(Joyful music) (Cleaver chopping) (audience clapping) (knife whooshes) (paper crackles) - Hi, welcome to the "Yan Can Cook" show.

Tofu is a Chinese name for soya bean curd.

Everybody say, "Tofu."

- Tofu.

- Perfect and terrific.

You say it better than I can say it.

(audience laughs) Today we have a very, very special .. my dear friend Mr. Bean.

(audience laughs) Mr. Bean is actually the long-lost, distant cousin of Groucho Marx.

(audience laughs) Actually, a lot of people probably don't know Mr. Bean has a lot of character.

A lot of time, what happen is Mr. Bean, the soya bean curd, go well with different kind of seasoning and spices.

You can use salty.

You can make it into a soup.

You can make it into a dressing, all kind of things.

So today, we're gonna show you the many, many good character and faces of my good friend, cousin of Groucho Marx, Mr. Bean.

(audience laughs) Mr. Bean, just stay there and stay put.

Don't move.

(audience laughs) The first thing I want to show you is the first bean curd dish.

I call it Hakka Bean Curd Soup.

Now, first of all, let me mention the word Hakka first.

A lot of you probably don't know, in southern part of China, there are three main category, main region, of southern Chinese cuisine.

One is Cantonese cuisine, everybody know, from represent by the city of Canton.

And then they have Chaozhou cuisine, which is can be hot and spicy.

You wanna smoke your hair, you have a perm, (audience laughs) you eat Chaozhou food.

And then they have Hakka food.

Hakka food is very, very famous.

One of the most famous thing is the Hakka baked salt baked chicken, and then there's Hakka bean curd soup that's also very, very famous.

You should try it because bean curd is very, very nutri.. Four ounces bean curd, you have approximately 80 calories only, but very low in fat, no saturated fat, no cholesterol level, but about 320 milligram of calcium.

It's a good quality, nice balance amino acid.

So today, I'm gonna show you something everybody can do.

Now, here I am gonna first make the filling, because you gotta make the filling for this, okay.

Here I have a piece of fish and some shrimp, already deveined.

Okay?

I'm gonna cut it into a chunk, a li.. Then I'll put it into this little, very handy food processor because today I'm gonna use this.

I want to give my little Chinese cleaver a coffee break.

(audience laughs) Put it over here.

You notice that I normally use this to do a lot of things, but if you have one of these, a food processor, by all means, put this in.

I even want to put a tiny bit of mushroom, but it's not necessary.

Now, all you have to do is put a tiny bit of cornstarch, a tiny bit of chopped parsley or cilantro, a tiny bit of sesame seed oil, about half a teaspoon at the most.

And then you're gonna blend this into a paste.

(food processor whirs) This is all you need.

Okay?

And then you remove this.

And then you will get it out.

Of course, you got to get it out.

(audience laughs) When you get excited, you can be in trouble.

I am so glad that it actually came out.

(audience laughs) And then we're gonna put this over here.

Now, I don't need the whole, use the whole thing, because I do not need... Now, if you have some extra of this, what you can do is make it into a little shrimp ball or fish ball, and set aside, and put it in soup, by itself, is wonderful.

Now, set this aside.

This got it nice and seasoned, and we'll set it aside.

And then we have a little piece of tofu here.

Now, this piece of bean curd, we'll cut it in half, like this.

Set it aside, and then you can cut into diagonal, like this.

You can either do it like this exactly this diagonal.

Okay, then you'll have two triangles like this.

If you don't like to cut this, you can turn it upside down.

Turn it on the other side.

(audience laughs) They look identical.

It doesn't matter how you do it.

(audience laughs) It's very flexible.

Either is, or this, nobody care.

Okay?

And then after that, you use a litt.. You scoop out a tiny, tiny bit right here.

Look at this.

Scoop this out.

Scoop this out like this.

Now, if you are hungry, scoop out more, (audience laughs) because you can put more of the filling inside.

Put it over here.

I need approximately one pound of this, one package of this.

Sprinkle a tiny, tiny bit with cornstarch so it will stay there.

The filling will stay there, okay.

Do a lot of these.

And then, when it's done, you will use a little spoon or you can use a little dinner knife, okay.

Stuff this, and put it right here.

Can you see this?

Very easy, classic dish, stuffed bean curd.

You can actually deep fry this.

You see?

Put it over here.

Can you see this?

Everybody can see.

Everybody can go home.

Everything I do here, it's very simple, very easy, and everybody can go home and do it.

Now, if you have time, you shape this perfect, particularly when you're watching the "Yan Can Cook" show.

(audience laughs) You can do it perfectly round ball like this, okay.

If you don't have time, you just go done.

(audience laughs) So simple.

It depends on how much time you have.

Now, when this is done, I will set it aside.

