Youxian Dried-Tofu Stir-Fry

The dish belongs to Youxian county, in Zhuzhou prefecture of eastern Hunan, and is named for its defining ingredient: Youxian xianggan, the county's celebrated pressed dried tofu. Local gazetteers record that Youxian's tofu trade flourished through the Ming and Qing and grew well-known across the Yangtze and Pearl River basins. Unlike the yellow dried tofus elsewhere that take their color from smoking, Youxian xianggan is pressed into firm blocks and steeped in a red-sugar brine — it turns an even golden-brown yet carries no smoke smell, keeping a pronounced bean fragrance instead. The tofu spread nationwide from the 1980s as Youxian people carried it to Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and in 2011 Youxian tofu was registered as a national geographic-indication product. Pairing this chewy local tofu with rendered pork belly, fermented black beans and chili is the everyday way the county cooks it.

Bite a strip of the tofu and it gives a dense, springy chew — golden-brown skin around a paler center that has soaked up pork fat and gone glossy. Curls of belly, fat turned translucent and edges browned, ride alongside. The fermented black beans burst salty-funky, the chili lands a clean late heat, and green garlic threads sharp brightness through it all. Salty, savory, faintly sweet from the wok char — and built to be eaten over hot white rice.

Everything hinges on the tofu and the heat. Because Youxian xianggan is brine-pressed dense rather than soft, it holds its shape through hard tossing and turns chewy instead of crumbling, while its porous surface drinks the rendered pork fat. The belly goes in first and is rendered until the fat is translucent and the edges brown — that fond and the Maillard char are the dish's savory backbone, so the wok must be properly hot before the pork hits. The fermented black beans (douchi) are fried in the pork oil until fragrant to release their savory-salty ferment notes, then the chili, and the tofu last so it glazes without toughening. Green garlic goes in at the very end, tossed just to wilt, kept sharp and green.