One afternoon, in my usual lazy-to-cook-for-one mode, I raided the fridge for the easiest ingredient I can handle. Then I saw tofu. Without a second thought, I took it out as if someone's going to grab it off my hands. Oh, I think I just have this addiction to recipes that don't include chopping boards... You feel me, don't you? So there was me and tofu, in the kitchen, staring at each other. Hunger pushed and when I got back to my senses, I realized that I was able to replicate the simple but sweet and savory tofu dish I tasted at a vegetarian grocery in Kyoto. Hooray for Hunger (sometimes)!
Well, I cooked this within 2-3 minutes because you can buy already fried tofu in common supermarkets here in Tofuland. The type I used is called atsuage, meaning thick (atsu) and fried (age). Hooray for thick fried tofu!
Ingredients
fried tofu, 1 pc (about 7x7x3cm)
mirin, 1 tbsp
soy sauce, 1/2 tbsp
kombu powder, 1/2 tsp
black pepper
Procedure
Cut fried tofu into 5 rectangles.
In a bowl, mix the next four ingredients to make the kombu sauce.
Put a small nonstick pan over medium heat. Align the tofu on the pan then pour over it the kombu sauce.
After about 50 seconds, turn the heat to lowest and flip over the tofu. Let it simmer for 2 minutes. Make sure the heat is at the lowest or else you'll end up burning the tofu.
Flip over the tofu one more time and cook the previous side for 1 minute.
Serve over rice or udon!
Tips and tricks Eat it as a simple kombu tofu donburi or kombu tofu on udon soup or cold udon but it definitely is a good match with yasai itame! If you don't have mirin, try substituting it with water and a little sugar or maple syrup or honey diluted in water.