Kaufu

[ulterior epicure]

This is all very funny reading for someone who doesn't have the Chinese fonts enabled!!

u.e.

[hzrt8w]

Hzrt8w, I'm surprised kaofu falls outside your expansive range of knowledge of Chinese cuisine. It must highly localized then, and not well-known outside of Shanghai. Kaofu uses a very specific kind of wheat gluten that has a lot of holes in it, much like a sponge, and therefore absorbs a great deal of sauce.

[...]

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Thanks for the link to the picture, Kent. I got it now! It is a matter of different regional naming in Chinese.

Cantonese call these "Mein Gun" [Cantonese dialect], "Mein" as in "noodle", "Gun" means "root", which is totally different from "Kao Fu" in Mandarin. No wonder I have not clue.

In Hong Kong Cantonese practice, they cook these in all sorts of different sauces (sweet and sour, oyster sauce, curry, etc.) in some "vegetarian" shops/restaurants. I guess we Cantonese don't eat it in daily cooking as often.

[michael_g]

Just for posterity, there's a great recipe for kaufu (as they spell it) in Saveur issue 100, page 72: Si Xi Kaufu, "Four Happiness Wheat Gluten".

They quickly stir fry one to two inch pieces of wheat gluten, and then add peanuts, two tablespoons each dark soy sauce and sugar, mushrooms (wood ear and Chinese black), and some dried-mushroom liquid. Ten minutes on low heat lets the gluten absorb most of the liquid, and it's then served "hot, at room temperature, or chilled, garnished with cilantro".

The picture is fantastic looking, but not up on their website (yet?).

[XiaoLing]

And I agree with Ulterior Epicure, it's usually served cold and quite sweet. We usually eat it with plain congee. And as another poster pointed out, usually for breakfast.

Depending on how it's cooked, it's a great sub for meat dishes. I think it taste kinda like chicken.

You can buy kaofu in a jar/can with bamboo and black mushrooms already made. I think the best ones are made from Taiwanese factories.

I don't think it's a regular in Wuhan cooking but I know my dad (from Shan Dong) really loves it. He must of had exposure to this dish from that region.

Isn't it amazing how diverse Chinese cooking is??

Edited March 2, 2007 by XiaoLing (log)

[ulterior epicure]

Just for posterity, there's a great recipe for kaufu (as they spell it) in Saveur issue 100, page 72: Si Xi Kaufu, "Four Happiness Wheat Gluten".

They quickly stir fry one to two inch pieces of wheat gluten, and then add peanuts, two tablespoons each dark soy sauce and sugar, mushrooms (wood ear and Chinese black), and some dried-mushroom liquid.  Ten minutes on low heat lets the gluten absorb most of the liquid, and it's then served "hot, at room temperature, or chilled, garnished with cilantro".

The picture is fantastic looking, but not up on their website (yet?).

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michael_g.

Yes! I was thrilled to see the recipe in the current Saveur (March, 2007 issue)!

u.e.

[Pan]

I've never known kao fu (kau fu, or whatever) to taste like chicken, but I love it!

[XiaoLing]

To me, almost everything taste like chicken! Mmmmmmmm.....chicken.......

Wait a minute...I don't really like U.S. chicken.... .....Mmmmm.....Chinese-farm raised-live-organic chicken.......

[AzianBrewer]

To me, almost everything taste like chicken!    Mmmmmmmm.....chicken.......

Wait a minute...I don't really like U.S. chicken.... .....Mmmmm.....Chinese-farm raised-live-organic chicken.......

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Heck no...Kao-fu taste nothing like chicken! It tastes like sponge...in a good way.

[XiaoLing]

Ok...so it doesn't taste "exactly" like chicken.

But if you are a vegetarian, it is a great sub for meat. It is spongy but if cooked just right, its very tasty and soft. It basically soaks up all the flavors of what ever sauce you cook it in.

Edited March 3, 2007 by XiaoLing (log)

[ulterior epicure]

Ben.

Thanks...  sorry, I guess I should have been more specific.  I didn't want to actually make the kau fu - rather I was looking for the recipe for cooking it with the elements I described above.

u.e.

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This may be a dumb question (or starkly obvious to most) - is kau fu the same as "seitan?"

