Rice with Fried Bean Curd
Serves 6.
Ingredients
500 g/1 lb short grain rice
750 ml/1 1/2 pints/3 cups cold water
4 sheets fried bean curd (aburage)
500 ml/1 pint/21/2 cups dashi or chicken stock
125 ml/4 fl oz/1/2 cup shoyu (Japanese soy sauce)
125 ml/4 fl oz/1/2 cup mirin or dry sherry
1 tablespoon sugar
6 spring onions (scallions) finely sliced diagonally
Directions
Wash rice and drain. Put into a saucepan with a well-fitting lid and add the water. Bring to the boil over high heat, cover pan and turn heat very low. Cook for 15 minutes without lifting lid. Remove from heat, do not uncover for a further 10 minutes.
While rice is cooking pour 1 litre boiling water over fried bean curd in a colander to remove some of the oil. Cut each sheet of bean curd in half lengthways, then crossways into strips about 1 cm (1/2 in) wide.
In a saucepan combine dashi, soy sauce, mirin and sugar, add strips of bean curd and simmer for 10 minutes. Add spiced spring onions, cover and simmer for 1 minute. Ladle over the rice in a serving bowl or individual bowls and serve hot.
Recipe excerpted from Encyclopedia of Asian Food by Charmaine Solomon (Periplus Editions, 1998)