My parents grew up in southern China in the Guangdong province as descendants of the Hakka Chinese – Hak-kâ; 客家. When we were young, we spoke the Hakka dialect at home and the more common Cantonese dialect when out in Chinatown or the larger Chinese community.
Each region in China has its own cuisine and local specialties and this Hakka style stuffed tofu is one of them.
We grew up with a lot of traditional southern Chinese dishes, including this Hakka-style Stuffed Tofu. My mom made this dish often, and as I hung around the kitchen quite a bit when she cooked, recipes like this stuffed tofu was stamped into my brain.
Recipe Instructions
Cut the soft tofu or firm tofu into 2-inch squares about 3/4 inch thick and set aside.
Chop the ground pork on the cutting board until it is very finely minced.
You can get the salted fish at the Chinese grocery store. They function similarly to anchovies…giving the dish a savory, nutty, salty flavor.
If you choose to use, it, remove the skin. Try to resist the urge to fling it across the room when the smell hits your nose.
It’s like anchovies in Caesar salad dressing…it gives it that little something extra, but you can’t really taste the fishiness in the end.
Then mince it up.
Mince the ginger…
And then pile the ginger and the minced fish on top of the pork. Chop it all up together.
Scoop out about 1 teaspoon of tofu from each piece to make room for the meat, and place the excess tofu in a bowl with the pork.
Add the Shaoxing wine, a pinch of fresh ground white pepper, and salt to the meat mixture. Mix well. Stuff the meat into the tofu pieces…
And place a steamer rack in the bottom of your wok. Fill the wok up with water, and place the plate on the rack. You can also use a metal steamer if you have one. See our post on how to set up a steamer if you’re not familiar with steaming foods in Chinese cooking.
Bring the water in your steamer setup to a simmer and steam the plate of tofu for about 10 minutes.
While the tofu is steaming, mix 1 tbsp of cornstarch with 1 tbsp of water and set aside. Cut 4 to 6 pieces of the scallions about 3 inches long, and cut lengthwise slits on both ends. Put in a bowl of ice water. The ends curl up nicely and can be used as a garnish. Dice the rest of the scallions and set aside.
When the tofu is done, carefully remove the plate. You’ll see liquid at the bottom of the plate. Pour this liquid back into the wok and add more water if needed to make about a quarter cup of sauce.
Heat the liquid to a simmer and add the oyster sauce and dark soy sauce or dark mushroom soy sauce. Season with a pinch of salt and some more white pepper, and add the cornstarch slurry. Stir and cook the sauce until it’s thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Plate the tofu, pour the sauce over it, and garnish with the scallions.
Serve your Hakka Style Chinese stuffed tofu as an appetizer, dim sum or main dish with rice!
It’s a great presentation to a traditional dish. I know Kaitlin will like this dish when we cook it back in New Jersey, but more amazing is that the slightly fish-averse Sarah gave it her approval!
Hakka Style Chinese Stuffed Tofu
Ingredients
- 1 pound firm tofu (450g)
- 3 oz. ground pork (85g)
- 1 oz. salted fish (optional, or substitute 4 small anchovy filets)
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger (minced)
- 2 teaspoons Shaoxing wine
- 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 scallion
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Instructions
- Mince the ground pork and ginger together. Remove the skin from the salted fish and mince it up with the pork and ginger until very well-combined.
- Cut tofu into 2-inch squares about 3/4-inch thick. Scoop out about 1 teaspoon of tofu from each piece to make room for the meat. In a bowl, stir the excess tofu in with the pork. Add the wine, a pinch of fresh ground white pepper, and salt to the meat mixture. Mix well.
- Divide the meat among the tofu pieces. Steam the plate of tofu in a wok or steamer for about 10 minutes.
- While the tofu is steaming, mix 1 tbsp of cornstarch with 1 tbsp of water and set aside. Cut 4 to 6 pieces of the scallion about 3 inches long, and cut lengthwise slits on both ends. Put into a bowl of ice water. The ends curl up nicely and can be used as a garnish. Dice the rest of the scallions and set aside.
