The dishes are still in the sink, the nuttiness from the hot olive oil is still hanging in the air, the smoke detector is still sitting on the table. I ripped it, screeching, from the ceiling mid-fry. Just had to sit down and share this right now.
This braised tofu is knock your socks off good. For something so simple the rewards seem undeserved. Harumi Kurihara calls it “salty-sweet” in her cookbook (which I’ve written about before). But those words seem insufficient, the flavors here are far more special. There’s salty and there’s sweet, sure, but the flavors become a totally different third entity instead of just the combination of those opposites. If I’d have known this tofu would have been so good I’d have made two blocks of tofu like she calls for in the recipe.
You’re to flatten and press out the liquid from a block of soft tofu, then cut it into cubes and fry each side of every cube in oil. In a separate pot you bring dashi (key, I think), mirin, soy sauce, sake (I used Chinese shaoxing cooking wine), and sugar to a boil then pour that liquid over the tofu (which are still sitting in their pan) and turn that fire back on again. Once it all starts bubbling again, bring the tofu and sauce down to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes.
I made some quick pickles to have on the side, and with rice the tofu was so good I kept walking back to the stove to dip bites into the pan’s sauce and get seconds and thirds. At some point I just gave up and stood in the kitchen scarfing it all down. Solo cooking and eating perks! And home cooking bliss.
That kind of good.