In this video, I am showing how make 4 easy side dishes using Tofu: 1. Hiyayakko (cold Tofu) 2. Shiraae 3. Tofu Champloo (Champuru) 4. Agedashi-Tofu They are all vegetarian or vegan. Tofu is often known as a substitute for meat for vegetarian/vegans. But Tofu is much more than that; with quality Tofu, you can really enjoy the sweetness of the soy beans. These recipes are all quite popular in Japanese homes.
In my Channel, I show step by step of alternative but authentic Japanese home cooking, which can be made with the ingredients that are easily available outside of Japan.
00:00 Intro 01:55 Ingredients 02:44 Differences of Tofu (Silken Tofu and Pressed Tofu) 06:10 Preparing the ingredient 07:52 Making Shiraae 10:18 Making Tsuyu sauce for Agedashi-Tofu 11:07 Making Tofu-Champloo 13:03 Frying Tofu for Agedashi-Tofu 14:37 Eating 16:34 Ending 17:32 Recipe
Welcome to Taj's Kitchen.
Today I'm going to show you 4 side dishes using tofu.
So most of the Japanese food known as vegetarian or vegan, but tofu is one of those ingredients
that is strictly vegan.
Many people nowadays know about tofu, but many of the tofu you may see outside Japan,
like this in a package, are not really tofu.
And many people think tofu is really bland, has no taste to it.
But really actually good tofu, really quality tofu, are really flavorful.
You can really taste the juiciness of the soy beans.
You may think with tofu there's a very limited recipe for it, and you may think tofu is just
a substitute for meat.
But there are actually quite a lot of recipes using tofu, not as a substitute for meat,
but to enjoy tofu as it is.
There's even a recipe book which is called Tofu Hyakuchin, meaning 100 Recipes of Tofu,
which was published in the Edo era, over 200 years ago.
So today I'll be showing 4 side dishes that is quite common in Japan.
One is Hiyayako, which is just cut up tofu with some condiments, but it's the best way
to really enjoy the flavor of tofu.
And second is called Shira-ae, which is kind of like a Japanese salad.
And the third is Tofu Chankuru, this is actually more of a southern recipe from Okinawa region,
but nowadays people make it quite often.
We usually make this with pork meat, but I made a variation strictly vegetarian.
And the fourth is Agedashi Tofu, which is my favorite izakaya food.
So when I go to an izakaya, I almost always order this as a starter, especially for those
vegetarians and vegans out there.
I hope this video gives you some new ideas for Japanese cooking.
Then, let's get started.
Here are the ingredients for 4 types of side dishes using tofu.
So today I have 2 types of tofu, I have silk tofu, and pressed tofu.
The difference I'm going to explain to you later, but you can make any of the 4 side
dishes using either of the tofu.
It's primarily a personal preference thing.
For Hiyayako I have a piece of ginger, scallion.
For Shirae, I have spinach, carrot, and shimeji mushroom.
Whatever type of mushroom you have is fine.
And for the sauce, soy sauce, sugar, and also I have tahini.
If you don't have tahini, you can also just use the regular sesame seed as well.
And then for Agedashi Tofu, I have starch, and for the sauce or the tsuyu, I have dashi
powder, sugar, and soy sauce.
And lastly for the Tofu Chankuru, I'm going to use the other half of the carrot, bean
sprouts, an egg, salt and pepper, and the green part of the scallion.
So before we go into the cooking, I'm going to explain to you the different types of tofu.
So in Japan there are primarily 2 types of tofu.
One is silk tofu, or in Japanese called Kinugoshi Tofu.
And the other is called pressed tofu, or in Japanese Momen Tofu, which means cotton tofu.
The ingredients are exactly the same, but the pressed tofu or the Momen Tofu has a couple
more extra steps.
For those of you who may not know, tofu are made from soybeans, soy milk is first made
from them, and then those are hardened using so-called nigari, which is a special type
of sea salt.
If you just mix it up and let it sit, and then you have a silk tofu.
These are softer, these are jigglier, that's why they're called silken tofu, because it's
so smooth like silk.
And then these silk tofu are broken up into parts, and then pressed again.
These are made through pressing the silk tofu, so that's why these are called pressed tofu.
I often use cotton cloth, it's called Momen Tofu or cotton tofu.
Which tofu you want to use for different types of recipes, it's really a personal preference
thing.
I personally like silk tofu better, because it has this smooth texture and the flavor
is finer.
But my father, for example, prefers this pressed tofu, probably because it has more strong
flavor.
Because pressed tofu is nothing other than the silk tofu condensed.
Today I'm going to show you four recipes, two probably better to use silk tofu, and
the other two better to use pressed tofu.
