Claypot Vegetarian/Tofu Rice

Claypot is an essential Malaysian cooking style. Cooking in the claypot gives your dish an interesting extra flavor, and it means you can transfer straight from the stove to the oven without a dish transfer, which helps retain all of those awesome flavors. Claypot is quite common at the hawker stalls, and it is awesome.  I happen to see this recipe on Sanjeev Kapoor's show last week, and thought to share it here. 

Difficulty: Easy

 

Time Required: 10-15 minutes (for Tofu and vegetables) up to 1 hour (for meat dishes)

Tips:

1. If you don't already own a clay pot, it's easy enough to buy one. And if you go to the right place, they're also inexpensive. Look for a medium-sized clay pot (like the one shown in the picture) at Asian/Chinese stores or markets - they'll be much cheaper here than in specialty cooking stores.
2. If it's brand new, clean your clay pot thoroughly and dry it.

Claypot rice is often garnished with spring onions. If you don't have a claypot or couldn't find one, you can use a pot with a tight lid, or a rice cooker.

Ingredients:

• 1 cake firm tofu
• 2 cups rice
• 2 tbl dark soy sauce
• 2 tbl light soy sauce
• 1 piece of ginger (fresh ginger is essential to this dish)
• half a teaspoon of caster sugar
• pepper
• quarter tsp of powdered stock (Vegetable stock)
• half a dozen dried mushroom pieces
• a handful of wombok/chinese cabbage leaves (thickly sliced)
• some carrot (julienned)

Method:

• Combine one tablespoon of dark soy and one tablespoon of light soy with half a teaspoon of Castor sugar, a shake of ground pepper, and a quarter of a tablespoon of powdered stock. Into this marinade add about one piece of ginger, crushed. Combine well, until things which are powdered have dissolved. Slice up the tofu into chunks of about one inch in length, and cover in marinade. Allow to marinate for half an hour to an hour.
• Soak the mushrooms in hot water for twenty minutes.
• After the mushrooms have soaked, it is time to prepare the rice. Rinse the rice. Then add two cups of water, plus a teaspoon of dark soy, a teaspoon of light soy, a shake of pepper, and a shake of some olive oil. Julienne some ginger finely, and add this as well.
• Start to cook this above mixture on gas, lid on with low flame.
• In the meantime, lightly fry the tofu in a little olive oil. Be sure to fry both sides. Drain the mushrooms, and add this, then add the carrots for another half a minute. The carrot won't be cooked, but that's okay at this point.
• After the rice has been cooking for about seven or eight minutes, it should have just started looking 'dry.' Throw the tofu, mushrooms, carrots, and cabbage on the top, then put the lid back on and keep cooking for another fifteen minutes. After the rice is cooked right through, leave to sit, still with the lid on, for another twenty minutes. This will give the flavors a chance to seep in.
• Serve in the claypot, if you've prepared it that way, or in bowls.