- When the tofu is done, carefully remove the plate. Pour any excess liquid back into the wok and add more water if needed to make about a quarter cup of sauce.
- Heat the liquid to a simmer and add the oyster sauce and dark soy. Season with a bit of salt and white pepper, and add the cornstarch slurry. Simmer the sauce until it's thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Pour the sauce over the tofu and garnish with scallions.
My mom is Hakka Chinese and we often ate this growing up. Since she had a nasal cancer 2 decades ago, we were told to avoid any salted fish and shrimp. Now I would make it without those but put soy sauce and scallion in the meat mixture in addition to the ginger, white pepper and wine. Since the family doesn’t care for presentation, we eat them straight from the steamer plate with all the extra liquid for our rice without the additional oyster & soy sauce and cornstarch slurry. Skipped steps 5 and 6 and voila, dinner is ready. Thanks for posting this.
Hi Arjani, thanks so much for sharing your story and happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe modified to your own liking ;-)
First I would to thank you this blog and recipes. We too are Hakka descendants and it’s nice to see that there are still some around, cause we don’t see a lot of them anymore.
Hi David, please enjoy and I can tell you there will be more Hakka recipes to come!
Oh Lord. My dad is Hakka but grew up after 10yrs old in Taiwan. He loves this dish. Thanks for reminding me what a terrible daughter i am never having made this for him. AIIIYAAAAH!!
WELL…better late than never…
This looks great. Im gonna try it.
Awesome Lisa, never too late to be a good Chinese daughter – lol!
Oh man, this reminds me of that Nam Fung Hakka restaurant on Division street in Chinatown, NY. Too bad they have been closed for years but this was one of their staples along with their large dumplings placed in styrofoam cups for take out and their ju cheung fun that you can see on display from outside. Yep – those were the good old days. Again thanks for sharing and bringing back fond memories!!!
Hi Serina, you’re welcome! Those oldies from nam fung were large tofu pieces that you used to help yourself to from 5 gallon buckets at Chinese noodle and tofu markets. They were cut in half into triangles and stuffed so the pieces were much larger with more filling. Those are some good memories indeed!
Can you please do one with fish paste as the meat? :D :D :D I’m not sure if it’s regarded as the same thing or an entirely different dish altogether but I’ve had it before at various places or my memory is going crazy.
Will try this recipe too.
Hi Gina, I have seen versions of this dish that use fish sauce or fermented shrimp sauce/paste (belacan). I will put it on my list!
didn’t know you are Hakka, I’m Hakka too, roots from Wuhua County, Guangdong..so we’re Zu Ga Ngin.. Ngiong Teufu was our way of reminding us of our roots in central china, and we didn’t have wheat wrappers in south to make real dumplings. so we substituted it with tofu. A t leas tthat was how it was explained to me.
Hi Sherman, I don’t know how I missed your comment – right on brother :) Thanks for sharing that story!
Hi Wok of Life,
I couldn’t find the whole Salted Croaker as called out in recipe but I did find the exact Vietnamese Threadfin Fish called out in your dried ingredient section. My question is do I chop it up as is or fry it up first? It’s pretty moist.
Thank you,
Hi JB, Yes, the Vietnamese version will work! Usually for this recipe, the salted fish is added in chopped – it is moist and will stick together so make sure you stir it into the meat so it is uniform. Frying it lightly in some oil first either whole or chopped up will impart a slightly different flavor – kind of like eating raw nuts versus toasted nuts. Good luck and hope you enjoy it!
Thanks for that great and so well documented recipe. Love it!
Hi Klaus, you’re welcome and hope you enjoy it!
Just made this it was rather good. A bit limited with right ingredients in Munich, will try again when I’m back in Sydney. Made little meatballs with leftover stuffing, lightly fried was excellent!
Sounds awesome, Sonja!