Almond Tofu in Yuzu Batter

I have been making almond tofu for quite a while now since I first came across a similar recipe in “ the enlightened kitchen “ cookbook by Mari Fujii. I have seen this recipe many times in other cookbooks and I wondered what slight adjustment I could make to make this more my own. This fried tofu dish is crispy on the outside and soft inside. The almonds and with the introduction of Yuzu juice in the batter (which I have decided is what’s going to make this more my signature) gives the dish a lovely aroma.

You will need one block of drained firm tofu, white plain flour, yuzu juice, flaked almonds, oil for frying, salt and salt for serving.

I first saw this tip of getting excess liquid off tofu on “Dining with the Chef “ on NHK. Simply wrap your tofu in some paper towel and place on a plate and microwave for 2 mins. I use this method now every time.

Cut your tofu into large pieces depending on how big you want them you can cut the tofu into four or six.

Prepare a batter mixture with two heaped tablespoons of plain flour and a pinch of salt add to this one tablespoon of Yuzu juice. Then keep adding a small amount of water until you get a nice batter consistency.

Heat up some oil you can use sesame or your favourite oil for cooking, I often use coconut butter as it has no aroma. Do not use oil that has an over powering smell, and do not fry to many pieces at once. I normally do no more than two. Dip each piece of tofu in the batter and roll in some flakes of almonds and add to hot oil straight away. Turn the tofu on all sides until golden. Remove and place on some kitchen towel to soak up extra oil while you do the remaining pieces.

I recommend serving this dish simply with salt and maybe a wedge of lemon or lime. If you have Yuzu salt or matcha salt this is lovely.

You can serve it in the summer with salad or with vegetables. It can even be a nice snack to serve alongside a cup of sake.