Mock Tofu 擬制豆腐

I saw this recipe of “Mock tofu” or “Gisei-dofu 擬制豆腐” on Youtube by Chef. Kasahara 笠原. It looked interesting and I happened to have extra tofu and fresh shiitake mushroom which needed to be used up before going bad. Supposedly, this is a common form of “shojin-ryouri 精進料理” or vegetarian cooking done by Buddhist monks. The name “mock” or “gisei” reportedly comes from the fact that tofu was crumbed, other ingredients are added,  formed into an original rectangular shape of tofu and cooked. No eggs should be used in the original shojin-ryori but modern renditions use eggs as binder and some recipes even call for ground meat. 

While I was making this, I realized a U.S. block of tofu is larger than a Japanese block so I was afraid that the final loaf which had more tofu may not firm up but it did. The cut surface looked more like tofu than omelette (picture #1). I did not make it too sweet but this is a very good looking dish and tasted very gentle with nice texture.  Adding more tofu appeared to work. According to Chef Kasahara, this is his regular osechi “new year” dish. I may add this to my osechi next year. Since this could be a new year osechi dish, I served the slices on a small crane design plate we bought in Kyoto some years ago since the “crane” is very suitable motif for new year cerebration.

Ingredients: (made two loaves measuring 2 1/2 and 5 1/2 inch)

1 package (14oz or 400gram*) tofu (I used medium firm), drained, wrapped in paper towel with a weight on the top (I used two cutting boards as weights) for 20 minutes, crumble by hand

3 large eggs, beaten

4-5 caps of shiitake mushroom, thinly sliced

1 small carrot, julienned

3 scallions finely chopped

1 tbs vegetable oil

*Apparently Japanese one block of tofu is smaller. The original recipe used one block which was 300grams. 

Seasoning*:

1 tbs x 4 concentrated noodle sauce or soy sauce either light colored or regular

1 tbs mirin

* Original recipe calls for soy sauce and sugar. The above is not as sweet.

Directions:

Prepare loaf pans (I used two 2 1/2 x 5 1/2 inch silicon loaf pans) by lining with parchment paper and lightly oil for easy lifting (see “A” in the composite picture).  Preheat oven to 350F*.

In a frying pan on medium heat, add 1 tbs vegetable oil and sauté the carrot and mushroom. After few minutes, add the crumbled tofu and keep stirring for another 5 minutes or so until water is not seeping out from the tofu. Add the seasonings and cook until no liquid is visible on the bottom. Add the scallion, mix and shut off the flame.

Add the half of the eggs and mix. The residual heat will semi cook the eggs. Add the remaining eggs and mix.

Pour in the mixture to the loaf pans and press and flatten the surface with a silicon spatula.

Place the loaf pans in the 350F oven for 30 minutes (“A” in the composite picture) .

*Original recipe calls for 250C oven which is over 480F. I thought this was way too hot. Using my own discretion, I baked at 350F (about 180C) using the toaster oven in convection mode.

After cooling down for 10 minutes, I lifted the load out of the pan using both ends of the parchment paper (“B” in the composite picture). I sliced it after it cooled to near room temperature.

As I mentioned before, because of the larger proportion of tofu in my rendition (albeit by accident), the cut surface looks more like tofu than omelette. I do not think this dish should be omelette with tofu mixed in. More like tofu dish hiding the use of eggs like some Buddhist monks may have done. 

Obviously, you could alter the vegetables you can use in this dish. Renkon, wood ear mushroom, green beans, hijiki, ginnan, mitsuba etc were suggested. I also saw the recipes adding ground meat but I do not particularly like that idea.

In any case, we really like this dish as I made it (by accident??).

P.S. I made this dish again with few modifications. 

1. Seasonings: I used 2 tsp sugar and 2tbs x4 concentrated Japanese noodle sauce making it sweeter thatn the first. This appears to have worked. Both of us liked the a bit sweeter taste better.

2. I used three silicon loaf pans without parchment paper lining but coating the inside with a small mount of oil. The giese-tofu came out without problem. I am not sure the oil is needed.