Chilled tofu for a quick dinner

There’s the Japanese way with tofu, and then there’s everybody else’s way. In Japan, the soya bean curd is so universally appreciated that cooks use it for everyday, off-the-cuff preparations, the likes of which most Americans would never dream.

That’s partly because Japanese cooks have access to some of the world’s best tofu: freshly made, sometimes even home-made. But it’s also because they think about tofu differently from the way we do. While we complain about the blandness, they use it to a dish’s advantage. I’ve thought about that ever since meeting cookbook author and lifestyle maven Harumi Kurihara in Tokyo several years ago and first trying her chilled tofu, which she tops with whatever crunchy things are in her refrigerator.

I make my own version of it occasionally, particularly when the nights start to get as hot as the days and I want something easy to put together — and cold. In her beautiful book Asian Tofu (Ten Speed Press, 2012), Andrea Nguyen includes her own take on the idea, sprinkling her home-made chilled tofu (or tofu “pudding”, which is another story entirely) with crunchy sardines. But when I craved the dish recently, I had another ingredient in mind: corn. Not just any corn, but just-picked, so-fresh-you-can-eat-it-raw corn. Combined with peanuts, scallions and a quick ginger-and-chilli-spiked sauce, it perfectly counterbalanced the creamy silken tofu.

It was cool and it was quick — just the thing for a sweltering night.

CHILLED TOFU WITH SPICY, CRUNCHY TOPPING

Use the highest-quality, freshest silken tofu you can find for this simple, no-cook preparation, which combines tofu’s cool, creamy blandness with a pungent sauce and the crunch of freshly picked raw corn and peanuts.

Shiso is a member of the mint family whose flavour carries hints of mint and licorice. Serve with cold noodles and seaweed salad or other greens for a main course, or by itself as an appetiser.

Serves: 4

INGREDIENTS

1 tbs chilli-infused olive oil

1 tsp sesame oil, toasted

1 tbs low-sodium soya sauce

1 tsp unseasoned rice vinegar

1 tsp ginger root, fresh, peeled, finely chopped

1 tsp sugar

1 450g block cold silken tofu

3/4 cup kernels from 1 fresh ear of corn

1/4 cup unsalted peanuts, roasted, chopped

1 scallion, trimmed and thinly sliced on the diagonal

4 shiso leaves, stacked and rolled, then cut crosswise into thin ribbons (may substitute large basil or mint leaves)

Whisk together the chilli and sesame oils, soya sauce, vinegar, ginger and sugar in a medium bowl.

Drain the tofu briefly on paper towels, then invert on a platter. Pour the chilli oil mixture over the tofu, then top with the corn, peanuts, scallion and shiso.

Serve right away, while the tofu is cold.

— Washington Post