Puning Pressed Tofu 普宁豆干

How it is made

Sweet potato starch makes up about 20% of the ingredients. A local saying ranks the starch first, the soybeans second and the maker third. The beans are ground at least twice, the pulp is removed and the soy milk is boiled; then come preparing the gypsum, testing the starch, mixing in the gypsum, stirring, brining, wrapping the curd into blocks, pressing and cooking. The key temperature is between 66 and 70 degrees. Yellow gardenia (黄栀) goes in just before the tofu leaves the pot, giving it a scent and a yellow colour.

Blocks made in Guangnan village (光南村) are square with a smaller square pressed into the middle, left by a small wooden board used to push out water. A Shantou (汕头) workshop owner told China News Service that the curd has to be ladled into the moulds quickly, or the tofu loses water and eats dry.

How it is eaten

Fried in a large wok of deep oil, Puning Pressed Tofu comes out crisp outside and tender inside. The gardenia's yellow is also what gives the cut, fried tofu its 'gold wrapping silver' (金包银) look. It is dipped in salted water with chives or spring onion.

Where it comes from

Local accounts trace the craft to Guangnan village in Liaoyuan town (燎原镇), Puning, in the early Ming dynasty, more than 600 years ago. The legend credits He Yeyun (何野云), strategist to Chen Youliang (陈友谅), who is said to have taught the villagers after choosing a grave site for them. The seal-like shape is said to express the Guangnan villagers' hope that their descendants would become officials. Because 'dry' (干) sounds like 'official' (官) in Teochew, Puning families also buy the tofu to offer to Confucius and feed to children starting school. The Puning pressed tofu making technique entered Jieyang's municipal intangible heritage list in 2009.