Roast Pork, Cabbage & Tofu Pot

One of hubby's favourite homecook dish is the Roast Pork, Cabbage & Tofu Pot, a very quick & easy one pot dish which I cook once in a few weeks.

Ingredients are fairly simple.

• 1 long cabbage 大白菜. I usually get the smallest one sold at supermarkets (around 600-700g) and use up the entire cabbage. Some supermarkets sell half of big size ones. Cut the cabbage into 1-inch pieces.
• 1 carrot. Cut into slices.
• 1 egg tofu. Cut into about 2cm thickness, about 8 pieces.
• 300-500g roast pork, depends on how much meat you like. Sheng Shiong sells quite nice roast pork, if not wet market. Cut into about 1cm thickness.
• A few slices of ginger.
• Optional --- baby corn, shiitake mushroom

First, heat up a deep pot with medium fire. No need to add oil. Once pot is hot, add the roast pork slices and stir fry. Some oil from the roast pork will be 'forced' out. Add ginger slices. Stir fry till the roast pork gets a little light brown and you can smell the aroma of the pork. Hmmm, heavenly.

Next, add the cabbage and carrot. The veg will fill the pot to the brim but soon they will simmer down. Try to stir fry a bit despite the tight space. Then cover pot with lit and let simmer.

After 5-10 mins, the veg would simmer down to 3/5 pot, you'll notice some water 'force' out from the cabbage. Add more water to level just barely covering the ingredients. Once the soup base starts to boil, lower to medium small fire, cover the pot and let simmer.

Meanwhile, coat the tofu slices with some corn starch. Pan-fry the tofu with some oil. You may deep fry the tofu, but I find pan frying a healthier option and use much less oil. The purpose of this step is to add some colour to the tofu and also have a slightly crisp coating so that the tofu doesn't break easily when added to the pot later. Keep the remaining corn starch for use later.

After simmering the ingredients for about 15 mins, the veg would have softened. Add the tofu slices. Add some water to the corn starch, and stir into the pot to slightly thicken the soup base. Cover and simmer for just a while more.

Ready to serve. I find that it's not necessary to add any sauces as the roast pork itself is roasted with lots of sauces and flavours hence saltish enough and the flavour goes into the soup base during the simmering process. In addition, the sweetness of the cabbage and carrot also adds to the flavouring.

Simple one pot dish, full of flavour from the roast pork, goes well with brown or white rice =D