What’s cooking – Scallion and mapo tofu

As a tofu-lover, I always tell them: because you haven’t encountered it in the right ways!

And I was right, as just one glance at the divine look on my Dutch friend Julie’s face told me when we ate Tapanyaki-style tofu seasoned with oyster sauce at a Chinese restaurant. Tofu had totally capture her heart during that very special encounter. “I just love the taste of the fried tofu! It has a very subtle taste that demands a delicate tongue – it makes you appreciate the small and delicate things in life – subtle but so rich!” Julie exclaimed, her eyes sparkling over the still-sizzling tofu.



There are just so many ways to encounter a delicious tofu dish. Wait till you have tried a whole range of varieties of this East Asian/Southeast Asian cuisine – stewed, fried, braised, marinated or seasoned with soy sauce, chili sauce, or other types of sauces of your choice.



Relatively high in protein and low in calories, tofu often plays a subtle role in dishes, mixed with other ingredients. During summer, you can enjoy silken tofu served with freshly grated ginger, green onions and/or with soy sauce (Japanese style), or with toppings like boiled peanuts, cooked oatmeal, dressed with a syrup flavored with ginger or almond (Chinese-style). And you shouldn’t miss the famous ‘mapo tofu’ – braised tofu with beef, chili, and fermented bean paste sauce, which will leave your tongue dangling with spicy wonders!



And if your stomach is strong (and brave) enough, you can also try ‘Stinky Tofu’, a popular snack in East and Southeast Asia, which is often accompanied by chili sauce. ‘Stinky Tofu’ has a rotten smell that initially puts many people off, but many tofu-enthusiasts love it.

With your mind now changed about the delicious wonders of Tofu, just go to http://delta.tudelft.nl/ for an online version of this article and two easy-to-follow tofu recipes with step-by-step instructions.

Scallion Tofu

Prepare:

1 Tofu, cut into slices

Scallion

Soy sauce

Sugar, 1 / 4 tsp

Steps:

1. Add a little bit of oil and gently fry the tofu for a few minutes

2. Add the chopped green onions, scallions, and turn the fire a little bit bigger

3. Gently turn the tofu and add the soy sauce into the frying pan.

4 . Add a little bit of sugar and now it’s ready to serve!

Tip: Do not directly add the soy sauce onto the tofu surface

Mapo Tofu

Prepare:

Minced garlic 2 tablespoons

1 tofu

Some portions of meat (beef or pork), chopped into small pieces

2-3 tablespoons of bean paste

1 teaspoon sugar

A bit of cornstarch

Black pepper

A bit of chili oil

Scallions

Steps:

1. Add minced garlic into the pan and fry

2. Quickly fry the meat with bean paste and sugar

3. Add a little bit of cornstarch and water

4. Put the tofu into a pot, add a little bit of chili oil, black pepper and cook it with small fire until the tofu has a reddish color

5. Add scallions and it’s ready to serve!

Tips:

-If you find the color not reddish enough you can add two teaspoons of tomato sauce

-Don’t add salt while cooking because the bean paste is salty enough

The Ukrainian material scientist and engineer, Dr Tanya Atamanenko, searched the internet for an image of ‘cavitation’, and her print shop then transformed it into metallic bubbles on her cover. Cavitation is the formation of vapour bubbles in low-pressure regions within liquids. It is perhaps best known as the bubbles forming around a ship’s propeller, but it can occur in molten aluminium as well. Atamanenko used water bubbles to study fluid flow patterns during cavitation melt treatment. The influence of cavitation in aluminium melt is manifold. “When the bubbles collapse, this means high temperatures, high pressures and liquid jets on a very local scale. These effects will influence the solidifying material.”
The study of influencing solidifying metal is not new. As early as the 19th century, people shook moulds to get better castings. Fifty years ago, metallurgists in Germany and Russia experimented with ultrasound to improve their castings. “They could produce good results, but nobody understood the process,” Atamanenko says. So, who does now? “I do,” she says, “partially.”