Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Tofu Tonkatsu

Tonkatsu, a fried pork cutlet, is a very popular dish in Japan. Imagine my surprise when I opened up The Asian Vegan Kitchen by Hema Parekh and saw its fatty fried vegan twin staring back at me! You use freeze dried tofu (called "koyadofu") which gives it a nice texture when rehydrated. It even passed omni-monkey's taste test. It's a little work, but SO worth it!



This is the exact recipe from The Asian Vegan Kitchen and you NEED to go buy this AWESOME book RIGHT NOW!!

"8 cakes koyadofu, about 6 ounces (170g) in total
All-purpose flour for dusting
1 C (125g) all-purpose flour
1/2 C (120 ml) water
1 C (100g) breadcrumbs (panko)
Vegetable oil for deep frying
Shredded white cabbage, for garnish
Lemon wedges, for garnish
Tonkatsu sauce

SIMMERING SAUCE:
2 C (480 ml) dashi stock
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon mirin
1/2 inch (1 cm) cube fresh giner, peeled and grated
1/2 teaspoon grated garlic



I used 5 large blocks that was about 6oz/170g


1. Soak the koyadofu cakes in hot water for 10 minutes, then drain.



2. In a saucepan use a large pan!!, combine the simmering sauce ingredients and bring to a boil. Put in the drained koyadofu and simmer for 8-10 minutes over medium heat, until all the liquid is absorbed.



3. Dab the koyadofu in the dusting flour. Mix 1 cup flour and 1/2 cup of water to make a thick paste. Dip the floured koyadofu in the flour-and-water paste, then roll each cake int he bread crumbs. Set aside.

4. Heat the oil for deep-frying to 350F (180C). Slide the breaded tofu pieces into the oil in batches and deep-fry until crisp and golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper and serve hot with shredded cabbage, lemon wedges, and tonkatsu sauce."

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am TOTALLY going to try this! I've had a few good and many bad experiences with tofu, but this looks spicy. ;)

Viagra Online said...

Seems very easy to do, I like what you did here, this Tufu would be great with a little of pepper. You use freeze dried tofu (called "koyadofu") which gives it a nice texture when rehydrated.

Yasumasa Gondo said...

Thank you for the wonderful recipe. Here in the U.S., you can't get many Japanese vegan products. They have many different kinds of tofu but none are freeze dried. The Korean market in my neighborhood used to sell ready-made vegan donkatsu but it was extremely expensive and low in demand. Eventually they pulled it off. What do you suggest I use in place of freeze dried tofu?

Anonymous said...

For those who can't get koyadofu, you can use this recipe to make some at home with firm tofu: http://shizuokagourmet.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/koyadofupressed-tofu-recipe/

-Mar

Anonymous said...

Strictly speaking you should substitute Kombu Dashi for real fish based Dashi if you are Vegan. Just sayin, but nice recipe. K8O

Anonymous said...

Dashi is from fish and is an animal product. You cannot use this, substitute vegetable broth or Kombu - kelp broth.

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad I found your recipe! It's fantastic. I can't find koyadofu so I replaced it with fresh bean curd bought from the market and freeze it to "freeze-dry" my toufu.
It works great. The texture does resemble meat and it is super juicy. Just a dab strong in soya taste but with sauce ( I used our own vegan mayo and chilli-sauce), its great.
Thank you