Now, because we have so many people in the studio, so that's the reason why I make some of these ahead of time.

This particular dish, all you need is be.. Napa cabbage.

You can use a regular cabbage.

It doesn't make any difference.

And then some mushroom, which I'm gonna cut into a little bit smaller, in a quarter, like this, so it look nicer.

And then, of course, to make it a little bit more spicy and interesting, use a tiny bit of ginger.

(knife tapping) (audience laughs) Are you having fun now?

(audience laughs) (audience claps) Then we'll heat up one of these clay pot.

Now, of course you don't, let me put it over here.

You do not have to heat up this clay pot because if you don't have a clay pot, it's no big deal.

You can use one of these.

I'm quite sure Mr. Bean doesn't mind.

(audience laughs) This is traditional, this, I like this very much.

And then we'll put the ginger, put a tiny bit of oil, tiny bit of mushroom, and then you can put the cabbage right in here.

Look at this.

Save the cilantro.

Then lay the bean curd on top, like this.

Okay?

Lay it on top like this.

Look at this.

Tofu is wonderful because, as I said, it's a very, very healthy food, and it's wonderful, and it's healthy.

Let's put it over here.

And I call it so food because it's so healthy.

(audience laughs) And then put some broth, you can use fish broth, because you're gonna make Hakka bean curd s.. when it's done.

All you have to do is, see, cover up and let it simmer for about 15 minute or so over low heat so everything is cooked.

How you doing Mr. Bean?

(audience laughs) Now, I want to show you, because through the magic of television, because we have so many people here, so I cook twice as much.

So this is the one that I cook a little bit earlier.

You see?

And when it's done, all you have t.. let me show you, put a tiny, tiny bit of cilantro right on top and serve the whole thing like this.

I will show you how wonderful it looks.

Can you see that?

We'll set this aside.

And this is hot, so we have to move these very, very c.. to put it aside.

Can you see how wonderful this dish is?

Now, not all the popular Chinese vegetable are green and nice looking, a lot of them are nice and green leaf.

Some are actually quite ugly, (audience laughs) like the tubers and the roots.

And let me show you what I mean.

So far, on Martin Yen's vegetable tour, I have shown you nice, gorgeous, beautiful vegetables.

But today, I'm gonna drag you through the mud.

I'm gonna take you underground to see the roots.

Here is lotus root.

Everybody have heard of, have seen beautiful lotus blossom, lotus flower, but you do not understand underneath is ugly looking things like this lotus root.

Very popular Chinese vegetable.

When you cut it open, it looks like this.

Look at this.

Looks like Swiss cheese.

You can slice it up, put it in soup.

You can stir-fry them and put in casserole.

You can even eat it raw, or you can pickle them is one of my favorite.

Here, we have taro root, the Chinese call yotou.

This is a grand daddy of the taro root.

This is the baby.

This can feed the entire city of New York.

This can feed one family.

And actually, you can beat them, you can mash them, you can boil them, you can even French fries them.

You can make potato chips out of this.

You can have taro root chips.

Here we have what they call jicama.

In China, it's called saa got.

You can eat it raw.

You can stir fry them, particularly if you cannot find fresh, beautiful water chestnut like this.

You can have this saa got, peel it, slice it up, and you can put it in your salad.

You can stir fry them or in soup.

Now, here, we coming to this wonderful root.

This is what I call bak, lo bak, Chinese white turnip.

Basically, it tastes like a little red radish, got a very similar taste and texture, yet it's a little bit sweeter and not as strong.

When you use this, you cut it up, and you slice it up.

You can sautee them.

You can put them in casserole.

You can even put them in soup.

Today, I am gonna take you back to your root.

I'm gonna show you how to make some root vegetable.

(audience applauds) I bought one of these, a jicama, so we're going to use this jicama today.

Jicama is a terrific root vegetable.

It is perfect for salad, as I said earlier, and a good thing about it is if you don't have fresh water chestnut, this is wonderful because it's nice, and sweet, got a texture very similar to water chestnut.

It's very crunchy.

So I encourage everybody try this.

Now, this is fresh water chestnut.

You can see there's a lot of similarity.

They have very nice, sweet taste, very crunchy texture.

The only different is the size.

This is about 50 times as big as this one.

Maybe in Spanish, jicama means extra big water chestnut (laughs).

(audience laughs) But anyway, now, when you use this jicama, all you have to do is use a little paring knife to peel it.

Okay?

After you peel it, you can cut it u.. You can eat it raw.

You can pickle them.

You can do all kind of things with it.

And you stack them all up like this.

You stack them all up like this.

And this is how you julienne.

You can julienne one by one or you can do them all together.

You see?

Very, very simple.

You put it right over here.

And then I want to show you, with this jicama, I want to show you do a very unique dish I call stir fried pressed bean curd with jicama.

