Deconstructed inari soba and 4 treasure mozuku soup

Inari-zushi are sushi in little pockets like this (click). I wanted to make a variation , inari soba, with soba noodles instead of rice but I made a technical mistake, so the taste is here, delicious, but the shape, not at all… The second dish is a seaweed and veggie soup.

Abura-age (fried tofu) simmered in a broth of soy sauce, paprika, with a little chili and garlic.
MY MISTAKE : I forgot to open the pockets before simmering. And later, that was… impossible without tearing all apart.

I have made kujo negi into threads :

I’ve salted slightly and mixed with fresh soba buckwheat noodles (boiled 1 minute, then cooled in iced water, drained).

So I’ve placed the noodles on top of the pockets. The project was to fill them.

Fresh edamame from kuromame (black soy beans)

You need to cook them. It’s possible to rub the pods with salt and boil them that way, or to open as I did.

Inspired from a Chinese soup. I’ve cooked green and black edamame, dices of kabocha pumpkin and slices of okra. I’ve added sea salt and mozuku seaweed to the cooled broth. A few slices of sudachi lime bring fruity acidity.

Mixed baby leaves, plus mitsuba and cherry tomatoes.

My lunch !

Summer inari-zushi

Inari is the type of sushi contained in a sweetly soaked pouch of fried tofu. The pronunciation is Zushi in this word, inarizushi.
With season produce, they make a pleasant plant-based lunch.

I told you that so far the rainy season was a dry one, but that’s changing as we are reaching the end : It rains seriously !

I bought this. 油揚げ, abura age. They are slices of tofu, deep-fried.

Cut and they become little bags to contain your sushi.

My rice is a mix of mochigome (sticky rice) and genmai (brown rice) . Flavored with kurosu (black rice vinegar), very little salt and grated carrot.

I rinsed the abura age pouches with hot water to eliminate the excess of oil, then simmered them in a little sweet broth (shoyu soy sauce, kurozato black sugar, chili pepper and laurel). I don’t want mine too sweet.
Toppings : edamame fresh soy beans, fresh sweet corn, sweet green chili, carrot.

Served with kaiware daikon sprouts.

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…

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)

zaru-dofu (basket tofu)

Island tofu (very firm tofu)

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Gourmande’s home-made faux tofu

tamago dofu (egg tofu)

home-made sesame tofu (gomadofu)

yellow tofu or Shan tofu (from chick pea)

edamame tofu (from green soy beans)

Tofu bought in Osaka :

It’s a small sample. I can find many sorts. There are 3 tofu makers just in my street…

kinu-dofu (silky tofu)

momen-dofu (cotton tofu)

Okinawan tofu (super hard)

Yuzu tofu (citrus flavor)

koya-dofu (freeze dry tofu)

fresh yuba (sheets of tofu)

abura-age (usu-age type, fried sheets of tofu)

goma dofu (sesame flavored soy milk tofu)

goma dofu (sesame tofu, not a real tofu)

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RECIPES WITH TOFU
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dengaku (tofu skewers)

yudofu (Kyoto boiled tofu, hot pot)

mabo dofu (Sichuan style, several recipes)

age-dofu (fried tofu)

inari sushi (in abura age pockets)

champuru (Okinawan tofu with scramble egg)

chigae (Korean spicy tofu soup)

tofu steaks

u no hana (tofu fibers in tabouleh)

Tofu can also be an ingredient for desserts.

Cosy sushi, many ways

Are not visitors disappointed ? A food blog from Osaka with so few sushi… It’s Japan, so we are supposed to eat some at every meal.
That’s not really the case, but we have some. I don’t try to replicate the restaurant style, but anyway what we are proposed here tends to differ from the horr… , I mean, the offer, in the West. There are many regional variations. I try to prepare the original home-made ones…

Definition : vinegared rice, with toppings.

If there is no rice or nor no vinegar (citrus juice/fermented sake), it is not a sushi. Consider using another name. Well, the concept is large enough to play around with shapes and toppings.

Personal opinion : what makes a good sushi, is :

ONE : the rice, quality (Japonica or Arborio, which is a Japonica anyway) and good preparation.
TWO : there should be a way to distinguish a sushi and a hamburger (I mean no ketchup, no cheese, no fries…)

Enjoy the visit…