Give leftover Cantonese roast pork a second life by stewing it with tofu. Paired with an all-purpose stir fry sauce to make it great to have with rice.

Time: 2/5
Comes together quick … if you have leftover Siu Yuk roast pork.

Effort: 3/5
Bit of knife work and a bit of stirring, nothing too serious.

A Second Life

One of the best things about having confidence in the home kitchen is being able to turn leftovers into new and exciting meals. In my last post, I wrote about how to make Cantonese “Siu Yuk” roast pork. Fresh out of the oven, the meat is succulent and rich, and the skin is shatteringly crispy. But it doesn’t stay that way for long.

Even so, I always make sure to roast a big batch of pork every time. Even though the skin loses its crunch, the pork still developed a lot of flavour from the spice rub and the long roast in the oven. Flavour we can put to good use.

This pork and tofu stew is mainly tofu by volume, and that makes it surprisingly calorie-friendly considering the protein content. Extra-firm block tofu is what I prefer here, because it’s more nutrient dense and it stands up to the stirring and stewing better. It is a compromise on texture though, so make your own choice on the type of tofu to use.

The leftover roast pork is being used almost as a seasoning, to reinforce the other bold and savoury flavours of the all-purpose stir fry sauce with some rich meaty flavour. The contrast in taste and texture of the pork and the tofu also keeps things interesting.

In a way, this stew is a sequel that flows naturally from making Siu Yuk – just like the one-two punch of chicken tikka masala after grilling a whole bunch of chicken tandoori. And that slight change in form factor and flavour profile might be just what you need if you want to meal prep but also want to keep some variety.

Posts since the last recipe that was actually served with rice: 0

Dramatis Personae

Served 6.

• 650g leftover Siu Yuk
• 1200g extra firm block tofu

Aromatics

• Several cloves of garlic
• Several shallots
• Several slices of ginger
• 2 bunches of spring onions, mostly whites

Sauce

• 6 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 6 tbsp oyster sauce
• 6 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• Sugar and cornstarch to taste

Also served with about 900g of choisum. Always eat your veggies!

Executive summary

1. Cut the aromatics and tofu. Ready the sauce ingredients.
2. In a pan on high heat, stir fry aromatics briefly.
3. Add roast pork and sauce ingredients. Stir to combine.
4. Add tofu. Toss to coat.
5. Add water to taste. Cover and simmer for several minutes.
6. Serve hot, with rice.

Play by Play

This is a lot of tofu. But tofu is high in protein and low in calories, and I like having it in there to balance the richness of the pork belly.

This is technically a stew but it begins a a stir fry, so it pays to get everything in order before you start.

Heat on high, and as much oil as your cardiologist will approve. Stir fry aromatics until aromatic, then pork until warmed through, then add sauce ingredients and let them caramelise a bit before deglazing with water.

Then it’s a simple matter of adding the tofu, then simmering until the tofu takes up the colour and flavour of the sauce. Because I’m using extra firm tofu, I don’t need to be too delicate about stirring the stew.

I cooked the choisum before I started the stir fry, and this was still fridge-to-table in 30 minutes.

Yum yum! It’s not about the pork, so much as it is about the pork-flavoured sauce over the rice that’s buried under all that tofu – another benefit of this recipe is the high volume for the modest amount of calories.

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