Pan Fried Tofu with Soy Dipping Sauce

Pan fried tofu is commonly found on dinner tables of Korean homes although it is difficult to say that this dish is a Korean dish exclusively because of the popularity of tofu throughout Asia and the simplicity of pan frying tofu. However, together with the dipping sauce below, one can argue that this dish as a whole is a Korean dish. Pan fried tofu is so healthy and delicious, more people should try it at home and replace their heavy and fattening dishes.

1. To make this dipping sauce, use light sodium soy sauce, and water. Use them for 1:1 ratio. Then add thinly minced carrots, green onions, and garlic. Then add vinegar (1 teaspoon for 2 tablespoons of water+soy sauce), sesame oil (same amt as vinegar), and toasted sesame seeds.


2. Ideally, if you can get your hands on hand made tofu at an Asian market, it will be great. These hand made tofu below are really tasty. Slice them into 1/2 inch thick pieces.

3. Oil your pan with olive oil and pan fry them for 2-3 minutes in high before flipping.

Another 1 minute on the other side or until they turn golden.

Now, how easy was that?

Enjoy. Remember, you are what you eat.

Spicy Miso Beef Stew

This spicy miso beef stew is called Doenjang Jjigae in Korean. It is one of the most traditional Korean foods one can find along with Kimchi. The Korean miso paste called Doenjang is the key ingredient of this soup.

Doenjang is produced with dried soybeans that are boiled and stoned-ground into fine bits. This paste is molded up into big blocks similar to bricks, which are called Meju. These blocks are then put out in the sunlight and let it mold and therefore the fermentation process begins. This mold to the soybean is a type of vacteria that is good for health, similar to the ones used in the fermentation process of milk to produce yogurt. This Meju is one stinky piece of block. I remember as a child, I hated the smell of it whenever my grandma made those meju and hung them along the fence. So after these meju blocks are sun dried, they are placed in a warmer place to speed up the fermentation. Later these meju blocks are put into large opaque pottery jars with water and salt. For a month, they are being salted inside the jar. The meju blocks are finely crushed and mixed with water into a paste. Once fully salted, put more salt on top and then the cover of the jar is removed and replaced with a thin net to screen debris and insects from entering. Then now the mixture of exposed in the sunlight for 40 days for a full fermentation process. Now I remember when I was a child, my grandpa used to run outside and cover up these opaque pottery jars to prevent rain from entering into the jar. They were really serious about their Doenjang.

But seriously, making doenjang at home is not as realistic in modern days when people live in cities and apartments. Although if you're gungho about keeping the traditional flavor of Korean cuisine, homemade Doenjang is the best tasting condiment for many Korean dishes, most people give up the opportunity cost of this traditional flavor for a easy lifestyle. I am one of the latter people maybe because I am still young but also because I live in a student apartment. I cannot imagine hanging up stinky meju blocks outside my windows.

You can buy a pack or a container of Doenjang from a Korean supermarket. In English, it is a miso paste but that is somewhat overally generalized because there is Japanese miso paste that is quite different from the Korean miso paste. You need to buy the Korean miso paste in order to prepare this dish.

Ingredients: 2 tsp Doenjang, 1tsp clambase, 1tsp minced garlic, 1tsp red pepper powder, zucchini, enoki mushrooms, serrano chili peppers, red chili pepper, onion, potato, firm tofu, and beef



1. Boil water. I bought this traditional Korean earthen bowl from a Korean supermarket for making stews.

2. Add a tsp of clambase. Often, by adding clambase, you're adding more deep flavor for the soup broth and enough sodium so that you won't need to add salt later. Some Doenjang Jjigae uses fresh manila clams with shells instead. If you have some, use them.

3. Add 2tsp of Doenjang to the mix.

4. Now chop all your vegetable ingredients including tofu/beef before adding to the soup.


5. Add beef, potatoes first. After 2 minutes of boiling, add the rest of the vegetables.

6. After another 2 minutes, add tofu and sprinkle some red pepper powder on top and let the boiling soup cook it along with tofu. As a final touch (20 seconds before turning off your heat), add chopped green onions.

This is the final version of Doenjang Jjigae. Enjoy!

