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Category Archives: Fried


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Pan-Fried Tofu with Delicious Sweet-Savory Dashi Sauce (Vegan/Vegetarian/Gluten-free)

Today I introduce you to “Pan-Fried Tofu with Delicious Sweet Savory Dashi Sauce”. This dish is typical Japanese homemade dish which is called “Agedashi Tofu” in Japanese.
*When you use my homemade kelp dashi stock, this dish is going to be vegan dish. And if you want it to be gluten free, please use gluten free soy sauce.

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*My Kelp Dashi recipe is here: Kelp Dashi stock

*You can buy vegetarian kelp dashi powder on Amazon:  Kombu Dashi Powder with No MSG (Vegetarian Soup Stock) 

In regular recipe for this dish, tofu is deep-fried but sometimes I feel deep-frying is a little bit too much work so in my recipe I cook tofu in a pan using only 2 Tbsp. of oil. It is easy, healthy and delicious, and also it still has great crunchy texture!

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The recipe outline:

  • Drain tofu in the microwave.
  • Coat the tofu with corn starch and cook in the pan.
  • Cook the sauce and drizzle the tofu with it.

 

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Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: Pan-Fried Tofu with Dashi Sauce

Ingredients (Servings 2)
*Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*

½ pack (7 oz.) Firm Tofu

1 cups Dashi Stock (any kind)

1 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

1 Tbsp. Soy Sauce

1 Tbsp. Mirin (Sweet Cooking Rice Wine)

3 Tbsp. Corn Starch

2 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil

Some chopped Green Onion to taste

Graded Ginger to taste

Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: Pan-Fried Tofu with Dashi Sauce

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Vegetarian Spring Rolls

Today I introduce you to Homemade Vegetarian Spring Rolls. The ingredients are tofu, carrot, mushroom and some seasoning.

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Sometimes we feel frying is too much work but these spring rolls are out of this world! It is worth the little bit of extra effort. The spring rolls have a nice crunchy wrap and smooth and flavorful filling. They are irresistible! Plus, I use a plastic bag to mix the filling so that makes cleanup easier. 

On the PDF recipe, I explain how to wrap the filling step by step. It is not difficult. You should already be used to it when you roll a second spring roll. If you have children, it may be fun to roll the spring rolls up with them. I used to do that when I was little.

Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: Vegetarian Spring Rolls

The recipe is

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Process drained tofu in a food processor. Put all ingredients in a plastic zipper bag and mix well. On a wrapper, squeeze the filling out directly from the plastic bag and roll up. (To store, before frying put them in a plastic zipper bag carefully and keep in the freezer.) Fry until it is nice golden brown.

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Ingredients (20 spring rolls)
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20 Spring Roll Wraps

1 pack Tofu

4 Mushrooms

3 Cabbage Leaves

1 Carrot

1 tsp. Grated Ginger

1 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Soy Sauce

1 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

1 Egg

1 Tbsp. Flour plus 1 Tbsp. Water for slurry

Vegetable Oil for frying

Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: Vegetarian Spring Rolls


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Yummy & Fluffy Fried Tofu (Vegetarian / Gluten-free)

Today I introduce you to “Fried Tofu” which is called “Gan-Modoki” in Japanese.

I am sure this is going to be your new healthy delicious tofu dish!! During the cooking preparation I process the tofu, so it has a very soft and silken texture. The seasonings are soy sauce, ginger and salt so it is incredibly flavorful. Therefore, this tofu dish even makes people who don’t like tofu very much enjoy it because they don’t think it is made from tofu!

The recipe is:

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Drain tofu, smooth the tofu with a food processor, mix with vegetables and seasonings, and fry.

*Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: Yummy & Fluffy Fried Tofu

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You can enjoy the fresh and hot fried tofu itself. Also it is great to simmer it in chicken soup with some vegetables!

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To store, place the fried tofu in a plastic bag and keep in the freezer.

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Please do not drain the used oil in the sink. Put some kitchen papers in a can or a jar which you don’t need and pour the cooled used oil in. Throw it out as regular garbage.

Ingredients (12 balls)
*Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*

1 pack (14 oz.) Extra Firm Tofu

1 small Carrot

4 Mushrooms (any kind)

1 tsp. Grated Ginger

1 tsp. Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)

1 tsp. Salt

1 Egg

1 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

2 Tbsp. Corn Starch

Vegetable Oil for frying

*Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: Yummy & Fluffy Fried Tofu


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Homemade Spring Roll

Spring rolls are a kind of Dim sum, which is Chinese food. As you know, spring rolls are served as appetizers at Chinese restaurants, but in Japanese homemade dishes they are actually a main dish.