Now here is pressed bean curd.

Can you see this?

This is not only pressed, this is nice and firm, also spiced and seasoned with soy sauce and five-spice powder.

Now, you do not press bean curd like this.

(audience laughs) This would only make a mess (laughs).

Don't do it.

So I gotta clean up.

(audience laughs) This is slowly, slowly pressed with a presser.

And then you slice it up like this, and the inside, there, it looks like this.

And then you put them all over here.

And then we have some green onion.

We're gonna stir fry this, very simple.

First, you heat up your wok, very, very high heat.

And then add approximately two teaspoon, this is exactly two teaspoon, (audience laughs) of cooking oil.

Move them around.

And then you put pressed bean curd, jicama, because the pressed bean curd can be served immediately.

And some green onion.

Okay?

Then stir this a little bit.

And then look at how wonderful, how easy to do.

And then when it's done, use a tiny, tiny bit of homemade soup stock and also use a tiny bit of sugar, salt, and five-spice powder.

And then put them all here.

And then you stir.

Can you hear the sizzling sound?

(audience murmurs) When it's done, all you have to do is set it aside, Let's put it over here, and serve this.

It is just like you can serve...

The great thing about this is you can serve it warm, or hot, or cold.

Wow, look at, beautiful.

(audience murmurs) The whole dish is done.

I'm gonna set this aside and put it over here.

Look at this.

Isn't that beautiful?

Very simple, very healthy (audience applauds) very wonderful.

Okay?

Now, the next thing I want to show you is how to make with something I call, Chinese call bo cai, spinach.

A lot of people don't know, in Chinese cuisine, bo cai, Chinese spinach or regular spinach, used all the time.

I'm gonna set this aside this aside and put it right here.

For bo cai, we have all these ingredient.

We have our wonderful shiitake mushroom, fresh.

Look at this.

This is how it looks.

It costs a fortune (audience laughs) but for you, you're worth it, so we spend a fortune (laughs).

For you at home, you're even more just as worth it as all these people in the studio audience.

Now, this stem, you can put it in the stock pot.

You don't have to throw them, so I'll keep it for myself.

(audience laughs) and I slice it up like this.

Slice it up because I'm going to put it in my salad.

You see?

I'm gonna put it in my salad.

This is wonderful, about 13 to $14 a pound.

And then I also have some of these bacon roast...

I kind of toast it and kind of browned it so most of the fat is gone.

And I also have some toast almond.

Now, I'm gonna make a dressing.

When I was growing up, I eat a lot of this.

I'm gonna make a dressing with this tofu.

I'm going to cut this up into little cubes and put it over here.

And then I put some garlic, salt, and a tiny, tiny bit of sugar.

And then I also use vinegar.

I use approximately two tablespoon of broth and about one teaspoon of sesame seed oil, half a teaspoon of salt, and a tiny bit of five-spice powder.

And then make a dressing.

(food processor whirs) When I, as I said, when I was growing up, I eat a lot of bo cai.

Bo cai, everybody knows, has a lot of iron, very high in iron.

That's why I always tell myself I have such magnetic personality (laughs).

(audience laughs) Sorry about this.

I apologize.

(audience laughs) Now, this is wonderful dressing.

When it's done, we'll set it aside.

Take this out.

Please, come.

(audience laughs) I can be, you got to be muscle man to take this out.

(audience laughs) but the great thing about it, because if you're not nervous, you.. You don't have to worry about it.

Mix this in.

Put the dressing right here.

Okay?

And then sprinkle a tiny bit of these and a tiny bit of bacon and this, roast it.

And then you can serve it in a little plate like this.

I want to show you how wonderful it looks.

Look at this beautiful dish.

You can serve it.

If you want, you can even use a little bit more chop almond roasted, a tiny bit more of these, bacon.

And then you have two wonderful di.. for you.

(audience clapping) Since our show today is about bean curd, so let us take a look and meet the whole bean curd family.

A lot of the other bean curd and bean curd byproducts, some of you probably have never seen this before, and probably you'll never see this again.

(audience laughs) so I want to show you.

We start with the, of course, tofu or tofu, soybean curd.

Now you know, you probably don't know there are .. of tofu in the market that you can buy, bean curd.

One is firm.

This very firm.

And this is medium firm, regular tofu.

This is soft tofu.

So there's actually three different textures, firm, regular, soft.

You can see that.

Sorry.

(audience laughs) And then, come over here.

We have the pressed bean curd we just did.

This is the pressed bean curd.

This also pressed bean curd.

The different is this is one is spiced and also seasoned with soy sauce and five spice.

They're both very firm.

Okay?

Now, I can show you, I hope everybody can see.

I'm gonna lift this up so everybody can see.

Now, look at this, one, two, three, bounce.

See?

