Almost Agedashi Tofu

Almost Agedashi Tofu

I wanted to make a small tofu dish for Teacher Appreciation as the School Principal likes tofu. And this tofu I had to drive to Reggio Emilia for as the shop in Modena didn't carry any when I was last there. As I had found silken ones, I thought that it would be appropriate to make a simple Agedashi Tofu with them and I call it Almost Agedashi because I didn't have bonito flakes and grated daikon and do not like to use them anyway.

This is a dish that is best eaten immediately (or put together at the last minute) or the crispy exterior of the tofu would become soggy immersed too long in the sauce. Still it is a lovely dish and one of my favourite ways to eat silken tofu.

Almost Agedashi Tofu :

2 tubes of Silken Tofu (for steaming or frying)

Cornstarch for dusting

150ml Dashi or Ikan Bilis Stock

2 Tbsp Japanese light Soy Sauce

2 Tsp Sugar

3 Tbsp Mirin (or 3 Tbsp Sake + 1 Tsp Sugar)

1/2 Tsp grated Ginger

A few drops of Sesame Oil

Spring Onions and Fried Onions for garnishing

Heat oil for deep frying. Coat the tofu (sliced into 2-3 cm thick pieces) in the cornstarch and fry the pieces till golden brown taking care not to have them touch each other. You can have smoothly-coated tofu or lumpily-coated tofu depending on how you dust your tofu and it's a matter of how you like your tofu to turn out after frying. Drain on a kitchen towel and set aside.

The tentsuyu sauce is what you would use for dipping tempura in and you can make it by combining dashi, mirin and shoyu the way you like it. Melt the sugar in the hot dashi stock and add the soy sauce, mirin and grated ginger. Add a few drops of sesame oil if you so wish. You can have the sauce hot, warm, cool or cold as you wish.

Just before serving, pour some of the sauce into a bowl and add a few fried tofu pieces in it. Garnish with spring onions and fried onions or with grated daikon and bonito flakes.