But whatever you can find or whatever you prefer is just fine.
And if you can buy really authentic tofu, sometimes they're sold just floating in water.
Those are probably better quality.
But if you have a tofu looking like this, or like in a package like this, I would not
call them tofu.
For me these are not tofu, they're quite very hard.
Authentic tofu should be floating in water, just like this.
So try to find good tofu in your region.
And so if you like tofu, and if you have a chance to go to Japan, go to a local supermarket
and find really quality tofu there.
So then let's prepare these tofu.
So these tofu are floating in water like this, so we're going to get rid of this water first.
And we're going to take it out.
For today's recipe I'm not going to use the whole thing, probably just need half of this.
And the other half, cut it in half like this.
Today for piyayako I'm going to use this fourth block, and for shirai I'm going to use the
other fourth.
So if you have a little bit left over tofu like this, you don't want to save it just
in a package like this.
Because tofu goes bad pretty easily coming in contact with air.
So what you want to do is, you want to put it in some kind of container like this, and
then you want to fill it with water.
The whole surface should be always soaked in water like this.
And then store it like this in the fridge for 2-3 days and no more, because tofu doesn't
hold that long once it's open.
So you definitely want to use this in the next couple days.
And also with the pressed tofu, if you hold them, you'll see that these are more dense
than these soaked tofu.
So with this, I'm going to cut it in half, I'm going to cut it into fourths like this.
And once you cut them, you'll feel that it's much more firm, but still quite jiggly like
this.
So for today's recipe of agedashi tofu and tofu champuru, I'm going to need to kind of
get rid of the liquid as much as possible, and I'm going to use a small hand towel like
this.
I'm going to put the tofu over like this, and cover it like this.
And you want to leave it like this for half an hour or so, and let it kind of a little
bit dry out, so when you cook them, it won't be too watery.
Then we're going to leave it to the side like this, and now we're going to prepare the rest
of the ingredients.
So first the green onion, the top part I'm going to use it for the champuru, just like
this.
And then the rest I'm going to cut into small pieces for the condiments.
Next we're going to prepare the shimeji, well there's not really a preparation, so now I'm
going to need the whole thing today, just like a third or so.
I'm going to cut off the bottom part, and throw it away.
I'm going to prepare the carrots.
So today I'm going to use half for the shirai, and half for the champuru.
So for shirai I'm going to cut the carrot to so-called tanzaku giri, tanzaku are small
strips of paper where people used to write poems or haiku.
And so to do that I'm going to cut in half, and also cut in half like this, and then just
kind of cut into strips.
And the top part also for tanzaku giri, but a little bit bigger.
Then as the last thing we're going to grate the ginger.
So I'm not going to need the whole thing, I'm probably just going to need also half
of this.
And just peel off the skin.
I'm using a grater, I'm going to grate this.
So that's that.
Now we're finished preparing all the ingredients, let's cook.
So for hiyayakko this is pretty much finished.
I just need to put the condiments on it, a little ginger, and a little scallion over
it.
And I just need to pour soy sauce over it when I eat them.
And this is done for that.
Then let's make the tofu sauce for the shirai.
For this recipe it's better to use a soaked tofu, but of course you can make this with
pressed tofu, but the texture will be just not as smooth as with the soaked tofu.
So as the first thing I'm going to break up the tofu, just with your hand like this.
Then using a strainer like this, I'm going to make a paste out of this.
So just press through this strainer.
Then this one teaspoon of sugar, and one teaspoon of soy sauce, and two teaspoons of tahini.
When you're using a tahini make sure you mix them well before, and then you mix this up.
So once this is mixed well, this is finished for the sauce.
This may not look very pretty, but I'll guarantee you the taste, don't worry.
Then now let's boil the vegetable for the shirai.
So first I'm going to boil the cabbage because it's going to take a little bit longer.
Then we're going to wait like 30 seconds or so, and then right after I'm going to put
in the shimeji mushroom, or whatever mushroom you have.
Then we're going to wait for about a minute or so until this comes to a boil again.
And then once this comes to a boil, I'm going to put in the spinach, this doesn't need to
be cooked that long.
In spinach you definitely don't want to cook it too long, so just like this.
And this is finished, turn the heat off, and we're going to drain this.
If you keep it like this, this is going to be overcooked, so I'm going to try to put
it on top of a plate or whatever, and then we're going to separate it apart, and leave
it like this and let it cool.
Then once this has cooled down, I'm going to mix it with the tofu sauce.
If you just mix it like this, it'll be a bit too watery, so I'm going to try to squeeze
out the water as much as possible, especially the spinach, but also with the shimeji.
Then we just need to mix these two together.
Then once it's got mixed, this is finished, let's put it on a plate.
