May 21, 2012

Tochio Aburage, Again/再び、栃尾の油揚げ

Watching the TV program featuring the aburaage in Fukui prefecture had made me crave for Tochio aburage, and I bought two pieces the other day. At first, I thought I would make aburage pizza with them like these, but I changed my mind when I realized how oily they were, and decided to simply grill them in the toaster oven and have them in a usual way, with finely chopped naganegi, katsuobushi, and soy sauce. 
福井県の油揚げのテレビ番組を見て、栃尾の油揚げを食べたくなったので、先日、二枚買いました。最初は油揚げピザを作ろうと思っていたのですが、油っこいので、考えを変え、オーブントースターで焼いて、いつもの通り、刻んだ長ねぎ、鰹節、しょう油で食べることにしました。

6 comments:

Sissi said...

Hiroyuki, I am always so tempted by aburaage I see in the frozen section... It's never as big as these, but I think the pizza idea is excellent! (I have just looked at the links). Although it would be oily as you say...
I will try to prepare first your way. It sounds delicious.

Hiroyuki said...

Sissi: As you may know, you must remove excess oil from aburaage before use. A common method is to pour boiling water over it. I usually simply rinse under lukewarm running water. But, as for the Tochio aburage, I didn't want to remove any oil from them because doing so would make them watery.

Sissi said...

Thank you for the advice. I had no idea removing the oil was necessary (and I don't think I would read it on the Japanese package ;-) )

Hiroyuki said...

That brings me back to the same old questions: What exactly does "excess oil" means? How much is excess?

Some people like my wife squeeze as much oil as they can from aburaage, but I think that oil is an essential part of aburaage. In fact, aburaage is an indispensable ingredient for my takikomi gohan because the oil in aburaage covers each grain of rice to make it shiny and better-tasting.

Ruminating Roy said...

Somehow, I had not considered making takikomi gohan with aburaage. What other ingredients do you add to your rice in that case, Hiroyuki?

Hiroyuki said...

Ruminating Roy: Besides aburuaage, I usually add carrot and one type of mushroom.
All my takikomi gohan recipes are very simple, like this one:
http://hiro-shio.blogspot.jp/2008/12/enoki-takikomi-gohan.html
(I don't like to use dashi in my takikomi gohan.)

If you add meat (like chicken), aburaage may not be an indispensable ingredient because meat is a source of oil, but I still want to add aburaage.