Vietnamese cuisine usually consists of braising proteins or vegetables in a sauce.  Braising in a tomato sauce is a very easy and popular way to incorporate vegetables into a meal.  In today’s recipe, we will share a family recipe for tofu stuffed with minced pork, shrimp, and ear worm mushrooms braised in tomato sauce.  It is a simple and healthy dish.  The tomato sauce is great with chicken and fried salmon filet as well.

This recipe is rated medium in difficulty and takes less than 30 minutes to prepare.

Ingredients:

1 lb of ground of ground pork

1 lb of tiger shrimp or any type of meaty shrimp

⅓ cup of dried ear worm mushrooms (This is commonly found in an Asian supermarket.  If you are unable to find it, just exclude this ingredient.)

1 package of fried bean curd (tofu). (This is a pre-made fried tofu which has a denser consistency.)

Approx. 2 tablespoons of fish sauce

1-2 stalks of scallion

1/2 teaspoon of chicken bouillon powder

2 ripe tomatoes

Approximately 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar

1 1/2 cups of water

salt and pepper

a few teaspoons of oil to coat the pan

Directions:

Soak 1/3 cup of dried ear worm mushrooms in water for 15 minutes until they are rehydrated.

Julienne and mince the mushrooms.

Peel the shrimp and remove the intestine with a toothpick and set aside.

Rough chop ¼ cup of yellow onion.

In a food processor, blend the shrimp with the onions until they are minced

Combine the pork, shrimp, and mushrooms in a bowl.  Season the mixture with  ¼ teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of fish sauce, 1 teaspoon of sugar, ½ teaspoon of ground pepper, ½ teaspoon of chicken bouillon powder, and 1 tablespoon of diced onion.

Incorporate the ingredients with your hands.

Dice 2 ripe tomatoes.  In another bowl, combine the diced tomatoes, 1 tablespoon of fish sauce, 2 tablespoon of sugar and 1 teaspoon of chicken bouillon powder.

Cut each tofu in half to form 2 triangles. Slice each wedge in half without completely cutting through the tofu.  The goal is to create a pocket for the stuffing.

Stuff each wedge with approximately 1 tablespoon of stuffing and form the shape with your hands.

Heat up a few teaspoon of oil in a pan and sear each side of the tofu so the mixture won’t fall apart.  Removed from the pan and set aside.

In the same pan, brown some onions and saute the tomatoes to create a sauce.

When the tomatoes have been sweated, add 1 ½ cups of water, 1 tablespoon of fish sauce and 1 teaspoon of sugar.

Add the stuffed tofu and turn the heat down to a low boil.

Use a spoon to pour the sauce over the tofu as it is cooking and turn the tofu over once so the other side can also absorb the sauce.

The meat should cook in 5-10 minutes depending on how well you sear the meat.  Poke a chopstick through one stuffed tofu to check.  Once the chopstick comes out clean, turn off the heat.  Enjoy this delicious tofu dish with rice.

For more recipes, visit our EAT page or Recipe Index.

Authors:  Suong Tran and Chau Hoang