Tofu Hambaagu

A few years ago, during the New Year Holiday, my mother-in-law gave me a cookbook. I'm not entirely sure why, maybe because she didn't need it? Anyway, there are a lot of dishes in it, mainly Japanese, and I've made quite a few tasty things from it, namely the tofu hambaagu.

In Japan, the 'hambaagu' is basically a Salisbury steak. When I first came to Japan, I couldn't stand all the sauces on the meat here (especially steak, what is up with that??) and even now I try to avoid it as much as possible, whenever I order hambaagu in a restaurant. In our house, we usually use ketchup to flavor our tofu hambaagu, though this recipe gives a recipe for a sauce (mix 4 tablespoons of ketchup with 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce).

If you don't like tofu, don't worry. This recipe has meat in it (sorry vegetarians) which really tones down the tofu flavor.

Tofu hambaagu

1 block momen (firm) tofu
200 grams ground meat (I use chicken because it turns white when cooked)
1/2 onion
1-2 Tbsp. oil
1 egg
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs (I have used uncooked oatmeal occasionally)
1/2 tsp. salt & 1/4 tsp. pepper

Drain tofu by wrapping it in a towel and putting something heavy on top; let it drain for twenty minutes (like in champuru). Mince the onion, then saute it in the oil until it is soft. Allow the onion to cool. In a large bowl, mix the drained tofu, cooked onion, ground meat, egg, panko, salt and pepper. Mold into patties (I usually make four good-sized patties, then make the rest into small ones for bentos.) Heat oil in a frying pan and fry hambaagu, lightly browning on each side, over med-high heat. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until cooked through, about 15-20 minutes. Remove cover, increase heat and cook off water. Serve with ketchup or hambaagu sauce.

Hijiki

Here is another recipe from Japanese Home Style Cooking. I really like this book a lot and can't recommend it enough! This is a fairly simple dish that is used as a side (simmered dish) in Japanese meals, usually served at room temperature. There is a lot of preparation needed for this dish, so keep that in mind before preparing. However, it keeps well for several days in the refrigerator, and can be used in bentos.

10g dried hijiki (edible brown algae)
2 dried shiitake mushrooms
30g carrot
50g gobo (burdock)
1 block firm tofu (momendofu)
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

(Simmering stock)
1/2 cup dashi stock
3 Tbsp. sake
2/3 Tbsp. sugar
2 1/2 Tbsp. soy sauce
dash salt

Preparation:

Break and wash hijiki briefly. Soak in ample water for about twenty minutes. Carefully scoop out the hijiki with your hands and put it in a colander, taking care not to pick up any sand. Drain. (Soaked hijiki weighs eight times heavier than dried hijiki.)

Drain tofu by wrapping in a towel and putting something heavy on top (a medium-sized plate will do); let sit for at least 30 minutes.

Cut carrot into 3cm long sticks.

Soak shiitake in water until soft. Trim off the stems, then cut into thin stips.

Cut gobo (burdock) with shaving cuts (sasagaki: make shallow cuts lengthwise along the root. Place horizontally on the cutting board and shave, rolling as if sharpening a pencil. Instructions included in cookbook.) Soak cut gobo in vinegared water until the water turns brown. Wash in water and then allow it to drain.

Method:

Heat oil in a medium-sized pan. Stir-fry gobo, carrot and shiitake mushrooms until all are covered in oil. Add hijiki and fry together. Crush the tofu roughly with hands. Mix in with a wooden spoon and stir-fry until coated well with the oil. Add the dashi stock and seasonings and lower the heat to medium-high. Continue cooking until the liquid is almost gone, stirring occasionally. Slant the pan and cook until the liquid is completely absorbed. Transfer to a flat container and spread to cool. Serve in bowls. (I now have a IH cooker and the slant thing doesn't work well for me. I just cook until the liquid is absorbed, stirring frequently when it has reduced a lot.)

This is an 'all seasons' dish, and I find it compliments almost any Japanese meal.

Sukiyaki

I have been told many times that sukiyaki is very popular among foreigners. But, to be honest, I didn't really like it the first time I had it. I am a very picky eater, and sugar on beef was waaaay out of my comfort zone. I ate it, but I didn't think I'd repeat the experience.

Of course, there are many different ways to prepare anything. Sukiyaki is no different. The version I will be sharing here is 'Western style' which means the sauce is added as individual ingredients. The ratio is 1:1:1, so try that the first time you make it. Also, it is possible to buy already prepared sauce, my in-laws used some last time we stayed with them. This is a cook as you eat dish, so don't add all ingredients at once (unless you're preparing it on a stove to serve at one sitting.)

