Tofu Karaage (Japanese deep fried dish)

One afternoon, I suddenly felt that I want Karaage!!

Karaage is one of the common dishes in Japan which is usually deep fried, marinated chicken that is crispy on the outside. It's also a very popular item to pack into a bento box lunch.

Every time my mum asked me what I want in my bento, I answered Karaage and Takoyaki (takoyaki is a ball shaped Japanese snack. I will talk about this food soon on my blog). I know how to make Karaage and I was pretty sure tofu will be a perfect replacement for chicken.

I remember that there was a Japanese TV show that experimented with tofu. They froze tofu and then checked how the texture turned out. After defrosting the tofu it became more chewy and spongy. The TV show also introduced how to cook the frozen tofu and one of the dishes they showed was Karaage and it looks super delicious!!

I always keep a tofu either in my fridge or freezer. I took one out of the freezer and left it in room temperature for a while.

Once the tofu has defrosted you can wrap it with a paper towel or thin cloth (like a tea towel or a cheese cloth) then weight it down with heavy things (books, an olive oil bottle or heavy pans etc). Another way to drain tofu is to wrap it with a paper towel and microwave for 3 minutes.

You can see spongy like texture inside of the tofu

After draining the water, I broke it down into pieces with my finger. I marinated with soy sauce, Mirin, garlic powder and a bit of water (instead of using cooking sake) for 10 minutes then tossed them in potato starch (you can use flour or corn starch as well) to coat each piece evenly.

Toss them into oil.

I used a minimum amount of oil so I needed to turn them over to make sure all sides got crispy.

If you are confident to deep fry them with plenty of hot oil, of course you can and then you don't have to turn them around. You only need about 90 seconds to make it crispy but please be careful😣

It was very nice and crispy! Every bite I enjoyed the juiciness. The flavour of garlic and soy sauce came out to fill up my mouth. Sooooooooo tasty.

Tofu is justice!!!!

Ingredients

• 1 pack tofu (300g)

For marinade

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce

• 1 tablespoon Mirin or 1 teaspoon sugar

• 1 tablespoon water or cooking sake

• 1 teaspoon garlic powder or grated fresh garlic

• a half cup cornstarch for deep fry

You can add other spices if you like such as smoked paprika, chilli powder or herbs in marinade sauce to make your original Karaage!

Bye Cha🐶