Our all-time favourite food to go out and eat as a family has to be Japanese food. While we’re crazy about sushi, we also have lots of other dishes that we love, including tofu teriyaki. Between the fish eater (Arun), the chicken eater (me), and the vegetarian (Little Bear), we’re all satisfied with tofu teriyaki. But, unfortunately, our Japanese cravings are never really satisfied. We could eat mounds of sushi one day and be yearning for more after two days. Our solution is that I often make our favourite Japanese food at home.
While my sushi isn’t quite restaurant quality, my tofu teriyaki is a different story. I actually prefer my tofu teriyaki to the dish that you would order in most Japanese restaurants. To start with, restaurant tofu teriyaki is typically served as large pieces of tofu, doused in teriyaki sauce, over rice with a sprinkling of vegetables. The result is a sometimes soggy mess of tofu that just tastes overly sweet. My tofu teriyaki is comprised of much smaller pieces of tofu, meaning optimum batter to tofu coverage. Also, I don’t hide a tiny bit of cabbage and carrots under my tofu, but choose to add a fresh side of vegetables to my dish. Another thing that I like about my version better is that the pieces of tofu maintain their crunch. Rather than covering the tofu with a ridiculous amount of teriyaki sauce, I lightly toss my tofu in the teriyaki sauce right before serving.
This tofu dish is easy to make and is great served with Calrose rice. I also enjoy a beautiful green vegetable served next to this and some nori on the side. The best thing about this dish is that it is a fan favourite. Everyone in our house enjoys it and Little Bear likes my homemade tofu teriyaki way more than what we get when we order it from the restaurants.
Try it out, and I bet you’ll be snacking on the fried tofu cubes even before it gets to your plate!
Tofu Teriyaki
Ingredients:
1 – 350 gram pack of organic tofu, firm
1/3 cup rice flour
1/3 cup corn starch
¼ tsp salt
freshly cracked black pepper
Canola or vegetable oil for frying
Teriyaki Sauce (adapted from Mark Bittman’s teriyaki sauce recipe):
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 cup water
3 tbsp honey
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp corn starch
Method:
- Drain the tofu and cut the tofu into small ½ inch cubes.
- Place the rice flour, corn starch, salt and pepper into one large plate or container. Whisk well to mix together.
- In small batches, toss the tofu into the flour and corn starch mixture. Once finished tossing all the tofu, start over again and toss the tofu in the flour and corn starch one more time.
- Pour about a half centimeter of oil into the bottom of a pot and heat on med-high heat until the oil is ready for frying. Once ready, slowly and carefully drop pieces of tofu tossed in the flour and corn starch mixture into the oil. Make sure not to just dump a bunch of the tofu in, as it is likely to stick together then. Fry until tofu is golden-brown. Remove tofu from oil when done and put on plate lined with napkins.
- While the tofu is cooking, make the teriyaki sauce: Combine the soy sauce, water, and honey together in a pot over medium heat. Allow to come to a simmer and then add the minced garlic. Allow to simmer another minute. Turn off heat. Put corn starch into a bowl and add 3 tbsp. of the heated soy sauce mixture. Whisk together well. Add the corn starch and soy sauce to the sauce on the stove. Whisk in well. As the sauce sits for a minute or two it will thicken up slightly. The sauce should be runny but not too runny.
- Toss the tofu in the teriyaki sauce. The sauce should just be lightly coating the tofu. Serve over Calrose rice.
