【Tofu Karaage】 and 【Shio Koji Chili Souce】
Hello everyone. My name is Yoshiki Ito; I’m an expert on Japanese fermented food.
I love tofu so much that I made a full-course meal with tofu.
I will introduce one by one every Saturday.
So the full course will be completed in 7 weeks.
Today’s weekend Shojin cuisine is 【Tofu Karaage】simply put, it’s tofu fritters, and 【Shio Koji Chili sauce】 .
This recipe is helpful in the upcoming Holiday-season when there are many parties such as Thanksgiving.
The dish is a gluten-free vegan. In addition, I don’t use pungent vegetables.
When it comes to vegan fried chicken, it is often made from soy meat in Japan.
However, it definitely smells like soy meat.
Many people don’t like the smell, and many people avoid it because it is a highly processed product, so I made fried chicken with tofu.
The point is “freeze twice.”
There are three good things about freezing twice.
１，The first is that the tofu releases an unpleasant smell and does not need to be boiled.
Traditionally, we pre-boil tofu if we want to remove unpleasant smell from tofu.
You don’t have to do this if you freeze twice.
２，The second is that it has a unique texture.
Freezing and defrosting make Tofu a spongy texture.
３，The third is that the taste of the sauce is well seasoned.
It’s delicious as it is, but it’s also delicious to put or be tossed with the chili sauce.
I will show you how to make chili sauce with Tofu Karaage.
The recipe is listed at the bottom. You can also print it out.
Please see my You Tube video for more details.
Tofu Karaage （Japanese Tofu fritters）
Equipment
- Frying pan
- Deep-fried oil pan
- bowl
- Stasher
- Tray
Ingredients
- 400 g Firm tofu
- 2 tbsp Soy souse
- 4 tbsp Mirin
- 2 tsp Shio Koji
- 1 tsp Ginger
- 0.5 tsp Yellow Miso
- 1 tsp Kombu powder （if you have）
- 3 tbsp Potato starch
- Vegetable oil for frying As appropriate
Instructions
- Freeze the firm tofu in the pack for 24 hours or more.
- Take out the tofu pack at room temperature and defrostit completely.
- Take out the defrosted tofu from the pack. Slice ithorizontally into two pieces.
- Put it in the stasher and deflate it as much aspossible to close it.You can put it in a container with a lid andfreeze it.
- Freeze again for 24 hours or more.
- Defrost at room temperature.After that, cut one piece into 6pieces and you have 12 pieces of tofu. Squeeze out the excess moisture.At this time, it is easy to collapse, socarefully push out the water with both hands.
- Mix the sauce.Add powdered komb to make it moredelicious.
- Soak the squeezed tofu in the sauce for 1 or 2minutes. Lightly squeeze it by hand, squeezeit a little, and place it on the tray.
- Gently dust with potato starch to thetofu one by one. Shake off lightly to remove excesspowder.
- Leave at room temperature for about 5minutes.Then, the potato starch absorbs themoisture of the tofu and becomes moist.
- It's done.
- 【Chili sauce recipes are listed separately.】
Shio Koji Chili Sause
Equipment
- bowl
- Pan
- spatula
Ingredients
- 60 ml Water
- 2 tbsp Apple cider vinegar
- 2 tbsp Coconut sugar or sugar
- 0.5 tbsp Kudzu powder or potato starch
- 1 tsp Shio Koji
- A pinch Coarse ground chili pepper a little
Instructions
- Add water to kudzu powder and dissolve well.When using potato starch, dissolve it in1 tablespoon of water in advance and add it at the very end to thickenit.
- Transfer to a pan, add apple cider vinegar,sugar, and salted koji, and heat on medium low heat until thickened.
- When it becomes thick and the liquidbecomes transparent, add pepper as you like.
- It's done. The amount can be used up at one time, butif you find it, put it in a clean bottle and store it in the refrigerator.