Category: tofu

Japanese Futari

Michael Fisher ·

Japanese Food

Roasted Daikon and Eggplant

Soft Tofu with Green Onion and Ginger

Even though there are many dishes, this is a meal prepared for two people!

Typically, each food item is placed in its own separate bowl, and then the group eating the food take from the bowl with their chopsticks and serve themselves as they go. Rice and tofu are typically served per each guest eating, and you use these bowls to eat from as you select different foods from the rest of the table.

Here is prepared, from top left and clockwise:
- Nori paper (for mochi)
- Roasted daikon and eggplant
- Green tea
- Adzuki beans
- Brown rice
- Tofu with green onion and ginger
- Butter (for mochi!) :)
- Mochi
- Sauteed kabocha with shoyu
- .. more tofu, beans, tea and rice

This is probably one of my favourite things to make and eat. It’s fun, whole food, and more socially interesting than just chowing down a huge plate of food and then stretching back uncomfortably from a heavy over feeding. With Japanese food, because you are constantly selecting little portions at a time into your bowl, the eating process is a lot longer, more mindful, with more variety.

You can do this with any food. Prepare lunch items, or Mediterranean food in many small dishes, and spend hours picking at the variety of foods.

Something that made this especially Asian – we sat on the floor! :)

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Indian Lentil Curry

Michael Fisher ·

Goodness me, I’ve really got to start writing down recipes for my entries! The reason is because, well, recipes ruin my appetite. I’d rather smell and taste my food to gauge what needs to go into the pot, rather than consulting a check list of ingredients! This way, you can just make stuff from what you’ve got, and not have to go into town to buy a list of ingredients to make an exquisite meal.
So here is what got put into this curry:
  • oil
  • cumin, coriander, mustard seeds
  • cardamom pods, garam masala, ground cumin
  • onions, garlic and ginger
  • veggies (leftover chunks of veggies got put in, like eggplant, zucchini, etc)
  • cooked lentils, and some left over tofu
  • diced tomatoes and a splash of yogurt or something creamy (but sour is best)
When making curry – always carefully bring the oil in your pan to heat (not too hot, please don’t let your oil smoke!) and then briefly sautee your seeds and spices (not herbs) for just a moment. Put in your chopped or pureed garlic, onion and ginger (to taste) and cook until aromatic, brown, or how you like it. Next, cook your veg until soft, add meat or beans, and cook in. Then this Korma-ish dish had diced tomatoes (or tomato paste) and a bit of yogurt put into it. The longer you let is simmer, the more delicious it becomes! Serve with rice (we made Indian rice to go with it, using turmeric and some other fun things, but won’t blog about that right now).

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Pear and Tofu Pudding

Michael Fisher ·

I made this when I lost my voice last year. I ate so much of it that I did get my voice back, but I also got the scoots, as this lovely treat is super moistening for the body, which often results in moist bowels as well.
In a blender, add pear, soft tofu (not firm!) – and really, that could be all, but I also added almond extract, fresh and dried ginger, and a little green stevia.
It was really refreshing and can quench an insatiable thirst 
(*Note – if you have an unsatiable thirst, it is better to eat fruits and moistening foods (like tofu) and even sea vegetables as oppose to continuously guzzling water, which can actually exasperate thirst when water is over drunk!)

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Oishii miso shiru (Delicious miso soup)

