Barring the recipes for making tofu, shira aé must be my favourite recipe in your Asian Tofu book. I certainly made it more than any other recipe there.
I have also smeared it on thin pancakes, rolling the pancakes up and then just gobbling them up, but you can also top those pancakes with veggies. Spinach leaves, blanched in water (with a few drops of sesame oil.)
Mind you, I have also put it on freshly baked bread, with thinly sliced radishes and freshly ground pepper.
One other thing very much worth mentioning: it is great as a generous dollop added to certain soups. If I have some shira aé in the fridge I will always put it in a bowl of pumpkin or red pepper soup. It's a divine extra.
THIS is excellent,Jan! Shira ae is magical, useful stuff. So happy you’re on familial terms with the recipe in Asian Tofu. Now you have the full story. Ha.
The flavor that I ended up with this version reminded me of fermented tofu misozuke. Using shelf stable tofu required adding lots of other stuff to counter its strong flavor.
Well, I had never thought of using (or even buying!) long shelf life tofu, since to me that seemed to defeat the whole purpose of tofu, but I was very happy to read that it works so well for making shira ae. I love it but up till now I had to make fresh tofu in order to make it - and while I don't mind that, it is really nice to have it almost the moment that you fancy some.
So truly thank you very much for telling us about that. (Yes, I immediately ordered some.)
Ah if you use the mori-nu in other recipes, do remember that it's more "dense". Even though that 300g block of tofu looks small, we find that it's ample to feed two people. It definitely feels a lot more "filling" than homemade tofu.
We almost always have a few packets of mori-nu tofu on hand for days when we can't get to the market. Like you, we also make our own, but yeah, that's not a spur of the moment thing 😝.
Another advantage is that mori-nu doesn't need to be refrigerated cos of the way it's packaged, so you can save some precious fridge space. Ours is stuffed so full, we have to be careful opening the door...
We normally get the silken mori-nu though, so we'll have to grab some of the firm tofu to whip up a batch of Andrea's shira ae.
If you haven't tried packet tofu before, Morinaga has a YT vid on how to open up the packet without squishing the tofu 😉.
Oh yes, shira ae is super versatile! We like to do a plain perilla leaf wrap, sometimes adding a strip of samgyeopsal. Haven't tried it on bread/toast yet - thanks for the tip ☺️
Just wanted to say I really appreciated the time you took to write the recipes with both weight and volume measurements. Now if every cookbook writer would convert to this I would be an extremely happy camper
Excellent post! We never thought of using mori-nu tofu for shira ae before, but that makes perfect sense actually, thanks!
As it happens, we always have a few packs on hand in case we can't get to the market for "fresh" tofu. We do make our own too, but that definitely needs some pre-planning.
At our supermarts, mori-nu tends to be a bit more expensive, but not so bad that the price is a deal breaker.
We'll definitely use your recipe to whip up a batch of mori-nu shira ae this weekend 👌.
Oh for those who haven't bought mori-nu before, Morinaga has a YT vid on how to open up the packet without squishing the tofu 😉.
So pleased you decided to "re-visit" shira ae! I often add nuts (walnuts or pine nuts are favorites). And when persimmons are in season (another month from now because of our l-o-n-g summer in Japan) I scoop out the fruit and mound the shira ae in it https://tasteofculture.com/2019/10/22/persimmon-power/
Barring the recipes for making tofu, shira aé must be my favourite recipe in your Asian Tofu book. I certainly made it more than any other recipe there.
I have also smeared it on thin pancakes, rolling the pancakes up and then just gobbling them up, but you can also top those pancakes with veggies. Spinach leaves, blanched in water (with a few drops of sesame oil.)
Mind you, I have also put it on freshly baked bread, with thinly sliced radishes and freshly ground pepper.
One other thing very much worth mentioning: it is great as a generous dollop added to certain soups. If I have some shira aé in the fridge I will always put it in a bowl of pumpkin or red pepper soup. It's a divine extra.
THIS is excellent,Jan! Shira ae is magical, useful stuff. So happy you’re on familial terms with the recipe in Asian Tofu. Now you have the full story. Ha.
The flavor that I ended up with this version reminded me of fermented tofu misozuke. Using shelf stable tofu required adding lots of other stuff to counter its strong flavor.
Thank you for adding to the recipe!
Well, I had never thought of using (or even buying!) long shelf life tofu, since to me that seemed to defeat the whole purpose of tofu, but I was very happy to read that it works so well for making shira ae. I love it but up till now I had to make fresh tofu in order to make it - and while I don't mind that, it is really nice to have it almost the moment that you fancy some.
So truly thank you very much for telling us about that. (Yes, I immediately ordered some.)
Ah if you use the mori-nu in other recipes, do remember that it's more "dense". Even though that 300g block of tofu looks small, we find that it's ample to feed two people. It definitely feels a lot more "filling" than homemade tofu.
We almost always have a few packets of mori-nu tofu on hand for days when we can't get to the market. Like you, we also make our own, but yeah, that's not a spur of the moment thing 😝.
Another advantage is that mori-nu doesn't need to be refrigerated cos of the way it's packaged, so you can save some precious fridge space. Ours is stuffed so full, we have to be careful opening the door...
We normally get the silken mori-nu though, so we'll have to grab some of the firm tofu to whip up a batch of Andrea's shira ae.
If you haven't tried packet tofu before, Morinaga has a YT vid on how to open up the packet without squishing the tofu 😉.
https://youtu.be/ln6Q8GPys5g?feature=shared
Oh yes, shira ae is super versatile! We like to do a plain perilla leaf wrap, sometimes adding a strip of samgyeopsal. Haven't tried it on bread/toast yet - thanks for the tip ☺️
Just wanted to say I really appreciated the time you took to write the recipes with both weight and volume measurements. Now if every cookbook writer would convert to this I would be an extremely happy camper
(or cook!☺️)
Same here! We prefer the scale, but there are times when you just don't have one on hand.
Excellent post! We never thought of using mori-nu tofu for shira ae before, but that makes perfect sense actually, thanks!
As it happens, we always have a few packs on hand in case we can't get to the market for "fresh" tofu. We do make our own too, but that definitely needs some pre-planning.
At our supermarts, mori-nu tends to be a bit more expensive, but not so bad that the price is a deal breaker.
We'll definitely use your recipe to whip up a batch of mori-nu shira ae this weekend 👌.
Oh for those who haven't bought mori-nu before, Morinaga has a YT vid on how to open up the packet without squishing the tofu 😉.
https://youtu.be/ln6Q8GPys5g?feature=shared
They also offer some useful recipes, both sweet and savoury.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNufyCHj4mf-43p7td9tnAmuq7McY6czQ&feature=shared
So pleased you decided to "re-visit" shira ae! I often add nuts (walnuts or pine nuts are favorites). And when persimmons are in season (another month from now because of our l-o-n-g summer in Japan) I scoop out the fruit and mound the shira ae in it https://tasteofculture.com/2019/10/22/persimmon-power/
Love this recipe! Is there life beyond tofu?