Đậu hũ nhồi thịt sơt cà chua (tofu stuffed with meat/pork braised in tomato sauce) is one of my favorite dishes to make—it’s really simple, doesn’t require a ton of fuss, but tastes good. This is an adaptation of my mom’s recipe. Normally the tofu is fried but I didn’t do that here (it’s too warm for that right now!). I also added in straw mushrooms. I’m a believer in the “never-too-many-mushrooms” school of culinary arts.

You don’t need any special tools for this. I used a simple stainless steel sauce pan from IKEA. If I were frying the tofu, I’d use my wok. Or you could buy pre-fried tofu if you’re in an area with a large East or Southeast Asian population.

This is also my first blog post with pictures! For now I’m committing directly into the repo. It’s on my to-do list to use S3 or something and a CDN to deliver images but for now this suffices.

Ingredients

Fair warning, I don’t really measure things out when cooking traditional Vietnamese food. This is the sort of recipe where the exact proportions don’t really matter anyway.

Essentials

• Firm tofu blocks
• 5-6 Roma tomatoes per block OR a can of chopped tomatoes per block (I use canned tomatoes)
• Fish sauce
• Salt
• Brown or cane sugar

Filling

• Ground pork (substitute with a medley of chopped shiitake and oyster mushrooms if you don’t eat pork; I use a pound of ground pork for every two block of tofu)
• Salt
• Brown or cane sugar
• Ground black peppercorns
• Shallots (I don’t believe in too many shallots, but you could aim for 5-6 medium sized bulbs per pound of tofu)
• (optional but recommended) MSG

Optional

• Nấm rơm (straw mushrooms) (you’ll likely only find these in cans if you’re outside of Asia; I usually use a can per every two cans of chopped tomatoes)
• Green onion (garnish)
• Cilantro (garnish)

Instructions

Filling the tofu

Again, the exact proportion doesn’t matter so much. If you really want a rough amount, about a teaspoon of sugar and black pepper, half that for salt, and maybe a quarter teaspoon of MSG, with a few dashes of fish sauce. When I make this, I use a pound of ground pork at a time, as ground pork comes in packs of a pound in my monthly meat share.

You could substitute sweet onions and garlic for the shallots if those aren’t available near you.

1. Slice the tofu and fry if desired
2. Rough chop the shallots
3. Mix together ground pork, most of the shallots, salt, sugar, black pepper, fish sauce, and MSG
4. Slit the tofu and stuff with the filling

Braising the tofu

1. If using raw tomatoes, quarter the tomatoes
2. Use the reserved shallots and fry in oil for a bit
3. Add the stuffed tofu to the pan
4. Once the meat has begun to brown, add in the quartered tomatoes, a bit of salt, sugar, and fish sauce; you can add a bit of water here if there are parts of the pan that look dry
5. Bring to a boil
6. Once boiling, drop the heat and simmer for around fifteen minutes (until meat is cooked and tomatoes are soft)
7. If adding in straw mushrooms, add them here
8. Turn off the heat and let sit, stirring once in a while

Serving

I’ve always eaten this with jasmine rice, but if you’re making the version stuffed with pork, I do think it’s substantial enough to stand on its own. Garnish with chopped green onions and cilantro to taste.