by : Reiko Japanese Food, Rice/Grains, Tofu

Crispy Tofu Temaki Sushi for One
かりかり豆腐で、おひとり様手巻き寿司

It’s been really cold the past few days.

Yesterday it was only 5 F degrees and snowed all day.

So, I stayed home.

Luckily, I had enough food plus some fun ingredients to try.

A friend of mine was recently back in Japan, and she brought some fun gift for me.

I’ve never seen this mini bag of rice.

It’s so cute!

I wanted to try, and I decided to cook it for lunch.

The “Shiso” and Yuzu are from the Kaiseki chef.

He is always so generous and kindly shares Japanese foods that are hard to come by here with me.

The Yuzu zest was added to make pickled radish.

The Yuzu has such a refreshing flavor and takes the pickles to the next level.

It was a one-person lunch yesterday, so this is all I prepared for myself.

Well, that’s pretty much everything I happened to have at hand.

Inside the roll you’ll find Shiso, Yuzu radish pickles, air-fryer crispy tofu, and mashed avocado.

These were super tasty!

Since you don’t have to tightly roll or slice (if you make regular rolls), “temaki” is so easy.

This way you can enjoy the roasted seaweed still crispy this way too because you roll it when you’re ready to eat.

I had a dish of soy sauce ready for dipping, but I didn’t have to use it.

They were delicious without any extra sauce.

By the way, it’s cold again today.

It’s only -7 F degrees onw.

I’m staying at home.

By the way, this is what I’m reading right now.

I liked another book (The Pillars of the Earth) written by this author, so that’s why I decided to try this one.

So far so good.

I have a long way to go.

But time is what I have right now : ) .

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by : Reiko Sandwiches, Tofu

Breakfast Open Panini Sandwich
ブレックファストパニーニオープンサンドイッチ

A lot of times what I cook heavily depends on what produce I have to use up.

For this one I had several ripe grape tomatoes in the fridge.

First, I decided to panini-press sandwich bread slices.

I thought it would be fun to have them really crispy.

This is homemade vegan white cheese.

Scrambled turmeric tofu.

It was finished with garlic and tomato cooked in extra virgin olive oil and fresh arugula.

Simple.

But super tasty!

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by : Reiko Breakfast, Tofu

Plant-Based Turkey Egg & Cheese Crescent Rolls
全部植物性、ハム卵チーズクレセントロール

I got the idea from Ms. Diane.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci5GygtO9Jq/

It looked so good, and I had to create this plant-based!

This turkey deli-style slices are my favorite.

The ingredients are pretty good, and I love how they taste.

So I thought this would be perfect for this.

These are so easy and so fast to make!

I love how beautifully golden brown they turned out.

We enjoyed it for lunch, and we absolutely loved it!

I will definitely make it again.

This will be great for non-vegan guests too.

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by : Reiko Japanese Food, Leaf Vegetables, Rice/Grains, Soup/Stew, Tofu

Nabe Hot Pot – Miso
味噌豆乳鍋

Nabe, hot pot, is the ultimate winter comfort food in Japan.

You can add pretty much anything, from meat, fish, seafood, to vegetables.

But these you see here are some of my favorites.

It’s sold as “Tongo” at the local Asian grocery store, but we call it “shungiku”.

It’s one of my favorite things to add to Nabe.

It has a fresh mustard-like flavor, and I absolutely love it.

I’m not a chef, but I do enjoy making these 3-D carrot flowers.

I found them at the Asian grocery store too.

They were not only adorable but also delicious.

We’ve recently started adding fish back into our diet.

It probably consists of 5 % of what we eat.

We really enjoyed this meal.

It’s nice to sit at the dining table and share a meal like this, which Nabe requires you to do.

At the end, you add some kind of carbs, rice, noodles, which is almost obligatory.

The soup is delicious, and the rice (or noodles) soak it up.

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by : Reiko Japanese Food, Koji, Mushrooms, Tofu

Onion Koji Porridge with Tofu Steak and Spicy Enoki Mushrooms
玉ねぎ麹粥、豆腐ステーキと無限ピリ辛えのきのせ

This was a comfort food for me.

I love Enoki mushrooms, and this marinated Enoki turned out great.

The only negative thing is that my husband won’t eat Enoki because he says he does not like the texture.

So unfortunately or fortunately, they were all mine.

This was a little spicy, a little sweet, and super tasty.

