Where I grew up – a village in Hebei province, which is a northern province in China, winter gets to around minus 5 degrees Celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit). I didn’t mind the cold, though. If anything, I miss those snowy days, where after a night’s sound sleep, you look outside the window, everything had a ‘white coat’ on. People, old and young, couldn’t wait to go outside to see snowflakes dancing in the sky. Their day somehow just got better.

The memory of napa cabbage comes hand in hand with the memory of snow. It was an everyday dish, because it was the only vegetable that thrived in winter. But instead of being bored with it, I couldn’t get enough of it – so much so, when spring is around the corner, my grandparents, who I lived with at the time, would need to prepare me for the low storage on napa cabbage: “We only have a few left, so enjoy these last ones.”

Now that I live elsewhere and don’t always get the chance to spend winter in northern China, I try and re-create that flavor in my memory.

Napa cabbage is a great vegetable to pair with tofu. It’s humble and comforting. The combination welcomes other ingredients, such as potato, sweet potato noodle, stewed pork or beef. Here I used beef hotdog, which is an innovative choice.

Ingredients you need:

• 750 grams napa cabbage, cut into 4-centimeter square pieces after washing. 
• 500 grams medium firm tofu, cut into roughly 2.5-centimeter cubes, like a cube of ice.
  The quality of tofu is essential in this dish. Use brine-coagulated and freshly-made tofu, if possible, because it’s more aromatic and has higher density. If you don’t have access to one, get the best quality tofu in the supermarket.
• 2 Ikea beef hotdog, cut into 1 centimeter tall oblique cylinder.
• 1 petal of star anise.
• 2 pieces of thinly sliced ginger.
• 4 tablespoon sunflower seed oil or peanut oil.
• 2 tablespoon Chinese light soy sauce. Good soy sauce is important. The brand I used was Haday Classic Delicious Light Soy sauce.
• 1 teaspoon Chinese sesame oil.
• 1 table spoon Chinese black vinegar.
• 1 teaspoon white pepper.
• Salt. Quantity depends on your taste. I use Himalayan salt flakes.

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How to make the dish:

1. Use a non-stick wok. Use strong fire to heat the wok till the bottom is hot.
2. Pour oil in the hot wok. Sway the wok so that oil covers a large surface of the wok.
3. Put ginger and star anise in the wok. Fry till you can smell the aroma of the ginger.
4. Put napa cabbage in the wok and put the lid on immediately. Wait for 2 minutes.
5. Take the lid off. Stir the napa cabbage so the bottom cabbage pieces come up. 
6. Add soy sauce and then tofu , but don’t stir yet. Put the lid on. Wait for 3 minutes.
   Usually, you should have some water coming out of the napa cabbage. However, in case your fire is too strong, you should put some boiling water to prevent the napa cabbage from being burnt.
7. Take the lid off. Mix tofu with napa cabbage. Put the lid on. Wait for 3 minutes.
8. Take the lid off. Add beef hotdog and white pepper. Mix well so the white pepper is evenly distributed.
9. Meanwhile, taste the tofu with napa cabbage to see if salt is needed. Make sure to taste them together as it takes longer for tofu to absorb the salty flavor from soy sauce, thus only taste tofu may not reveal the correct saltiness of the dish.
   If more salt is needed, add in small quantity to avoid intense saltiness.

10. Put the lid on. Wait for 3 minutes.

11. Turn off fire. Add Chinese black vinegar and Chinese sesame oil. Stir well.

This dish needs to be consumed warm. It doesn’t taste as good when it’s cold.

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