed tofu does gets really hot inside! Hope you enjoy this one!
A Quick Note on Tofu
Note: Make sure you use “soft tofu.” Soft tofu and silken tofu are sometimes confused, but silken would be too delicate for this particular recipe, and firm tofu would be too solid and heavy.
The soft tofu is just right.
If you find yourself getting confused in the refrigerated section of your Asian grocery store, you should definitely refer to our Chinese tofu and bean curd page for guidance.
Crispy Skin Stuffed Tofu: Recipe Instructions
Use a cleaver or knife to finely mince the shrimp into a very fine paste. This process entails chopping and then folding the shrimp paste over and onto itself, and continuing to chop until you have a paste.
We used this same technique in our Dim Sum Stuffed Pepper recipe. Transfer the shrimp paste to a bowl and add in the rest of the filling ingredients (salt, oil, sesame oil, Shaoxing wine, cornstarch, white pepper. Mix well until combined.
Carefully remove the soft tofu from the carton, draining the excess water. Cut the block in half lengthwise, and cut each half into 5 equal pieces of tofu so you get 10 tofu blocks.
Next, position the tofu slices on a plate or sheet pan. Measure out 2 tablespoons of cornstarch onto a small plate. Next, scoop 1 teaspoon of the filling with a measuring spoon and dip the open end of the spoon onto the cornstarch to coat it.
Place a teaspoon of filling onto the middle of each tofu block cornstarch side down. This cornstarch will “glue” the filling onto the tofu. Repeat another 9 times for the other tofu pieces.
Once all the filling is in place, pour the remaining cornstarch into a sieve, and carefully sift the rest evenly over the stuffed tofu. This will give you an extra crispy top-coating giving the crispy skin stuffed tofu that signature crunchy outside.
Heat 4 cups of oil in a wok or small pot to 375 degrees. While you’re waiting for the oil to heat up, mix the ingredients for the dipping sauce in a small bowl and set aside—sugar, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and scallions.
Use a metal spatula to carefully pick up a block of tofu and slide it into the oil. You can fry them a few at a time, but make sure the oil temperature remains constant.
Fry them until golden brown, moving them gently as needed to cook evenly, 2 to 4 minutes.
When cooked through, remove them with a slotted spoon or metal spatula to drain on a plate lined with paper towels. You can sprinkle a bit of salt on top if you like, or simply enjoy them with the dipping sauce. Don’t salt the tofu before frying, or it will crack open, and you’ll have a bit of a mess on your hands.
Transfer to a serving plate and serve your crispy skin stuffed tofu with the sauce on the side!
“Crispy Skin” Stuffed Tofu
Ingredients
For the shrimp filling:
- 6 ounces shrimp (170g, peeled and deveined)
- 1¼ teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon oil
- ½ teaspoon sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon Shaoxing wine
- 1½ teaspoon cornstarch
- Fresh ground white pepper
For the tofu:
- 1 pound soft tofu (450g)
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 4 cups oil (for frying)
For the dipping sauce:
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
- ¼ teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon chopped scallions
Instructions
- Use a cleaver or knife to finely mince the shrimp into a very fine paste. This process entails chopping and then folding the shrimp paste over and onto itself, and continuing to chop until you have a paste. We used this same technique in our Dim Sum Stuffed Pepper recipe. Transfer the shrimp paste to a bowl and add in the rest of the filling ingredients. Mix well until combined.
- Carefully remove the soft tofu from the carton, draining the excess water. Cut the block in half lengthwise, and cut each half into 5 equal pieces of tofu so you get 10 tofu blocks.
- Next, position the tofu slices on a plate or sheet pan. Measure out 2 tablespoons of cornstarch onto a small plate. Next, scoop 1 teaspoon of the filling with a measuring spoon and dip the open end of the spoon onto the cornstarch to coat it. Place a teaspoon of filling onto the middle of each tofu block cornstarch side down. This cornstarch will “glue” the filling onto the tofu. Repeat another 9 times for the other tofu pieces.
- Once all the filling is in place, pour the remaining cornstarch into a sieve, and carefully sift the rest evenly over the stuffed tofu. This will give you an extra crispy top-coating.
- Heat 4 cups of oil in a wok or small pot to 375 degrees. While you're waiting for the oil to heat up, mix the ingredients for the dipping sauce in a small bowl and set aside.
