Thursday, July 31, 2014

Konnyaku and vegetables with Japanese dressing


The other day I had a crazy craving for gomadofu, the 'tofu' made with sesame seeds. But I couldn't find it anywhere in Auckland! If anyone can help (or tell me how to make it at home!) please do!

Anyway, I ended up buying konnyaku, a Japanese starchy-jelly food made from Konjak yam plant.
It has nothing to do with gomadofu but perhaps the colour (a little) and to satisfy my goma (sesame) craving I thought of serving it with a sesame dressing.


You don't need to do anything with the konnyaku except taking it out of the packet and slice it! For the veggies i steamed some cauliflowers florets and carrots (separately) and cooked some spinach. The spinach were rolled in a nori seaweed sheet (like a sushi roll, but with spinach instead of rice). For the dressing, usually I make this miso dressing, but this time I tried to make Nami's miso dressing, from Just One Cookbook, mostly because I have never tried to put rice vinegar in my dressing and I wanted to have a go! Nami, the only thing that I didn't put in here is the miring (didn't have any at home!) and my sesame seeds were already ground. But yes, it was delicious! Thank you!

Now, do you know how to make gomadofu? :-)




Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

10 comments:

  1. first I've heard of konnyaku

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    Replies
    1. Good, you can do a post about it now Adam, the plant is also known as Devil's tongue!

      Delete
  2. Hi Alessandra

    I learned to make gomadofu at cooking school in Kyoto in the 70s. Always think of it as a good arm work out!! Here is the recipe:

    1 cup sesame seeds
    Kuzu 120 g
    Water 600ml
    additional water 300ml
    Mirin 1 tablespoon

    Dry roast sesame seeds in frypan until golden and fragrant. Grind thoroughly to a paste in a suribachi ( likely a mortar and pestle would work).

    Mix kuzu into first portion of water. Blend with sesame paste.

    Bring to a boil in a saucepan over medium heat, beating constantly with wooden spoon, lower heat, gradually add second portion of water, beating and beating and beating. Finally add mirin.

    Put into mould to set. My stainless steel moulds have an insert, which aids the removal of the set gomadofu. Probably would be a good idea to line mould with some baking paper, to help lift it out or perhaps silicon moulds would work well.

    Serve with wasabi & shoyu.

    I buy kuzu at health food shops and japan mart. I like the sort which is kind of clumped.

    I searched on the English version of Cookpad and found a variety of methods:

    https://en.cookpad.com/search/sesame%20tofu

    Note the use of sesame paste/nerigoma. The chinese sesame paste available at asian shops would be suitable.

    Cheers, Robyn, Waiheke Is.

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  3. This is type of mould I use:

    https://hands.net/goods/4949362046409/

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  4. Thank you Robyn, I will definitely try, will look out for kuzo!

    Ciao
    Alessandra

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  5. Replies
    1. You are so creative my friend....and yes I have finally made it over for a visit! Sorry I have been away so long...my little grandbaby is just taking up all my time and I am sooooo enjoying it. Hope your summer is going well...hugs and love xo

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  6. So glad to hear you enjoyed it, Alessandra! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! Looks very delicious. xoxo

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  7. My pleasure Nami! I love Japanese food :-)

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