Unfortunately, I can’t find spring roll wrappers near my house so I made from scratch with flour and water. Please remember Spring Roll wrappers are not egg roll wrappers (actually egg rolls are not popular in Japan), or rice paper, which is a Vietnamese style roll. Forunately, cooking spring roll wrappers is easy, but if you find spring roll wrappers at the store, it is definitely a time saver.

I used chicken, green cabbage, eggplant and mushroom for the filling. You can use anything you want, such as carrot, asparagus, leaves, potato, tofu, cheese, rice noodle, beef, pork, fish, shellfish and so on. Therefore, I can choose healthy ingredients as much as I want to.

You can make your own original spring rolls!!

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{Ingredients (about 15 rolls)}

[Filling]

½ lb. Ground Chicken

½ American Eggplant

¼ Green Cabbage

4 oz. Baby Bella Mushroom (any kind is okay)

4 Tbsp. Soy Sauce

2 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

1 Tbsp. Rice Vinegar

1 Tbsp. Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine

¼ tsp. Salt

[Wrapper]

1 ½ cups plus 1 separate tsp. Flour

4 ½ cups plus 3 separate tsp. Water

1 tsp. Pure Sesame Oil

Here is my recipe in PDF (7 MB): Homemade Spring Roll


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Agedashi-Tofu (Vegan/Vegetarian)

Agedashi-Tofu, which is a typical Japanese homemade dish, is fried tofu with Dashi sauce.

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Tofu is an important ingredient in Buddhist cuisine. Japanese think this is a macribian food because tofu is high in great-quality-protein. Tofu is made from only soybean. The soybean is called “Meat of a field” because it is rich in nutrients, which are linoleum acid, lecithin, isoflavone, saonin, trypsin inhibitor and so on. And also tofu is low calorie and high in water so it is good as a diet food.

Let’s try  to eat 1/4 pack of tofu every day!

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

1 pack (14 oz.) Firm Tofu

1 ½ cups Kelp Dashi Stock
(Recommended Dried Kelp for Dashi stock) Dashi Dried Kelp

2 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

4 Tbsp. Soy Sauce

2 Tbsp. Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine

½ cup Flour

Vegetable oil for frying

Here is my recipe in PDF (5 MB): Agedashi-Tofu

“Kelp Dashi stock” recipe in PDF (5 MB): Kelp Dashi stock


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Potato Galette (Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)

Potato is high in vitamin C. It has about the same amount of vitamin C as spinach or orange. In addition the vitamin C in potato is resistant to heat so we can absorb the vitamin C easily from potato dishes. A raw potato’s calorie count is about the same as pumpkin and lower than sweet potato.

This potato galette recipe is very quick, easy and delicious! My mother always cooked it for a snack. It is also good to bring to potluck parties because the ingredients are just potato and cheese. There is no egg and no flour.

{Ingredients (Serves 2)}

4 Potatoes

¼ teaspoon Salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

4 tablespoons shredded Mexican Cheese (4 cheese mix)

4 tablespoons grated Parmesan Cheese

½ cup vegetable oil

Here is my recipe in PDF: Galette


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Fried Eggplant with Chicken and Miso (Gluten-Free)

Today, I introduce you to fried eggplant. This dish is my mother’s original recipe. She used Miso paste and ginger so it is very nutritious and delicious.

Eggplant is low calorie and has polyphenol, which works as an antioxident.

Miso is a fermented food. Recently, there have been some studies suggesting that fermented foods can improve our immunity. Japanese, who live longer than people from any other country, eat a lot of fermented foods, such as Umeboshi (pickled plum), soy sauce, Miso paste, Katsuobushi (dried bonito) and Natto.

Ginger is also very nutritious and healthy. Ginger helps  our blood flow, helps speed up our metabolism, and blocks the oxidation process inside our body.

This dish has the great flavor of ginger and juicy chicken and it doesn’t have a strong taste of Miso paste, so I am sure everybody can enjoy it!

{Ingredients (for 2 people)}
*Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*

・½ Eggplant

・0.5 lb Ground Chicken

・1 teaspoon grated ginger

・1/4 cup vegetable oil

・4 teaspoons ORGANIC Miso Paste

・2 teaspoons Sugar

・2 teaspoons Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine

・4 teaspoons Cooking Sake

Here is my recipe in PDF: Fried Eggplant with Miso