Torori ! The tofu that melts in the mouth…

You have never eaten tofu if you have not tried this. It’s is tofu prepared on the table and served still hot and extra-fresh. Torori expresses the filling of melty and soft like egg pudding. Even if you re-heat silky tofu, it doesn’t get back to the particular texture.
The taste is also deeper, a little greener.

Easy : You need tonyu soy milk and nigari. Natural nigari is made from sea water. There are substitutes. I have not compared.

The difference between tonyu (the real soy milk) and the *soy milk* in supermarkets in the West can be as wide as between orange juice and fanta. So, if you can’t buy the good one, make it. That’s not only a matter of taste, the “soy milk drink” wouldn’t curd.

To make soy milk (easy recipe), click here.

I bought it because I’m lazy, I find some easily and my blender is so basic that I’d produce batches of 1/2 cup.

Take 150 ml of soy milk, beat. Don’t make foam ! Well, that works if you make some, but that’s not pro.
Add 1/3 teaspoon of nigari. Stir gently by turning 50 times.

Pass 2 minutes in the micro-wave at 500 watts. Check it’s getting curded around (but not completely). Wait 5 minutes and spoon to another plate, or wait 8 minutes and serve in the bowl.
You can have a brasero on the table in front of guests. For instance, fill a pan with boiling water and bath your covered bowl in it. I can’t tell the exact time.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm !

There are many ways of serving it. Today, that was yuzu ponzu (soy sauce with green yuzu juice).

Made too much ? I know that seems silly, since it’s so good… but as you’ve opened the pack of soy milk, you can as well finish it. As it cools down, the tofu releases water, so put it a zaru (basket), keep in the fridge. The next day you’ll have tasty zaru-doufu to serve chilled.

Home-made jade

This is edamame tofu fully made of edamame beans, which are fresh green soy beans.

The other ingredient is kudzu. It is the starch from a plant. It is sold in the form of a powder, in Japanese groceries and also in some Western health stores (and you will probably find it expensive). It is very close to arrow-root and can surely be substituted.

Recipe of edamame tofu

You can un-mold it or serve it in cups as you like. Un-molding works better with the version with agar or gelatine , but the version simple is more creamy.
Make your choice.

Version simple
edamame (weighted cooked and shelled) 120 g
kombu dashi 300 g (300 ml, 1.75 cup)
kudzu 20 g

Version +1
kudzu 15 g
gelatine 5 g

Version +2
kudzu 15 g
instant agar-agar powder 5 g

A -Rub the pods of edamame with coarse salt and rinse them. Boil them in their pods in slightly salty water. That takes 4~5 minutes till they get soft.

B-Blend together the shelled beans, the dashi and the kudzu powder. If you want a perfectly silky result sieve the liquid. Pour it in the sauce pan.
C-Heat on medium-low, while constantly stirring with a wooden spoon. After a few minutes, it thickens. Add in the gelatine if you use it. Stir well.
D- Pour in containers or molds. Let cool. Then put in the fridge a few hours.

Version +
-If you use gelatine, rehydrate it with a little dashi in a cup, add it to the beans after 1 minute.
-If you use agar-agar, add it to a little dashi in the sauce pan, bring to a boil, add the bean mix to it.

It can be served as a savory dish. Or as a sweet, as you will surely find the taste very sweet.

The jade aspect is beautiful. The texture is not like white tofu either.

Ideas to serve it : click here.

Kinome flavor on ankake agedofu (wood fragrant glazed fried tofu)

Tofu is the uttermost delight ! No, I am not crazy. i have not lost my tastebuds.
I know it has bad reputation. Well I have tried to eat those blocks of rubber that are called tofu in the West (ello, Old Europe) and in the East (East of here, that’s you, America) and I didn’t like that.
We have great tofu in Japan. It can be eaten like that bare feet in front of the fridge at night… And if you add a great recipe, it’s the paradise of flavor.

Freshly fried tofu, topped with hot ankake sauce full of veggies, flavored with kinome leaves… Eat without waiting. You can’t reheat that, it would lose crispiness and freshness of fragrances.

basic recipe of fried tofu

ankake is a sauce thickened with starch. I used katakuriko (potato starch), oyster sauce, salt, chili pepper, fresh ginger, garlic, shimeji mushrooms, young onion, sweet peppers…
Final touches : spicy fragrant sesame oil, cubes of lemon and :

Kinome. The taste of those leaves is very powerful and just a few transform the whole dish.
Sansho, la saveur boisee de la cuisine japonaise. (The wood flavor in Japanese cuisine.)

Pour the sauce delicately and place veggies for the photo.
Or go crazy : pour the sauce pan of sauce onto the place.

Agedofu, simple fried tofu, the easy way

Crispy around, creamy inside, bathing in its sweet soup… it’s a Japanese cuisine classic.

We can buy it fried in all supermarkets here, and reheat. That’s not the same. Frying yours is much more delicious.
It can be done with softer silky tofu, but semi-firm and firm cotton tofu (momen dofu) is easier to manipulate with this recipe.
Do it in 2 times : put tofu to drain and start the soup. Then, after 30 minutes, you need 5 minutes to do the rest.

Prepare the tofu :
Place the whole block (I used half) on a plate, cover with a second plate, and put a can of 1kg or a pot on the cover. After 15 minutes, discard the water that got out of the tofu. Let it 15 more minutes.
Cut cubes of 3 cm. Prepare a saucer with katakuriko (potato starch) or corn starch.

Fry the tofu
In a small thick bottom pan, heat 5 millimiters of oil. Coat each cube of tofu in the starch. Put them in the pan. Then turn them in turn. When you’ve done the 6 sides, it’s OK. Place the cubes on a grill covered with 1 layer of kitchen paper. Turn them too to absorb excess oil. You can keep hot a few minutes in oven-toaster at 120 degrees.

Tsuyu soup :
Bring fish flakes (I take a mix) and water to a boil. Simmer 5 minutes on low heat. Let sit 30 minutes. Add soy sauce, salt and mirin (or honey if you don’t have any) to taste, reheat together.

Pour the soup around the hot fried tofu. Garnish with negi leeks and shichimi (7 spice mix). Serve at once !
2 cubes is a very small serving. You’ll see another recipe soon…