(audience laughs) That thing actually jumped!

(audie..

Forget it, we don't need that anyway, (audience laughs) 'cause that thing just jumped out of site.

And then this is fermented bean curd.

This is a red fermented bean curd.

This is the regular, white fermented bean curd.

They are fermented, and it's very, very aromatic, very fragrant, usually used as a seasoning.

This is the Japanese style miso.

When you go out to Japanese restaurant to have miso soup, this is miso.

This also fermented soya bean.

Now, here we even make, use soya bean to make soybean milk.

You can make your own soybean milk, or you can buy soybean milk in supermarkets.

And then here is bean curd stick, dehydrated bean curd stick.

Here, we have bean curd sheets, like this.

Everybody see that?

This is bean curd sheets.

This bean curd sheets is a whole sheet come in this package, like this.

Normally, you soak them a little bit, and then you can fold up.

You can make vegetarian bean curd roll.

Bean curd sheet roll, very popular.

So after all this, I will put this over here so everybody can still continue to enjoy the whole, meet the whole family later (laughs) (audience laughs) Now, how are you holding up, Mr. Bean?

(audience laughs) The darn thing is getting a little bit impatient.

(audience laughs) It's moving around.

Look at this.

Now, the most important thing in the particular dish that I'm gonna show you is, this is very famous.

It's called Sichuan bean curd with nuts.

I start it with lean pork.

I start with lean pork.

Do not use fat pork.

If you use too much fat pork, it will be too greasy and will be too fat.

Unless you don't care, then you use something like this.

(audience laughs) Look, this is so, this looks so ridiculous, it's also di.. and also it's not healthy, so forget it.

(audience laughs) We will forget that.

Now, I am gonna heat up my wok.

Why I'm doing this, because this dish doesn't take too long to cook.

Now, we have lean pork, some bamboo shoot, green onion, and also some nuts.

And now, we are also going to also introduce a tiny bit of this salted, fermented, black beans.

When you do this, you rinse it in water, and you put it over here, and you use your knife to kind of pound this a little b..

So the flavor will be released.

And then you get everything else ready.

Now the most important thing is get all the seasoning and all the things ready, and then cut up some of this.

This is about one package of bean curd.

Okay?

So we're gonna get all of these re.. We have bean curd.

We have black bean.

We have bamboo shoot.

We have lean pork.

We have this all ground, cut them all up.

So we're gonna do a dish.

This dish is very easy.

If you like hot and spicy food, you can also use a tiny bit of chili paste.

Can you see that?

This is about half a teaspoon to on..

It depends on how much you like hot, spicy food.

Also, get a tiny bit of thing for sauce.

This, I have approximately a quarter of a cup of broth and approximately two tablespoon of soy sauce.

Now, my wok is hot.

You never do any stir fry dishes until the wok is hot.

Let us get a tiny bit of garlic.

(knife tapping) (audience laughs) (audience applauds) And then, we're gonna use some oil when the wok is hot enough.

We use about two teaspoon of oil.

You notice that I measure everything precisely.

(audience laughs) And then Mr. Bean is getting very hot.

(audience laughs) Stir this, and then put the pork because the pork, if you like hot and spicy food, put the chili pepper in early.

Wow, this is gonna be very hot.

And then get a spatula, move these around.

(food sizzles) Put bamboo shoot, green onion.

Do not have to put the tofu in until the last minute.

Look at this.

Stir fry this.

I love nuts.

You can use any kind of nut.

(audience laughs) You start with about one cup.

(audience laughs) And you taste and make sure they are taste good and wonderful.

(audience laughs) By the time you finish your quality control, you should have exactly three quarter of a cup.

(audience laughs) Put this here.

Tofu and some black bean.

And then some chili paste.

Oh, wow, hot stuff.

Then here, I have the sauce, broth, soy sauce, and a tiny bit of sesame seed oil.

And then put them all in, and let it braise for a few seconds.

Wow, look at how beautiful this is.

(audience murmurs) And then, when it's almost ready, you thicken this up with one portion of cornstarch to about three portion of water.

Put it right over here where the boiling liquid is.

This is how you thicken a dish.

When it's done, you put the nuts in in the last minute.

Okay?

Look at this.

Look at this wonderful dish.

When it's done, you will transfer this, and I'll put it over here.

And I want to tell you how wonderful this dish look.

Look at this beautiful dish.

This dish is healthy, and it's wonderful, and I like to show you this is the dish.

We have a great time today, and I want to thank our special guest, Mr Bean.

(audience laughs) He's still holding up.

I'm glad that he's able to survive.

And let us do lunch sometime.

(audience laughs) I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who come over to watch the show today, and I would like to say, "If Yan can cook, so can you!"

“Goodbye!” (##!)

(audience applauds) (Joyful music)