Fermented bean curd

Tofu fermenté (furu)

What it is

Cubes of tofu are grown over with a white Mucor mould until they are furred like a young cheese rind, then salted and jarred in brine, rice wine or red yeast rice — which is where the crimson version takes both its colour and its name. Nineteenth-century European visitors filed it under cheese, and the texture is why: nothing else made from soy behaves like it.

In the kitchen

One cube mashed with a spoonful of its own brine will season a whole wok of greens; it runs about as salty as anchovy paste, so nothing else salted goes in. Take it from the jar with a dry spoon or the surface spoils within the week.

Goes with

Water spinach Garlic Rice Pork belly Chili pepper Toasted sesame oil Spring onion Shaoxing wine

Same species

Chunjang Dark soy sauce Doenjang Douchi Edamame Guk-ganjang

Also used with

Red amaranth leaf Chinese sesame paste

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