- Use a metal spatula to carefully pick up a block of tofu and slide it into the oil. You can fry them a few at a time, but make sure the oil temperature remains constant. Fry them until golden brown, moving them gently as needed to cook evenly, 2 to 4 minutes. When cooked through, remove them with a slotted spoon or metal spatula to drain on a plate lined with paper towels. You can sprinkle a bit of salt on top if you like, or simply enjoy them with the dipping sauce. Don’t salt the tofu before frying, or it will crack open, and you’ll have a bit of a mess on your hands.
- Transfer to a serving plate and serve with the sauce on the side!
Tips & Notes:
nutrition facts
Sounds great! Love the recipes you’ve posted; but just not brave enough to try most of them; and am having some problems locating the right ingredients at the Chinese markets in SoCal; just don’t read Chinese and many of the items are in Chinese only.
But, I do have a question; why is it that no one makes the “almond pressed duck”; used to have it in San Francisco, the San Joaquin Valley in California and a couple of restaurants make it in SoCal but the taste just isn’t there! My Chinese friends told me that “it was just too time consuming to make” and it’s an old-style Chinese dish. We happen to like the “old style, simple dishes”! Can you direct us to where we might be able to find some of the older simple dishes in SoCal? Thank you,
Hi Yoland, your Chinese friends are correct! Making any kind of pressed duck or wor shu opp is very time-consuming, but I am working on it because I want to have that recipe available in our archives. Can’t promise when we will publish it, but we will definitely get it done!
Thank you! I had all but given up on ever being able to have pressed duck again.
This looks delicious – but can you recommend a vegetarian or vegan version?
Hi Dee, try this pan-fried tofu recipe.
do you use an instant thermometer to determine the temp of the oil? or do you use an electric wok?
I just looked at your recommended equipment list and answered my own question! Thanks!
Hi Diane, I use an instant-read thermometer but also a traditional thermometer for checking oil temps.
Hi Bill, this looks amazing. I have a jar of shrimp paste sitting in my fridge from a different recipe. Do you know if it would work instead of fresh shrimp? It’s very pungent which makes me think it might be too strong a flavour.
Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks!
Love your website and your family’s recipes!
Hi Maddy, shrimp paste a kind of sauce and as you point out, does have a strong fermented flavor, so it won’t be a direct replacement for shrimp. Adding a little to some pork in place of shrimp may be a nice idea to replace that filling ;-)
This is the food of my teenage life. I used to order it with friends in Boston Chinatown.
Thank you for this recipe. I love this food so much. Maybe my favorite Chinese food.
Hi Mason, I grew up eating this dish in restaurants too. You should try making it at home ;-)
Love this recipe! Can it be done with other fillings, ie: ground pork?
Hi Laura, yes, you can use ground pork as a filling.
We made this tofu dish last night, and they were delicious and easy to make.
Thank you for bright moments during this long lockdown.
Hi Alyse, you’re welcome and happy to hear you can make some good authentic Chinese dishes at home :)
Hi , this recipe looks amazing and delicious but I have two questions : can I replace the shaoxing wine with something non-alcoholic ? and do you also coat the side and bottom of the tofu pieces with cornstarch ?
Hi Ellie, you can leave out the Shaoxing wine if you can have any alcohol. As for the cornstarch, coating all sides of the tofu may make the tofu a bit too crispy and hard, so I wouldn’t recommend it. Happy cooking!
Thank u so much! This is been one of my favorite dish i always order in restaurant when im in NYC. tried making it before but wasnt too successful . Now i can make my favorite dish..
Hi Yan, hope you give this recipe a try as it tastes just like the restaurant dish and is quite easy to make :)
I tried making this dish. My tofu never turned a golden brown when deep frying. It was deep frying for at least 10 minutes. Any tips you can share with me? I really want to learn how to make this recipe as it’s a favorite of mine. I used soft tofu as indicated in the recipe.
Thanks!
Hi ssfw, if your tofu never turned golden brown, your oil temperature is not high enough. Frying temperature should be 375 degrees F and keep in mind that when you place one or more tofu pieces into the oil, the oil cools down right away, so you likely have to turn the heat up to maintain the correct temperature. It’s best to get a thermometer to monitor the oil temperature while frying. Check out our cooking tools page to see what we use.