Sukiyaki Hot Pot

Sukiyaki is a Japanese style hot pot consisting of meat (usually thinly sliced beef), or a vegetarian version made only with firm tofu, slowly cooked or simmered at the table, alongside vegetables and other ingredients, in a shallow iron pot in a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, and mirin. Before being eaten, the ingredients are usually dipped in a small bowl of beaten raw eggs.

Generally sukiyaki is for the colder days of the year and it is commonly found at bōnenkai, Japanese year-end parties. There is a Japanese saying that says when you and your friends eat out of a same pot, your bond with them will become stronger. Let's then invite our friends or disfunctional family members and eat Sukiyaki together.

Ingredients: dried Shitake mushrooms, cabbage (preferably Chinese cabbage), thinly sliced beef, Japanese sweet potato noodles (konnyaku: jelly style noodles contained in a plastic bag with water), firm tofu, fish cake, Enoki mushrooms, bell pepper, onion, green onion, regular button mushrooms, eggs, soy sauce, salt, chicken base, mirin, brown sugar, sesame oil, ginger powder

1. Put dried Shitake mushrooms in warm water and let if soften up for 30 minutes.


2. Take all your ingredients out of your refrigirator. :)

3. Chop all the ingredients into small pieces.
This is Enoki mushroom. Cut off the dirty root part and throw it away.
Firm tofu

Fish cake (Oden)
Put them on a single dish and bring it next to the pot.

4. Boil water.

5. Using soy sauce, mirin, chicken base, sugar, sesame oil, salt, and sugar, you are not going to make the soup base.

For my version with 3 cups of water, I added 1 table spoon of chicken base.

4 tablespoons of mirin and soy sauce. Keep tasting until it's right.

Add little bit of salt, ginger powder, 2 table spoons of sesame oil and sugar. Make sure you keep tasting until it tastes right to you. Some people like it sweeter, some people don't, for example.

6. Now put those ingredients into the soup base once it heats up.

This is the picture of Konnyaku, a Japanese sweet potato noodle bag. Make sure you put all the juice inside the bag into your pot as well.

If you go to an Asian market, you can easily find those thin cut beef slices. Some are even labeled as Sukiyaki beef. If there is none in your neighborhood, you can ask your butcher at a market to slice them for you or try to slice them yourself at home. When you do it, make sure you slice it when the beef is semi-frozen so it will cut easily.

So once you add them all, organizing them section by section (good presentation always makes your food more appealing regardless of the flavor... before eating at least that is.)

Keep heating up the pot until the ingredients are fully cooked, especially the beef.

For the raw egg side dish, you put an egg in a small bowl and beat it.


Then dip your beef or other ingredients into your raw egg before eating.
I'm sure some people do not find this appetizing. It's perfectly fine. In that case, you can use Japanese sesame sauce and vinegar sauce. For vinegar sauce, which is called Sambai-Zu, it is used for dipping vegetables. You mix with 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 talespoon of rice vinegar, and sugar. For sesame sauce, which is called Gomadare, you mix with 6 tablespoons white sesame seeds, 200 ml dashi, 5 tablespoons sake, 1 tablespoon mirin, 1 teaspoon sugar, 3 tablespoons soy sauce.

Yakisoba with Tofu

There is really nothing quicker and dirtier than stir frying a Yakisoba dish. All you need is Yakisoba noodles, choice of your stir fry vegetables, and tofu. Of course, instead of tofu, you may add chicken or beef.

Cooking with sesame oil will add a good flavor to stir frying Yakisoba.

The reason I cooked carrots first is to make sure the carrots are fully cooked. I really do not like uncooked carrots. In this case, I sliced them thinly so it would cook quickly anyway but if you have thicker pieces, you might want to do this since carrots take a little longer to cook.
Then dump the Yakisoba noodle. It will soften up as you heat it. You want to make sure to keep stirring because this noodle easily sticks on the bottom unless you have vast amount of oil on the bottom.

Flavor with soy sauce, a little more sesame oil, and brown sugar. Or, you can just add sweetened Teriyaki sauce too if you want to make your life easier.
Add the vegetables of your choice. I added mushrooms, red bell peppers, and asparagus.


Then add tofu (firm).

It's done!