Cooking class report...Last weekend's Tofu-making Class

Last Saturday, I hosted a Tofu-making and donabe tofu dishes class. The weather was just like summer, although it was already October. We could even have a nice 5-course tofu lunch in our outdoor patio with Junmai-ginjo sake from Fukui.

We didn't take many pictures, so I can't show you the dishes...but, we had a great time with the enthusiastic guests!

For upcoming class schedule, please check our website link here occasionally, or sign-up with our newsletter from the link.

Happy donabe life.

Recovery "shojin" style donabe bean stew, and homemade tofu

I ate a lot of BBQ dishes over the extended 4th-of-July weekend.

So, my body was screaming for light and delicious donabe dishes.

I made one of my regular "shojin" (Buddhist-style vegan) dishes, Soybean Gomoku-ni. (You can find the recipe here.)

To make this dish, I can't think of any better tool than my soup & stew donabe, "Miso-shiru Nabe". This donabe always makes wonderful stew/ braising dishes. To make the soybean stew, I basically just mix together the ingredients in the donabe and cook in the oven for 45-60 minutes.

This is one of my favorite comfort foods. So wonderful.

I also made tofu from scratch with my homemade tofu kit.

As soon as it was made, I just sliced a cube and ate with some condiments and plum salt.

My body was very happy.

Fresh donabe tofu and donabe "kama-age" udon

My regular lunch last week...

With donabe, I can make delicious and healthy lunch very easily and quickly. I made two dishes.

First dish was donabe fresh "sukui" tofu. This is basically the free-shape fresh warm tofu. I made it with the extra light-body all-purpose classic donabe, "Yu-series, Kizeto" (it's currently out-of-stock, but we should have the new shipping from Iga, Japan in a few weeks). I first heated 1 liter of the fresh soy milk (from Meiji Tofu) in the donabe. Before it was going to boil, I turned off the heat and added 2.5 teaspoon of nigari liquid. Then, it was covered and let it rest for 15-20 minutes. It was so soft, delicate, and delicious. Eating fresh warm tofu is such a luxury to me.

I also made "Kama-age" udon. I simply cooked the udon in the boiling water in the classic-style donabe, "Hakeme" (or any classic-style donabe would work), and served it right on the table with the dipping sauce and condiments.

So satisfying.

Happy donabe life.

Hand-shaved bonito with homemade tofu

I enjoy humble luxury of eating simple food made with cared ingredients and process.

This is my precious "Katsuobushi Kezuri-ki" (bonito shaver). It's a hand-made traditional artisan kind with the special blade. It's extremely sharp.

This is also my precious "Katsuobushi" (dry bonito). Dry bonito has different kinds and grades. This premium katsuobushi is called, "Hongare-bushi" (from Kagoshima, Japan), which was dusted with mold and aged for longer time (so that the mold takes away the moisture and concentrate the umami flavors inside of the bonito). Hongare-bushi is the hardest kind of dry bonito also, and in fact, it's the hardest "food" you can find in the world! Seriously, it's so hard that you can use it as a weapon. It looks like a piece of hard dry wood. And, of course, the flavor of this bonito is incredible. It's so deep and lingers in your palate. Regular bonito flakes would taste so bland once you experience Hongare-bushi.

I carefully shaved the bonito into flakes. Then, I topped my homemade tofu (made with the homemade tofu kit) with some scallion and bonito flakes, and drizzled some dashi-soy broth with grated ginger. The dish was sublime...as many Japanese people say often, I feel so lucky that I was born as Japanese so I can really appreciate a dish like this.

More Homemade Tofu

I can't stop making tofu! I just love the "art" of it, and of course the flavors of my own homemade tofu. It's really, really special.

From real tofu fans who have ordered Homemade Tofu Kit from us, I received several inquires about where to get the quality soybeans to make the best tofu. The kind I recommend is from Signature Soy. Their soybeans are organic and non GMO. The flavor is mildly nutty and very nice.

Once again, here's the process of tofu making at home.

10 oz soybeans (rinsed and soaked in 1,200 ml water overnight) were pureed with the soaking water in VitaMix until smooth.