Michael Fisher ·

If you’ve never tried cooking with miso before, I advise to go to your local natural foods (or Asian foods store) and pick some up RIGHT now….. go on…. I’ll wait.
Miso is one of the best things period. How it tastes, what you can do with it, and what it represents. 
I included a few pictures of when I was in Japan.  One picture was inside a miso shop, and the other was the line up to the store because everyone wanted to buy miso. You could buy handmade miso locally, and this particular shop sold a lot. This lovely couple had prepacked bags available (shouldn’t really be sold in plastic, because it does absorb), but you could also buy it out of the barrel (shown in front.. the man is looking at it). It was amazing!
Soy beans are fermented in these barrels along with koji – which is a bacteria created from rice used for soya sauce, sake, and amasake (literally sweet sake, which is the goop at the end of the sake barrel). The older it is (ie. more than a year) the saltier, darker and dankier it will be. Sweet, light coloured miso is sometimes only fermented for a few months or less. 
Miso is 13 – 20% protein, has a profile similar to meat, contains plant sources of B12, (making it excellent for new vegetarians) is teeming with lactobacillus (same as yogurt), is alkalizing despite its building and high protein profile, neutralizes poisons in the body and effective at preventing radiation. This would be helpful for food poisoning as well! Awesome food? I think so.
It can be used for soups, sauces, seasonings, and you can find many recipes using miso in our blog. Here is a basic soup, often eaten for breakfast daily by the Japanese.
NEVER BOIL MISO – this kind of behaviour is punished in Japan (just kidding.. but not really)
Boil water and add veggies to soften them. Add seaweed, like wakame. Once veggies are soft, add tofu. At the very end, even when the soup is off of the burner, you can add miso. About 1 Tbsp per person or cup of water suits well. Stir and serve!
For plain miso, just add miso to boiled then slightly cooled water. That’s it!! Easy!
Miso. It’s what’s for breakfast.. in Japan. 
By the way, although the lineup picture was taken in front of the miso shop, those kids weren’t really in line to buy miso, I just thought it was a beautiful picture of the street and store front of where we bought it from.

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Shabu shabu!

Michael Fisher ·

Wow.. we’re really on a Japanese theme here aren’t we? Well, we just had a Japanese couple living with us, and of course we love the food of Japan, it’s silliness, cartoons, and all it’s Zen-ness.

So this is a traditional winter meal, not only eaten in Japan (although the name “shabu shabu” which is an onomatopoeia mimicking the sound of splashing your food in hot water) but eaten all over Asia in the hot pot style that indulged upon.
Using a portable burner on the table you eat at, bring a pot of water with seaweed to a boil, and then dunk cut vegetables and other foods into the boiling pot for a moment, and then retrieve them slightly cooked and delicious, and then dip into a sauce or shoyu before eating. This way, the meal is drawn out so incredibly long, that you can literally eat all night long.
Tofu can be used, meat, cabbage, leek, zucchini, carrot, mushrooms, daikon, etc.. anything that cooks in water! Serve with brown rice and edamame for some nice sides! And sake too of course!
OISHII!
(Pictured are Sharla and Anna)

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Nabe = Japanese pot

Michael Fisher ·

This is a winter food in Japan. Cooked in a pot (or known as ‘nabe’, the Japanese word for pot in Japanese) this dish is called “nabe” for obvious reasons.
Bring some water to a boil, and add seaweed like kombu or wakame, and then chop in lots of veggies – and some tofu, if you really want to embrace the spirit of Japan. We went all out and got all Japanese veggies, including hakusai (nappa cabbage), daikon (literally “giant root”), enoki (weird clustery mushrooms), and ninjin (carrot.. just showing off my Japanese).
Let’s this infusion cook up until the veggies are soft, and then serve in soup bowls!
We added a dash of togarashi (7 pepper spice) on the top to give it some heat to the otherwise gently refreshing dish (despite it being served warm, the seaweed, water and veggie are nice and refreshing).

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Chocolate Pudding of my Gods

Michael Fisher ·

Chocolate pudding like I’ve never tasted before.
Add these fine things into a blender or mixer, or something that whizzes things about:
  • cocoa powder (I used a “ruddy red” that was super dark.. so good)
  • maple syrup
  • soft tofu for a pudding, (or soft avocados if you want it thicker like mousse)
  • vanilla
  • whiskey or rum
That’s it! Heaven in a bowl!
Sorry for no quantities.. that’s just not how I cook. Try making it yourself and then adding more or less of something if you think it needs it!

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Lung Boosting with White Foods

Michael Fisher ·

White foods influence the Lungs and Large Intestine according to Chinese Medicine. Why? Because they moderate and balance moisture in these elimination organs. Some white foods are drying, some moistening, but they do aid these organ systems. In this dish, I’ve used drying white root vegetables; parsnips, onion and white carrot. Using warming ginger and garlic just gives it that extra drying capability, and the tofu doesn’t dry us right off the planet as it gently moistens the lungs so we can breathe deep and exchange more air.

This was a simple side, and served on a bed of grains, probably quinoa, I’ve been eating this grain a little more often than usual – I don’t know why… it feels good.
This whole thing was sauteed in a bit of sesame oil, shoyu, spices and a touch of rice vinegar. Yum yum!

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