Editor’s note: The theme of Gohan Lab is to help people make simple, tasty “gohan” (meals).

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Despite its close association with Japanese cuisine, did you know that tofu goes well with olive oil?

In Italy, people enjoy ricotta cheese, which resembles tofu in its look and texture, with olive oil. This is what inspired us to come up with this week’s Western-style, tofu-mix dish.

When making “shira-ae” (literally “dressed in white”), we will add flavorful seasonings and ingredients--and, in the case of Japanese cuisine, sesame seed and miso--to light-tasting tofu.

Parmesan cheese adds saltiness and richness, while garlic and lemon offer the aroma. They harmonize with the sweetness and subtle bitterness of the vegetables and do not lessen the flavor of meat.

The mix will give a tofu-like texture with firm tofu, and a creamy texture with silken (or soft) tofu. Choose whichever you prefer. In either case, there is no need to drain the water for hours. All you need to do is let the kitchen paper absorb the water on the surface.

The dish also turns out differently depending on the type of olive oil used. We recommend relatively high-grade, extra virgin olive oil that costs around 1,000 yen ($9.15) per 250 ml.

BASIC COOKING METHOD

(Supervised by Kuniaki Arima in the cooking aspect and Midori Kasai in the cookery science aspect)

* Ingredients (Serve two to three)

180 grams tofu, 1 and 1/2 Tbsp (10 grams) parmesan cheese, salt, a bit of lemon zest, 1/4 clove garlic, 1 Tbsp olive oil, 70 grams thin pork slices for “shabu-shabu,” 1/4 (70 grams) newly harvested onion (shin-tamanegi), 70 grams rape blossoms (nanohana)

About 160 kcal and 0.6 gram salt per portion

1. To make the mix, wrap tofu in two layers of kitchen paper to absorb water. Add tofu, a pinch of salt, parmesan cheese (either grated or powdered) in bowl. Add lemon zest and garlic, both grated. Pour olive oil and combine while breaking up tofu (PHOTO A).

2. Bring water with 1 percent salt content (if water measures 600 ml, add 1 tsp salt) to a boil, cook pork slices in shabu-shabu style by waving them in hot water. Drain through sieve. Remove core from onion and boil, followed by rape blossoms (PHOTO B). Place them on sieve. Cut onion so the slices are 5 mm wide and cut rape blossoms 1.5 cm in length.

3. Add pork, onion and rape blossoms to bowl with mix and blend (PHOTO C). Serve and top with bit of olive oil, grated lemon zest and chopped black peppercorn to taste.

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Kuniaki Arima is the owner-chef of Passo a Passo, an Italian restaurant in Tokyo’s Fukagawa.
Midori Kasai is a professor at Ochanomizu University and former chairwoman of the Japan Society of Cookery Science.

ARRANGED VERSION

Sea bream and spring cabbage with tofu-based mix

For the mix, replace cheese in recipe with rape blossom and pork with 1 tsp lemon juice. Other ingredients are 80 grams of sea bream (tai) for sashimi, 2 cabbage leaves, 1/4 each of newly harvested onion and tomato. Slice sea bream into strips 1 cm wide, boil in water with 1 percent salt content and drain on sieve. Boil cabbage and cut into strips 1 cm wide. Boil onion and cut into slices 7 mm wide. Dice tomato to 1 cm on a side. Add vegetables to the mix, add sea bream last and mix lightly. Top with Italian parsley and coarsely grated black pepper. Pour olive oil to taste.

COOKERY SCIENCE

Tofu filled in packs preserves well and is smooth like silken tofu.

Unlike silken tofu made by adding coagulant to hot soymilk, the coagulant is added to cold soymilk when making pack-filled tofu, which sets through heating in the pack. Aseptic-filled tofu made by being filled, packed in a sterile condition, then heated to set, can be stored at room temperature.

SEEKING OPINIONS AND IDEAS

The Gohan Lab series enters its third year this spring. We are asking our readers to tell us about past recipes that proved useful and themes you would like us to focus on in the future.

Various questions may come up while you cook. Our reporters will put the questions to Kuniaki Arima, chef of Italian cuisine; Katsuhiko Yoshida, chef of Chinese cuisine; and cooking expert Akiko Watanabe. 

Please send your email to seikatsu@asahi.com or fax to (03) 5540-7354 or write to Gohan Lab Desk, Culture and Lifestyle News Section, The Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo 104-8011.

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From The Asahi Shimbun’s Gohan Lab column