Red Braised Ribs and Tofu with Potatoes: A Chinese Cooking Masterpiece

When it comes to Chinese cooking, few dishes evoke the same level of comfort and satisfaction as a hearty red braise. And today, we're going to tackle three of our favorite ingredients in one delicious recipe: tender ribs, crispy tofu, and perfectly cooked potatoes. So let's get started!

First up, we have the star of the show: red braised ribs. This was just 350 grams of firm tofu that we sliced up into about one centimeter pieces. Now, while we do prefer pan-frying tofu a wok, it's not mandatory or anything – you can also totally fry tofu in a non-stick skillet. Just toss in about a quarter cup of oil, nestle in your tofu pieces, and fry those over a medium-high flame. Now, I often see a lot of people in the west really go nuts with their tofu... pressing it, adding cornstarch coatings... tofu doesn't need any of that stuff – tofu needs patience. Fry that for about five minutes on one side until nice and crisp, then go another five minutes on the other. Out, and toss on a paper towel lined plate.

While the ribs are doing their thing in the wok, let's move on to the aromatics. We're going to quickly sauté some sliced onions and garlic in about half a cup of oil until they're translucent and fragrant. Next, we'll add in our favorite Chinese spices: Szechuan peppercorns, star anise, and cloves. Now, I know what you're thinking – whole spices can be intimidating. But trust me, the powder version is just as delicious and much easier to work with.

Now that our aromatics are ready, it's time to add in the Shaoxing wine, quick mix, and five spice powder. This is where things start to get really interesting. The Shaoxing wine gives the dish a depth of flavor that's hard to replicate with Western wines. And the quick mix? It's a secret blend of spices and herbs that adds a unique umami taste to the braise.

As we wait for our ribs to finish braising, let's talk about the tofu. This was just 350 grams of firm tofu that we sliced up into about one centimeter pieces. Now, while we do prefer pan-frying tofu a wok, it's not mandatory or anything – you can also totally fry tofu in a non-stick skillet. Just toss in about a quarter cup of oil, nestle in your tofu pieces, and fry those over a medium-high flame. Fry that for about five minutes on one side until nice and crisp, then go another five minutes on the other.

While we do love pan-frying our tofu, it's not necessary to get the best results. In fact, many Chinese chefs swear by braising tofu instead of frying it. This method allows the tofu to absorb all those amazing flavors from the aromatics and spices. And let me tell you – this stuff is tender and delicious!

Now that our ribs and tofu are done, it's time to add in the potatoes. About 400 grams worth sliced into quarters, these will be cut into inch and a half wedges using the Chinese rolling cut. This special technique creates thin, even slices that cook evenly and quickly. Then once those are all done, toss them in a bowl, give 'em a good rinse, and let them soak until you're ready to fry.

Frying potatoes can be a bit tricky, but with a little practice, you'll be a pro in no time. Simply heat up about a quarter cup of oil over medium-high flame, add your potato wedges, and cook until they're crispy and golden brown – about ten minutes. While the potatoes are doing their thing in the wok, we'll move on to finishing off our dish.

To finish off our red braise, simply combine all the ingredients into a big ol' pot (or, in this case, a wok) and let it simmer over low heat for at least 10 minutes. Then just reduce, taste, and season as needed. When thickening, be careful not to add too much slurry – you want that sauce to still be nice and smooth.

The final touches? A sprinkle of toasted sesame oil, some scallions on top, and a quick mix seasoning blend for good measure. And there you have it – our delicious red braised ribs and tofu with potatoes. This dish is the perfect example of how Chinese cooking can bring people together, no matter where they're from.

So when we make this for ourselves, how do we sort out the meal? We start by making rice first, of course! And then we'll begin braising our ribs and tofu while making other dishes... like blanched vegetables or basic stir-fries. And when the braise is done, everything else will be ready too! It's really not that hard to create a complete Chinese meal with just a few simple ingredients.