This easy porridge was made with rice, water, dried Kombu, and onion Koji.

The onion Koji quickly adds a wonderful umami flavor.

The tofu steak was added for a little protein and the firm texture.

Doesn’t this look great?

The meal was completed with napa cabbage soup, pickled beets, braised Kabocha, and a cup of hot green tea.

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by : Reiko Air Fryer, Tofu

Air Fryer Freeze-Dried Tofu
エアフライヤー・高野豆腐揚げ

Freeze-dried tofu, known as “Koya-Tofu” is great to add a big flavor to.

Usually, you have to remove excess water from tofu before doing so, but Koya-Tofu is already ready to absorb whatever marinade you have.

This is the only brand for Koya-tofu I see in the U.S.

The marinaded koya-tofu was quickly dipped in thick batter and cooked in the air-fryer.

This was really good as it was.

But…

I made this super tasty sauce, made of grated radish, minced garlic, salted Koji, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar (I think that was it).

I’m not a beer drinker, but I’m pretty sure it goes well with cold beer!

We have Asahi beer in the fridge.

It’s my husband’s favorite.

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by : Reiko Koji, Tofu, Vegan Cheese

Salted Koji Tofu Cheese
塩麹とうふチーズ

I just recently made salted koji ↓.

https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/2022/09/27/

And I’m loving it.

One of the things I was interested in using my salted Koji for was “tofu cheese”.

I saw other people making it, and I needed to try it myself.

It’s super easy to prepare.

You remove excess water from tofu.

Cover the tofu with salted Koji.

Let it rest in a refrigerator for several days (I waited for 7 days).

And the tofu tastes like cheese!

That’s what it looked like after 7 days.

You can’t really see any difference, but you can tell that the texture is a bit different, smoother and denser.

I removed the Koji.

I can’t say it tastes like cheese, but it definitely developed the cheese-like Umami and creaminess.

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by : Reiko Japanese Food, Tofu

Yodare Tofu Rice Bowl
よだれ豆腐丼

“Yodare” dish is usually made with chicken, not tofu.

But I thought the “Yodare” sauce would go well with tofu, too, and I was right.

“Yodare” means “drool” in Japanese.

Yodare Chicken got the name because it is so tasty that it makes you drool.

For this dish soft tofu works the best.

The sauce is typically made of minced garlic, minced ginger, finely chopped scallion, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, tobanjan chili bean paste, and sesame oil.

It was tasty already, but I decided to add tomato for freshness and color.

Did I drool?

Well, you don’t need to know that (lol), but I will tell you that it was delicious!

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by : Reiko Koji, Soup/Stew, Tofu

Umami Soup
旨味たっぷり白菜とろみスープ

When the temperature dips from 90F degrees to 60F degrees in just one day, I know it’s time to make a big pot of soup.

Napa cabbage is one of my favorite ingredients for my autumn/winter soup.

I wanted to keep this soup tasty, but I didn’t want to add too much stuff to overpower the natural flavor of each vegetable.

Here is the secret ingredient, although I am going to tell you what it is, so it’s not that secret.

This is something I started about two weeks ago.

It’s a mixture of Koji, grated onions, and salt, and it was slowly fermented over the period of two weeks.

Koji is a naturally occurring culture that is used to make various things, such as sake, miso, and soy sauce.

When it is fermented, it becomes an umami powerhouse.

A few spoons of my newly created onion koji really worked well in this soup.

This soup is packed with veggies, tofu, and noodles.

It’s warm and comforting.

Exactly what I wanted.

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by : Reiko Japanese Food, Soup/Stew, Tofu

Vegan Katsu Curry
ヴィーガンカツカレー

Since I bought the air fryer, I cannot stop thinking about what to make with it.

What fried food I liked but avoided making because I didn’t want to use too much oil?

Well one of those foods was “katu”, panko-crusted deep fried meat.

This time I used Koya Tofu ↑ for meat .

Koya tofu is basically freeze-dried tofu, and its texture works great for “katsu.”

With the air fryer…

The katsu turned out great.

Since I got my air fryer was out, I went ahead and fried Enoki mushrooms too.

I lightly dusted them with flour first, sprayed oil, and voila!

The Katsu Curry was served with cheesy corn cream.

The sweet corn balanced the spicy curry well.

That’s a lot of fried food in one bowl.

Can you tell how much I like my air fryer?

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