[michael_g]

This may be a dumb question (or starkly obvious to most) - is kau fu the same as "seitan?"

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No, kaufu is wheat dough washed down to the gluten. It's spongy and delicious, perfect for absorbing sauces. Seitan is some pounded monstrosity, perfect for teaching vegetarians a lesson.

[Cha xiu bao]

烤麩 is something quintessentially Shanghaiese. If you got 2 men and you want to tell who's a Shanghaiese, you'd place a wheat dough in front of them and ask them what it is. The Shanghaiese will always tell you this is 烤麩 kaufu whereas the non-Shanghaiese will tell you this is just a lump of wheat dough, mien gei. If it happens both tell you it's kaufu, ask them what's made of. The real McCoy will tell you this is made of beans (though it absolutely wrong) and the fake one will tell it's of dough! Shanghaiese always thinks that kaufu is made of bean because during the mealticket era, about probably 40-50 years ago, the ticket for kaufu is categorised the same as bean products, like tofu and soya milk; and locals always need to line up in front of factory of bean products for this. On top of that, Shanghaiese writes kaufu as 烤夫 instead of 烤麩, without the suggestive "flour" side for the 2nd character.

Shanghaiese cuisine can be further divided into "Ocean Gang" 海派 and "Original Band" 本幫, though most people can't tell the subtlety between the two (the way they name the same dish differently, the minor twist of ingredients, etc). The original school would call a kaufu dish as "Shanghai kaufu" versus the ocean school would call their kaufu as "Kaufu of Four Happiness". Chinese cuisine is symbolic as much as it's poetic -- the four happiness in here is referring to Chinese shiitake, black wood fugi, fresh bamboo shoots and day lily (yet at the same time implying the four happinesses in life -- I wonder how many readers here know what they are)

Tell you how my mum makes this: tear the wheat dough into threads, brine them for about one hour, rinse and then blanch it with boiling water briefly. Next, fry it in hot oil for a while, after it's drained. Then hot the oil in another wok, place the all ingredients into the wok together with the kaufu, toss it around, place chicken stock and braise it for about 20 mins with lid covered. Add sugar and soy sauce (matured one) towards the end and, viola!

[ulterior epicure]

烤麩 is something quintessentially Shanghaiese. If you got 2 men and you want to tell who's a Shanghaiese, you'd place a wheat dough in front of them and ask them what it is. The Shanghaiese will always tell you this is 烤麩 kaufu whereas the non-Shanghaiese will tell you this is just a lump of wheat dough, mien gei. If it happens both tell you it's kaufu, ask them what's made of. The real McCoy will tell you this is made of beans (though it absolutely wrong) and the fake one will tell it's of dough! Shanghaiese always thinks that kaufu is made of bean because during the mealticket era, about probably 40-50 years ago, the ticket for kaufu is categorised the same as bean products, like tofu and soya milk; and locals always need to line up in front of factory of bean products for this. On top of that, Shanghaiese writes kaufu as 烤夫 instead of 烤麩, without the suggestive "flour" side for the 2nd character.

Shanghaiese cuisine can be further divided into "Ocean Gang" 海派 and "Original Band" 本幫, though most people can't tell the subtlety between the two (the way they name the same dish differently, the minor twist of ingredients, etc). The original school would call a kaufu dish as "Shanghai kaufu" versus the ocean school would call their kaufu as "Kaufu of Four Happiness". Chinese cuisine is symbolic as much as it's poetic -- the four happiness in here is referring to Chinese shiitake, black wood fugi, fresh bamboo shoots and day lily (yet at the same time implying the four happinesses in life -- I wonder how many readers here know what they are)

Tell you how my mum makes this: tear the wheat dough into threads, brine them for about one hour, rinse and then blanch it with boiling water briefly. Next, fry it in hot oil for a while, after it's drained. Then hot the oil in another wok, place the all ingredients into the wok together with the kaufu, toss it around, place chicken stock and braise it for about 20 mins with lid covered. Add sugar and soy sauce (matured one) towards the end and, viola!

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Thanks, CXB, for that explanation. I have seen Americanized versions that include peanuts.

BTW, I do know that the four happinesses are: blessedness, wealth, longevity, happiness.