And there you have it – three amazing ingredients, one delicious dish. Whether you're a seasoned chef or a beginner cook, red braised ribs and tofu with potatoes are sure to become a favorite. Happy cooking!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enThere’s a lot of ways that you can red braise stuff.  Usually you’re looking at a braise based off of soy sauce, but sometimes you’re not.  Sometimes it starts by frying up a sort of caramel called a tangse, but sometimes it  doesn’t. Often it includes a mix of spices like cinnamon, star anise and Sichuan peppercorn,  but it doesn’t have to. And while the most well known red braise is undeniably pork belly,  it definitely doesn’t stop there – you can really red-braise whatever you wanna red braise.So today we wanted to give you a simple formula for a homestyle sort of red braise  that you can use as a framework to hongshao pretty much anything.  We’ll cover how to sort meat by showing you red braised ribs;  tofu in the form of red braised tofu, and root vegetable using red braised potato. That said,  do know that this “formula” is definitely far from the only way to approach things,  and that like all things in kitchen and in life, you can really do whatever the hell you want.Now, if you ask a lot of people in the anglosphere, they’ll tell you that Chinese  red cooking is based off the foundation of a tangse – an oil/sugar mix that gives the  braise its titular sort of dark mahogany sheen. And traditionally, they’d pretty much be correct.  But these days, that tangse is thoroughly optional, because of… this.This is dark soy sauce. Back in the day, dark soy,  or laochou, would refer to a later stage of the soy sauce fermentation process,  but as food production changed in the 20th century, so did the nature of dark soy.  These days, dark soy is basically a mediocre grade of soy sauce plus… caramel coloring.So then. First choice for your red braise is if you want to fry up that caramel, or  just use some dark soy. Because we’ll be going for a lazy weeknight sort of red braise,  we opted with the latter, but if you feel strongly on the subject, feel free to fry up your caramel.Second choice – spices. Now you’ve got a ton of options here,  and like all things today, you can really just use the ones you like.  Cinnamon and star anise are usually the two basic choices, but you could also add in your choice of  clove, bay leaf, Sichuan peppercorn, fennel seed, caoguo, licorice root, or dried chilis. That said,  if you’re doing a lazy sort of weeknight red braise? You could use any of those,  or… if you want, just a bit of five spice powder. Also hits the same place.Now. Before cooking, let’s give you a high level overview of what’s gunna be going on here at  first. Before anything else, you’ll cook your main ingredient – by blanching, if you’re going  with meat; or pre-frying if you’re going for anything else. Then, you’ll fry up the base of  the red braise with a bit of aromatics, plus five spice if you’re using the powder, then go in with  your ingredient. Then you’ll start the braise by adding hot water – two cups for meat, a cup for  anything else - together with your soy sauces, sugar, and spices if you’re using them whole.  At this point, you’ll let it all simmer together covered, for pretty much however long it takes  for your stuff to get tender – we like about 45 minutes for meat, and 10 minutes for anything  else. After that, you’ll uncover, swap your flame to high, and let it all rapidly reduce…  til it’s about a third of the original volume. Then just season and thicken to taste, and that’s  pretty much it. So, let’s start off with meat.Now, obviously the most famous meat dish ever  red braised is red braised pork belly. And while we did cover that one in the early days of our  channel courtesy of our buddy Rob as a guest cook – he actually wanted to share an updated recipe  with you guys - which we’ll leave down in the description box and we’ve also got an uncut video  up here if you like. So instead, today we decided to go with ribs, which’s also another classic.So. 500 grams of ribs, cleaved across the bone into one inch  pieces – and you’ll probably want a butcher to help you out with that.  To start off, we’ll toss that in some cool water, bring it up to a boil, and let it blanch for about  three minutes – this’ll get out the gunk and leave you with a cleaner tasting braise in the end.  