Pictures! I remembered to take pictures!!! These were taken on 12/28/10 - I made the aburaage the night before I intended to use them - saves time and effort! I also made the whole package instead of just the quantity I wanted to use - they freeze like a dream!
The first image was taken right after I got done de-oiling the aburaage. That rack is actually from my mini-grill - I figured that the rack would cool them faster and let the excess water drain a tad. (This is also the cooling rig I use when making tomagoyaki!)
The second image is during the flavoring step - those aburaage are boiling away in the soy sauce, mirin, sugar and niboshi! (If you look carefully, one of the niboshi is sitting on top of a square!)
The third image was taken last night while I was putting the udon together - I just slice them thin and it makes these easy to eat rings!
This picture was part of the original post - the only picture I remembered to take! Those are the niboshi - they really look like something bad happened to an aquarium, but I was thrilled to be using them. I figure that "intimidating" looking foods persist and make their way into other cultures because their taste outweighs the squick factor. I couldn't tell you exactly what the niboshi added to the mix, but I can tell you the Aburaage were delicious - the niboshi were part of the umami!Would have been nice to remember to take a picture of the aburaage. sigh. (edited - yay! it IS nice! :) )
- 1/4 C H20
- 15 niboshi
- 2 T soy sauce
- 1 T mirin
- 1 T sugar
- 4 squares of abura-age
You need to de-oil the aburaage before anything else. It's simple - put them in boiling water for a few minutes, flip them around a few times, drain and even blot with a paper towel - you want to get a whole bunch of the oil out of them! Then I squeeze them out before I flavor them.
Bring everything except the abura-age to a boil in a small pot. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the abura-age and simmer - flip it several times. It is finished when most of the liquid is absorbed and the abura-age is a deep brown color. Allow to cool and then press out excess liquid so it is not too salty
Aburaage freezes like a dream! The last time I made it, I prepared the entire package and froze 6 of them - 3 each in a zip-top bag. I didn't wring them out before freezing, but did not freeze them with extra liquid either. I just took them out of the freezer and let them thaw in a bowl of water. I didn't wring them out (since they were going into soup!), just sliced them into rings. You would never be able to tell that I had not just made them minutes ago!
ReplyDeleteAnd by "thaw in a bowl of water" I mean IN the bag they were frozen in - vague post was vague.
ReplyDelete