Tofu Kai-lan Soup

I always love kai-lan. It s so green, glossy, crunchy, and fresh. I often ate them in the stew style but never in soup.  Finally i cooked it in soup and still tasted so well. The point is how to cook the kai-lan. You want it to be still crunchy, but not under-cook or overcook. And yess, the color will change at some point you cook it. The tip is add a table spoon of baking soda. I'll explain it later. 

It's good to make for lunch or dinner and serve it with hot rice. For the filling you can add anything you like, maybe fish balls, meat balls, or chicken. 

Things you need :

300 grams or bundled of kai-lan

100 grams of chicken liver (slice it)

1 pack of tofu (chicken or egg tofu doesn't matter)

1 regular size of tomatoes (chop sideways into 8 pieces)

Ingredients :

½ of big onion

3 cloves of garlic

some cooking oil

a pinch of salt* (*very little, you may add salty soy sauce later)

a pinch of white pepper

a table spoon of Japanese salty soy sauce

a table spoon of oyster sauce

a tea spoon of rice vinegar

2 cups of water

a maizena/cornstarch water (a table spoon maizena + half cup of water)

Preparation :

For the veggies,

Wash and drain it. Let it be like that we will chop it later. Get skillet to boil some water as deep as the kai-lan can sink into. Boil a water, add a table spoon of baking soda and the kai-lan. Let the veggies sit there for 3 minutes only. 

After 3 minutes, remove from the hot water and chop it into 4 parts. Separate it on the other plate.  Now it's tofu turn. 

Slice the tofu into some pieces for half inch thick. The tofu texture is so soft. You may break it. The tip is: I use to dip the tofu into the hot water for 3 minutes before i chop it. It s believed to make the texture a bit easy to chop without breaking it. Cut from the middle.  After you slice your tofu, fry it. Fry until golden brown and the texture solid. Separate it on the other plate.

For the Ingredients, i just minced it. Slice the tomatoes. For the chicken liver, i would fry it first then sliced them into some tiny slices.

Prepare the sauces ingredients too,

you can use any cooking oil. i used olive. For the salty soy sauce, you can use other salty soy sauces if you don't have one like mine.  For me, Japanese soy sauce tastes different. 

Direction:

1. Stove on. Get on skillet and some cooking oil to saute garlic and onions. Stir well, when it gives you good smell add tomatoes. Stir well. 
   
2. Add some water and ingredients : a pinch of salt, rice vinegar, oyster sauce, a pinch of white pepper. 
   
3. Add the rest of the water, salty soy sauce, the fried tofu, chicken liver, and the maizena/cornstarch water. let it boil some. Remove from the stove.
4. Prepare the kai-lan in the other bowl. Pour the soup water on the kai-lan.
5. Serve it for 2 people with hot rice ;). 

this is how it looks,

Happy cooking :)