Green chili polenta

Today polenta, and as usual, a variety of season produce.

I cooked the polenta grain. Added minced and salted sweet green chili, small bits of hot chili (red). Pepper, nutmeg. Let chill overnight in a mold. Then put on a dish, paint with olive oil and pass a few minutes under the grill. Pour a little tomato juice around in the dish. Serve hot.

Frozen cotton tofu (momendofu). I froze the whole block in its water. Thawed. Press to push out the water, cut in cubes. As you can see, it has a bread like texture now.

Stir-fried frozen tofu with eringi mushroom, garlic, olive oil.

Na no hana no ohitashi (rape blossoms). They are blanched and refreshed. With tomato juice agar jelly.

Edamame pesto salad. Boiled edamame, onion, yellow pepper, the broken leaves of na no hana. I mixed in a leftover of sesame basil pesto. Let a few hours in the fridge.

Nashi. Japanese pear.

Grating wasabi

Grating wasabi for a refreshing tofu dish. That’s a combination of two interesting textures.

A fresh wasabi root. I’ve simple grated it. That’s very different from the product in the tube. More flavored and less strong.

Okra (gombos). They have a huge jelly strength hidden in them. Like this :

Okra tororo : blanched okra, chilled, pasted in the blender. Flavored to taste with grated wasabi and soy sauce.

You can, for instance, serve okra tororo with soba.

Frozen cotton tofu (momendofu). I froze the whole block in its water. Thawed. Press to push out the water, cut in cubes. As you can see, it has a bread like texture now.

In small cubes.

I’ve poured the tororo on the tofu.

Tofu : tout !

Reblog from the “tofu page”

It’s compilation on the tofu topic…I add data regularly.

3 main tofu textures :

You have Japanese tofu that is :
kinu-dofu, silky tofu
momen-dofu, cotton tofu (translated as *firm tofu* in English)
Both are soft and watery. The first is very soft like egg pudding, the second is soft like starch pudding.
Really firm and dry tofu, the one that has a texture closer to meat is popular in China. It’s uncommon in Japan, except ….

Bottom line : If you like firm tofu…

With glue-glue sauce

A surprising spicy and playful vegan lunch. That’s very simple. I was not really inspired for the tittle.

3 quick plates :
-pasta,
–natto (fermented soy beans) with steamed okra mixed with mustard
-freeze-dry tofu stir-fry

You can buy Koya-dofu (blocks of dried tofu) and rehydrate them, or freeze some leftover of fresh tofu (squeeze well after defrosting). The tofu takes a sponge-like texture and a milky after-taste. I briefly pasted them in soy sauce, turmeric and sansho (Japanese Sichuan paper) and stir-fried with the beans, olive oil and garlic.
That’s really full of flavor and a set of interesting textures.

Both okra and natto have their “glue” texture. Mix and play.

Tofu and faux tofu

It’s compilation on the tofu topic…

Tofu is soy milk curded with nigari. But some other products not based on soy milk are called tofu because of their texture and appearance.
Tofu ? dofu ? toufu ? doufu ? The only proper spelling is 豆腐. It’s a matter of transcription. The “t” tends to become a “d” in second part of words in Japanese. And in Chinese it’s written “d” and you read “t”. And the “o” is long.

Choosing tofu :

There are huge differences of quality. It can be delicious or absolutely terrible. I wouldn’t want to eat again in this life time all the weirdly packaged tofus I have eaten in Europe and North-America. Maybe I had bad luck. Also in the US, the soy is GMO.

The second thing is you have to buy the right type.
Most Westerners don’t really understand the different types, and I’ve been there too. So maybe this can help. It’s a simplification, but start here :

3 main tofu textures :

You have Japanese tofu that is :
kinu-dofu, silky tofu
momen-dofu, cotton tofu (translated as *firm tofu* in English)
Both are soft and watery. The first is very soft like egg pudding, the second is soft like starch pudding.
Really firm and dry tofu, the one that has a texture closer to meat is popular in China. It’s uncommon in Japan, except in Okinawa, were Japanese and Chinese traditions cross their path. So here it is called 島豆腐 shima tofu, “island tofu“, and in Osaka, I have to buy in “ethnic stores”.
The 3 are made with different recipes.

Bottom line : If you like soft tofu, buy it from a Japanese maker (well, a maker making ingredients for Japanese cuisine as of course it’s not a question of nationality). If you like firm tofu, buy it from a Chinese or an Okinawan maker. Other Asian countries tend to make the firm varieties traditionally.

Gourmande’s home-made tofu :

Basic recipe :
ultra fresh torori tofu (from soy milk and nigari)