To make these fried Japanese tofu recipes you will need:
1 – 2 blocks of extra firm tofu
potato starch
Oil (I used olive oil)
sweet rice wine
soy sauce
Other ingredients you can use are spring onions, mushrooms, ginger, dashi, daikon radish, nori
My happy delicious accident
My son decided a year ago to cut meat and dairy out of his diet. He lived alone, so he didn’t need to make vegan or vegetarian food.
Now that he’s home, I search recipe blogs for delicious vegan dishes for him.
The other night I made something tasty of my own with what we had available: tofu, sriracha sauce, and over-the-counter soy sauce.
I squashed all the water trying not to break the tofu. The paper towels were soggy. Once it was as dry as I could get, I cut it into cubes, probably 2 inches each.
In a separate bowl, I put sriracha sauce, soy sauce, garlic flakes, and some seasoning. After mixing it up and putting on some gloves, I placed the tofu cubes into the sauce. I gently moved the pieces around in the bowl to make sure I covered every piece.
While I’m letting this sit, I heat up some olive oil in a skillet over low heat. Once hot I added the pieces one by one placing a lid on top.
After about 3-6 minutes I turned them over, they were brown on one side. Be careful and keep the heat low or wear protective gloves because the grease splatters.
I removed them from the heat a few minutes later.
Next, I reheated some sriracha soy sauce rice along with scallions, thinly sliced carrots, and broccoli.
Lastly, I put the rice on the plate with the fried tofu on top. I tried some myself and my mouth did a happy dance. In fact, I made something delicious.
My son ate his food with pleasure.
What I have just done? I know from eating at Japanese restaurants that they have something like this, so I looked online.
It’s called agedashi tofu. You do it in a similar way, except you add a coating to it.
Below are some delicious recipes I found online.
1. Agedashi Tofu by Nami from Just One Cook Book
She uses soft tofu in her recipe along with vegetable oil, potato starch, dashi (kombu dashi for vegetarians; she has a homemade recipe on her blog), mirin, soy sauce, scallions, daikon radish, and Japanese seven spices.
A step-by-step photo tutorial is included, as well as a video tutorial.
She suggests squeezing the liquid out of the tofu for 15 minutes. I think I could have done 5 minutes so I’ll have to try to get more water next time.
After chopping the onions and grating the radishes (and making the sauce), fry the tofu. Agedashi is crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside. Read the rest of her tutorial, as well as some interesting facts about this appetizer on her Just One Cook Book blog.
justonecookbook.com/recipes/agedashi-tofu-2
2. Fried Tofu by Bebe Love Okazu
This recipe seems very simple.
– drain the tofu
– cover it with potato starch
– fry it
– make sauce and cut vegetables
– attend
Visit Judy Ung’s Bebe Love Okazu blog for the full recipe.
bebeloveokazu.com/2011/08/16/agedashi-tofu
Tip: Tofu Frying Tips from Andrea Nguyen of Viet World Kitchen vietworldkitchen.com/blog/2012/06/tofu-frying-tips
3. Fried Tofu in Dashi Sauce by Natsuko Kure
For this version you will need soft tofu, potato starch, Enoki mushroom, chives, salad oil, dashi stock and dashi flakes (make sure it is vegetarian), soy sauce, mirin and nori seaweed.
Tip: Drain Your Tofu The Right Way: Natsuko drains her tofu using the microwave. Visit her to see how she does it herself.
cookmap.com/en/recipes/agedashi-tofu-fried-tofu-in-dashi-sauce
Don’t these recipes sound delicious?
Next time I cook for my son, I’ll try draining the tofu as Natsuko suggests, plus follow some tips from Andrea on how to fry so I don’t get splattered with grease.
Have you made Japanese fried tofu? Which of the three recipes will you try?
And now I would like to invite you to follow me on Pinterest while I learn to cook by trying out various recipes.