So just rinse that all right off, and now we can start the braise.So, to a pot, toss in a tablespoon of oil and go in with your aromatics – here we  opted for two cloves of crushed garlic, a half inch of ginger cut into slices,  and the white portion of two scallions. Give those a brief fry over a medium flame,  then toss in the blanched ribs. With meat, you can give those a fry til they brown just a bit,  about five minutes… and fear not if they stick a touch, a little fond in a braise never killed  anyone. Then swirl a tablespoon of liaojiu a.k.a. Shaoxing wine into the pot, and after a brief mix  go in with that two cups of hot water. Bring that all up to a boil then toss in two tablespoons of  soy sauce, a half teaspoon of that dark soy sauce, and two teaspoons of sugar. And because we went  with whole spices for this one, we decided to go in with one star anise, one dried bay leaf,  a quarter of a cinnamon stick, and a quarter teaspoon of Sichuan peppercorn… and again, feel  free to use what you like. Then just cover, and let that braise over a low flame for 45 minutes.45 minutes later now, our ribs were about as tender as we wanted, so now we can swap our flame  to high and reduce. We let it go for about ten minutes, or until the sauce was reduced to about  a third of its original volume. At this point, taste, and season. For this pot, we went with  another ¼ tsp of salt together with a sprinkle of MSG, but reduction is not a science so do go by  taste. And for the same reason? While we prepped a slurry of a teaspoon of cornstarch mixed with  an equal amount of water, only add about a third of it at first. You don’t want to over-thicken,  so definitely eyeball this… this one needed the whole bowl, but that won’t always be the case.  Once it’s thickened to your liking, shut off the heat, toss in a drizzle of toasted same oil,  out, and sprinkle over a bit of sliced scallions. Red braised ribs, done. Next up, tofu. This was just 350 grams of firm tofu that we sliced up into about one centimeter  pieces. Now, while we do prefer pan-frying tofu a wok, it’s not mandatory or anything – you  can also totally fry tofu in a non-stick skillet. Just toss in about a quarter cup of oil, nestle in  your tofu pieces, and fry those over a medium-high flame. Now, I often see a lot of people in the  west really go nuts with their tofu… pressing it, adding cornstarch coatings… tofu doesn’t need any  of that stuff – tofu needs patience. Fry that for about five minutes on one side until nice  and crisp, then go another five minutes on the other. Out, and toss on a paper towel lined plate. Now, you could really stay in that non-stick skillet if you liked, but one classic look for  a red braise is to serve in a claypot… and we do have YouTube thumbnails to make. But, same deal,  quick fry of the aromatics, but this time we’ll be tossing in a half teaspoon of five spice powder  instead of adding in those whole spices later – the powder’s a bit less in your face which we  personally prefer with tofu. Then after a quick fry, add in the tofu, Shaoxing wine, quick mix,  and add in your cup of water. Same seasoning mix as before, same process as before, but you’ll only  need about ten minutes for the tofu to absorb that flavor. Then uncover, reduce, season and  thicken to taste, and sprinkle over that sesame oil and those scallions. Red braised tofu, done.Finally, potatoes. About 400 grams worth – slice that into quarters, and cut each quarter into  about inch an a half wedges using the Chinese rolling cut – cut it on a bias, twist it to the  next flat side, cut it on a bias again… working down the potato. Then once those are all done,  toss them in a bowl, give em a good rinse, and let them soak until you’re ready to fry.Now, I like frying potatoes in a wok because it does gives me a bit more room to maneuver,  but also feel free to just shallow fry these like we just did.  Medium high flame, about a quarter cup of oil, fry the potatoes until  completely cooked through, or about ten minutes. Then, set those aside.So, same as before, but this time I’m just keeping everything in the wok. Medium flame, in with the  aromatics, and once those are fragrant, toss in the five spice. Then once that’s fragrant, about  30 seconds, toss in the potatoes and the Shaoxing. Same braising liquid as the tofu, cover, and let  it go for ten minutes. Then just reduce, taste, and season. When thickening, for potatoes you do  need to be a little careful with the slurry – here I probably only used about quarter of it in all.  Toasted sesame, quick mix, out, scallions, and the red braised potatoes are also done.So when we make this for ourselves, how we will sort the meal is that we make rice first – of  course – and then we’ll start the braise. And when it’s braising on top of the stove,  we’ll go make some other dishes… like blanched vegetable or basic stir fries…  and when the braise is done, everything else will be done too. Everything under one hour.So right! Check out the recipe in the description box. A big thank you to everyone  supporting us on Patreon, and of course, subscribe for more Chinese cooking videos.\n"