Then this is finished for the shirae.
Let's make tuyu for the agedashi tofu.
If you have a mentsuyu like this, of course you can use that, but today I'm going to make
it with scratch.
Well, not really, I'm going to be using this dashi powder, but preferably it'll be better
if you make your own dashi, which you can watch in the other video, how to make this.
Then in a small pot, I'm going to put in 4 teaspoons of water, half a teaspoon of sugar,
one teaspoon of soy sauce, and half a package of dashi powder, which is about 2.5 grams.
Then we're going to turn the heat to medium, and bring this to a boil.
Then once this has come to a boil, this is finished, I'm going to turn the heat off,
and then put this to the side and let it cool off, and then this is finished.
Now let's make the tofu champuru.
So this has been sitting for half an hour or so, the tofu has been dried up a little bit.
For this recipe, I'm going to use half of this.
Then with these, I'm going to make the champuru.
So with the egg, I'm going to beat it first, just very lightly, then let's cook this.
So using a frying pan, I'm going to turn the heat to medium and heat this up.
And once it's been heated, I'm going to put in some frying oil, just about 1 or 2 teaspoons.
Then here I'm going to first put in the tofu.
And here you can just kind of break it up like this, however you want it.
I'm going to first fry the tofu.
I'm going to kind of flip it around.
And once the tofu has been fried a little bit, I'm going to put in the carrots.
And then once also the carrot has been a little bit cooked, I'm going to put in the bean sprouts.
And last, we're going to put in part of the scallion.
Then we're going to put in here a bit of salt, just about a pinch, about 4 teaspoons or so.
And also a little bit of black pepper.
Then I'm going to put the eggs.
So I'm going to make a little space like here, and then put it here.
And then all mix it together.
And at the very end, I'm going to put in a little bit of soy sauce, just about a teaspoon or so.
Oh, this roasted flavor of soy sauce is so good.
Okay, this is finished.
I'm going to put it on a plate.
Then this is finished for the tofu champuru.
So as the last thing, we're going to make the agedashi tofu.
So we're going to use the rest of the tofu, and we're going to coat this with the starch.
Today I have a tapioca starch, but whatever starch you have is fine.
And then I'm just going to coat this both sides all around with the starch.
Okay, then this is finished.
Now we're going to fry this.
So in a pot, I'm going to put in some frying oil.
Then I'm going to turn the heat to medium and bring this to about 160 degrees or so.
So it has reached about 170 degrees.
Then we're going to fry this.
So I'll turn it around every now and then.
So once it's got a little bit crusty like this on the surface, then this is finished.
You don't really need to cook it that much because tofu are cooked already.
So then these are finished.
Then we're going to put it on a plate.
Then we're going to put some scallion.
Then we're going to put in the tsuyu sauce.
Then this is also finished for that.
Then this is all finished.
Let's eat.
Oh yeah, it looks so great.
Now let's eat.
Itadakimasu!
Okay, let's start with the agedashi tofu while it's still warm.
Itadakimasu!
This coating is partially crunchy, partially soft and gooey.
Really, really good.
Matches this sauce so good.
And then this champuru.
This combination of flavors is so good.
And then the shirae.
This combination of the tofu and the sesame paste is just so really great.
And the hiyayakko.
This is not complete unless you put in the soy sauce.
Just like that.
Itadakimasu!
A little bit of soy sauce and the spiciness of the ginger just
actually brings out the sweetness of the tofu.
It's just really great.
By the way, this agedashi tofu is also really great with some chili on them.
So I'm gonna put some chili.
Itadakimasu!
Oh, so good.
Oh, that was so delicious.
Gochisousamadeshita!
Oh, that was so delicious.
So as you saw, making these tofu dishes are not very difficult at all.
Each of them takes no more than like 20 minutes or so.
Especially hiyayakko, it takes no more than five minutes to make.
But for that, you need a quality tofu.
So I would suggest start looking for quality tofu.
And for the hiyayakko, this is more of a summer dish.
There's also a very similar variation of this for when it's cold in winter,
which is called yudofu, meaning warm water tofu.
Where you have, instead of cold tofu, where you warm up the tofu with water and pot.
Just like this.
And with hiyayakko or yudofu, you can put different kinds of vegetables on them.
You can put the natto, you can put kimchi on them.
You can be creative with what you put on top of it.
So I hope this video gave you some new ideas for your cooking.
Especially for the vegetarians out there.
I hope you enjoyed the video.
And if you did, I'd love it if you could hit the like button for me.
So this video can be spread out to more people.
And if you're interested in seeing more of these videos, please subscribe.
Otherwise, I look forward to seeing you in the next video.
Bye.