Wooden tofu box and lid are soaked in cold water. Cotton bag is wet and wrung before use. Pureed soybeans are added to 1,300 ml boiling water. Any remaining puree in the VitaMix is rinsed with additional 200 ml water and drained to the boiling water, too.

After heating the mixture for 5-8 minutes (when the mixture smells like soymilk, rather than raw soybeans), the mixture is strained through the cotton bag and strainer into a large bowl. The remaining solid is "okara" (soy pulp), which is still filled with protein and vitamins, so I save it for cooking!

The strained liquid is the pure soymilk. It's transferred to a classic all-purpose donabe over medium+ heat. Once the soymilk is almost boiling, turn off the heat, and nigari solution (2.5 teaspoons of nigari liquid and 3 tablespoons hot water) is stirred in. Donabe is covered, and let rest for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, the soymilk is now curdled. To me, using donabe in this process is essential, because donabe distribute the heat gently, and also have the great heat retention after turning off the heat. So, the soymilk gets curdled evenly.

The curd is gently transferred to the wooden box with a perforated ladle. After transferring most of the curd, the remaining in the donabe is just the clear separated water.

With the weight, the soymilk curd is shaped into tofu. In 15 minutes, tofu is ready!

It's quite huge. I keep the fresh tofu in the cold water bath to keep the texture and freshness.

Homemade tofu is the best.

Seaweed and vegetable salad with homemade tofu

Homemade tofu is wonderful.

I made a simple salad dish with my homemade tofu and homemade miso.

Seaweed, vegetables, and tofu salad with miso vinaigrette

Ingredients

some salad leaves, wakame seaweed, blanched sugar snap peas, cherry tomatoes, red onion, etc.

some slices of medium-firm tofu

(Vinaigrette - for generous 2 servings)

2 tablespoons miso

1 tablespoon brown rice vinegar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 teaspoons agave nectar

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1/2 tablespoon ground roasted sesame seeds

1/2 teaspoon la-yu (hot sesame oil)

Procedure

1. Whisk together the ingredients for vinaigrette. (save a little amount of vinaigrette)

2. Toss the vegetables and seaweed with the vinaigrette.

3. Divide the salad into plates. Top each plate with a couple of slices of freshly made tofu. Drizzle the remaining vinaigrette over the tofu slices.

Last weekend, I hosted another tofu making class and it was a lot of fun!

So, what's the connection between the tofu-making and donabe? To me, (all-purpose) Iga-yaki donabe can make the best quality tofu. Donabe is used for heating the soymilk and coagulating it into curd. Because of the even cooking and remarkable heat-retention of the Iga-yaki donabe, soymilk can curdle evenly without losing much heat after turning off the heat for coagulation.

All units of our first stock of the Homemade Tofu Kit sold out so quickly! Thank you so much for the great response to many people. It will be available again by the end of this week, so we accept orders online now. We also have the classic-style all-purpose donabe, "Hakeme" available in toiro's website. For more details/ order, please click here.

Happy donabe life.

Donabe Cooking class report...Homemade tofu and tofu dishes

Last weekend, I hosted the first "Tofu making and tofu dishes" class, and it was a lot of fun.

First, we made a large rectangular tofu from the very scratch (from soybeans). Freshly made soymilk was strained out of the soy pulp ("okara").

Soymilk was coagulated with the "nigari" (extract of sea water), then the curd was transferred to the wooden box. We also tasted "okara", which retains wonderful flavors and protein.

The very fresh tofu came out as a success! We ate it very simple-style with a little drizzle of sesame oil, a sprinkle of plum salt, and some minced scallions. Excellent.

We also made the fresh donabe "sukui" tofu, which is an extra-soft tofu. It was served with our homemade summer ponzu, home-grown shiso, grated ginger and ground roasted sesame seeds.

Tofu and chicken "tsukune" balls with our homemade miso sauce was cooked with the tagine-style donabe, "Fukkura-san".

Tofu and corn donabe rice was made with brown rice, quinoa, and millet, and it came out nicely fluffy, thanks to the double-lid donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san". It was served with the cold Kyoto-style broth with our homemade tofu.

Fresh homemade tofu is the best tofu. Lately, I make tofu almost every day. It's really easy and fun with the tofu kit. You can order it from toiro's website. Please check it out.

Happy donabe life.