Frying Soft Bean Curd

In those long ago days in Sibu, most Foochow housewives did not have any frying pan, and would never  have heard of non stick pan even.

I cannot remember when non stick pan came to Sibu. And, I bought my first non stick frying pan in Brunei in 1974.

We have always loved bean curd in our family because of the popular story of a Lau Clan man who first invented soy milk and therefore bean curd. As kids we were so proud of our mother's surname, Lau.

The first soy milk was attributed to Prince Liu An 劉安 (grandson of Liu Bang)
 of the Han Dynasty of China, who was a Taoist and a very filial son. He crushed the soy beans to make the milk for his mother who was too ill to chew any food. Later, probably gypsum was accidentally mixed with the soy milk and tofu was invented. Bean curd were originally only eaten in winter when food was scarce. Bean curd only became widespread during the Song Dynasty (960AD - 1279 AD) before the Mongols invaded China.

We had the huge black Chinese kuali and the huge Foochow stove. My mother cooked every thing using the kuali, boiled her water with a kettle on one of the "stove tops" and another stove top was used to boil soups or anything else, using a big pot. My mother has 7 children and very often we also had relatives staying with us. It was all very merry with so many people in the big kitchen cum dining hall.

I remember my mother was very good at frying soft bean curd. She would cut the bean curd into 10 pieces using her chopper and in no time she had them perfectly fried in the huge kuali.

Neighbours used to say that the kuali (given by my grandfather) was big enough to cook a suckling pig. The Foochows naturally call it Duai Dian, meaning big kuali. I think it is a very appropriate name.

the fried soft bean curd from my mother's kuali was really aromatic and crunchy on the outside and so cotton wool soft inside. Nothing would stick to the kuali side. Mum did not have to use a non stick pan at all.

the photo here shows my skill of frying bean curd slices to her standard.

Eating tofu often reminds me of the huge body of history and literature of the Chinese people.