Here is a picture of my mother-in-law's table (kotatsu) with a lovely sukiyaki pan.



Sukiyaki

250 - 400 grams thinly sliced beef (less fat is probably better, though the expensive 'marbled' beef is best)
2 negi (Japanese leek)
1/4 Chinese cabbage
1 block yaki-dofu (fried tofu, though regular firm tofu works well, too.)
1 package konyaku noodles
1 package shimeji mushrooms
2 or 3 bunches of edible chrysanthemum (shungiku) leaves

1 Tbsp oil

3 Tbsp sake
3 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp soy sauce

raw egg (optional; one for each diner)

Diagonally cut negi into 2.5 inch pieces. Chop Chinese cabbage into bite-sized pieces and divide between the thicker white pieces and green leaves. Drain tofu, then cut into blocks. Boil konyaku noodles for five minutes, then drain and let cool. Cut the bottom off of mushrooms then pull into pieces of two or three mushrooms each. Trim bottoms off of shungiku, then cut into 2 inch lengths.

Heat oil in pan (you can use a regular frying pan if you don't have a sukiyaki pan.) Fry a few pieces of onion, to add flavor. Put in about 100 grams of meat and cook until almost brown. Put sugar on the beef, then add sake and soy sauce (it is better to add sake before soy sauce, so the soy sauce doesn't burn). Stir to mix sauce. Add white sections of Chinese cabbage, and more onions. Add noodles, tofu and mushrooms. Allow it to cook for a while, then add green sections of Chinese cabbage and shungiku. You may cover it to heat through, when the greens start to wither then it is ready to start digging in. Beat one egg in a small bowl, then take what you want from the pot, dip it in the egg and enjoy. Add more ingredients as needed. If the sauce seems to be decreasing, add sake.

Options:

*Mix the sauce before hand and add after frying meat.
*boneless chicken thighs
*shitake mushrooms
*leave out Chinese cabbage


In our house, we add less sugar and soy sauce than sake, to keep the sauce from becoming either too sweet or too salty. Feel free to experiment each time you make this dish.

Okara

OK, on to something Japanese. I have recently stated that I hate Japanese food, but that's not entirely true. I actually love okara, well, okara prepared as unohana. I first tried this at our favorite restaurant in Shimane-ken (a fish restaurant, if you can believe that!) and have since tried making it at home. It's pretty easy to make, though I did have a little help from my friends!



Okara is a tofu by-product. You can read about it here on wikipedia. It says there that the recipe that I am about to share is called 'unohana', though I haven't (yet) heard anyone call it that. We just call it okara.

This is yet another one of those recipes that you can put anything you want in it. At the restaurant I mentioned above, they put squid in it. I know, I hate squid! But, I can't really tell it's in there. I usually put gobo (burdock root), dried shitake, carrot and naganegi in mine, and if I remember, I will also put in some konyaku.

Okara is also great because if you are lucky, you can get it for free! One of the supermarkets in my city has a tofu maker inside, and they just have a big barrel of okara for free. It's self-serve, and I often see people taking a LOT, maybe they take it home and freeze it. The recipe I'm sharing today doesn't take a lot, maybe 200 grams. Here is a picture of some okara that I bought.



So, the recipe. My mother-in-law gave me a recipe book one year at oshogatsu (New Year), so I am translating this into English, but I'm going to keep the metric measurements.

Okara

150 grams okara
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/3 carrot
4 kikurage
1 negi (Japanese long onion)
1 egg, beaten
1 Tbsp. sesame oil

2 cups dashi
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. vinegar

First, you need to dry out the okara, so sautee 150 grams okara in 1 Tbsp. olive oil in a frying pan. Don't burn it. Julienne the carrot, soak the kikurage (a kind of Chinese ingredient, you can find this in the dried section of your supermarket--in Japan--usually near dried wakame and konbu) and then slice thinly into strips. Cut the negi into small pieces, either in disks or long thing strips. (If you want to use gobo, like I do, feel free to use prepared gobo, usually found in bags of water, near the vegetable section in the grocery store. If you use fresh, remember not to peel it, just scrub it well, julienne it to the same length as the carrot, and soak in vinegared water. Either way, rinse and drain it well before cooking.)

In a large pot, heat the sesame oil, then add the vegetables. When they are covered in oil, add the prepared okara. Mix well. Add the dashi, soy sauce, sugar and vinegar. Simmer over medium heat for about 10 to 15 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed. Add the beaten egg and stir quickly. When the egg is thoroughly cooked, turn off the heat.