Delicious Store Cupboard Noodles with Tofu & Mushrooms
AKA Fried Kuzukiri Noodles with Koya Dofu and Kikurage Mushrooms. This recipe uses top quality, dried Japanese ingredients. Keep these three in stock for emergencies.
Today’s recipe uses some unique dried ingredients. Along with these, by adding a few easy to find fresh ingredients too, you can make a freshly cooked plate full of Japanese flavour. This is great emergency food, without compromise. By emergency, I’m thinking just back from a long journey, late night, busy mid-week. There’s not much inspiration in the fridge. Nothing more worrying than that. Just no meals planned.
There are so many Japanese dried ingredients to choose from, but I’m really excited about these three: dried tofu, dried glass noodles and dried mushrooms. Dried versions of each are wonderful to keep in a kitchen cupboard. For each, there’s a number of different varieties you could use. I’m leaving the ingredients general at first as this is a dish that you can cook easily with substitions (see the list at the end of the recipe).
It is worth buying in Japanese dried ingredients for authentic Japanese flavour. But don’t be put off if you can’t get your hands on one or two on the day. For example, dried shiitake mushrooms are perfect to keep in the cupboard but you could opt for a bag of mixed frozen mushrooms, or button mushrooms bought locally if you’ve run out.
This recipe is created to bring the dried versions of tofu, mushrooms and glass noodles together, as texturally the three are quite distinct. The glass noodles look beautiful on the plate, a little other-worldly and they take on the juicy flavours of the sauce. The mushrooms add a little distinctive bite or crunch even, depending on the type you use, bringing with them heaps of umami. The rehydrated tofu is an incredible flavour carrier as it soaks up the sauce too.
If you do want to get specific and use the ingredients I mention here, check out Kokoro for their packages of carefully sourced products from indie Japanese suppliers. Kokoro is a company based between Japan and North America. Founders, Lillian and Aki, work closely with the makers, to ensure the selected products are consistently top quality. Their curated boxes are themed and a real source of inspiration, for a number of years now. I’ve based this recipe on their Vegan Shōjin Ryōri Package.
For dried tofu, a go-to that’s really loved in Japan, is Koya Dofu. It comes in little blocks, normally 4-8 in a packet and they are rehydrated by soaking in water for around 30-40 minutes. The tofu is freeze-dried and was first made by monks around Mount Koya (Kansai region – south of Osaka), as a way of storing surplus soya beans to last them until spring. The idea was then snapped up by feudal lords and warriors in the Nagano region, as when dry it was very light to carry but packed full of nutrition. When you pick up a little packet, it is so lightweight and this history really sticks in mind.
Not a feudal warlord concerned about the nutrition-to-weight ratio? The main reason to use koya dofu is for its spongey texture and the way it picks up the juicy flavours of the sauce you cook it in. Spongey is a word that could go either way, but here it’s meant in the best sense. When you bite into koya dofu, cooked in this way, the flavours burst in the mouth.
For the mushrooms, I’ve used Kikurage dried mushrooms AKA wood ear mushrooms. They make me smile as they do look a little ear like. They have some crunch, so I like the mix of texture they bring to this dish. You might have spotted them used in a ramen, as a topping. These are a unique variety, a little hard to find but wonderful if you can. With a mild, naturally earthy fragrance they are distinct due to their crunch. I love the play of these textures in a dish with the juicy dofu and glassy, slippery noodles. When I rehydrated the kikurage mushrooms for this recipe, I was stunned by how beautiful the leftover stock was. It has a lovely pinkish hue and this of course, went straight into the frying pan for more umami.
Kuzukiri Noodles are amazingly healthy. The main ingredient is a (kuzu or kudzu) starch extracted from the roots of the kudzu vine, called arrowroots. Arrowroot is well known in Japanese herbal medicine as it is though to be good at helping with digestive issues and reducing inflammation. After my brother had surgery, he ate a lot of kuzukiri as it is so gentle on the stomach. Kuzukiri noodles are easy to eat as they are not strongly flavoured. They are wide, soft and slippery, and in Japanese nicknamed ‘Sashimi of the Mountains’ for their glassy appearance.
There is a hidden ingredient here, the dashi. The soaking water from the mushrooms should definitely be used. You can add to this with a quick freshly made dashi, or use a high quality powdered version. The Kokoro dashi is excellent, powdered but absolutely natural as you can tell from the flavour. Their dashi has shiitake, kombu and dried daikon. As there is salt in most dashi powder, if using it take this into account before adding other salt (miso or soya sauce too). Whichever you decide to use, make sure to steer clear of any with MSG (Kokoro’s is fine).
Finally, for fresh texture and colour, use whichever vegetables you can get your hands on, seasonal if possible. I’ve used carrots and spinach here (not seasonal right now), as they are easy to find and buy locally. You could use up leftover veg, or use frozen. If you do have the choice, it’s the veg that bring colour to the dish, so ideally something green and perhaps a splash of red, orange or yellow, via sweet peppers.
Enjoy the recipe! As always let me know in the comments how it goes and what substitutions you find work.
RECIPE
Serves 2 people
Ingredients:
2x Koya Dofu (around 15-20g dried) (soaked for min 40 mins in 500ml cold water)
1x handful kikurage 5g (soaked for min 1/2 hour in at least 3 times the amount water) Keep the water after soaking
Whole packet of Kuzukiri noodles (90g)
2 cups fresh baby leaf spinach
3 cms ginger peeled
1 medium sized carrot
3 tbsp Kaeshi sauce
2 teaspoon dashi powder
1 tbsp rice bran oil or any vegetable oil
Optional Toppings:
Sesame oil (I like the chilli version)
White sesame seeds
Shichimi Togarashi (Japanese Seven Spice powder)
METHOD
Soak the mushrooms and dofu separately for 30-40 minutes. You can normally speed this up by using hot water for around 10-15 minutes (check the package instructions for specific times)
Take the rehydrated mushrooms and dofu out of the water, squeezing out the excess water, then set them to one side. Discard the dofu water, but keep the mushroom water for use
Peel the ginger and then slice it into fine juliennes
Peel the carrot and cut into bite sized portions (I like them pencil or roll cut)
Chop the mushrooms into fine strips
Cut the dofu into cubes of around 1-2cms
Heat up the oil on a medium heat in a frying pan then add the ginger to start with until you smell the aroma, around 30 secs
Then add the carrot, the dofu and the mushrooms, sauteeing them for around 2 mins
If, when frying, it starts to get a little too dry, reduce the heat slightly and splash a tablespoon of water. Don't add oil, as this will make it too oily
In the meantime, boil the noodles this will take around 9-10 mins (again refer to the packet’s instructions here or the specific timing)
Reduce the heat on the stir fry until the vegetables are cooked through, around 5-6 mins further
Mix the 3 tbsp kaeshi sauce with the stock and 1 tbsp of the mushroom water, put to one side. Put 1/2 of the mixed sauce into the veg/tofu then reduce the heat to the minimum
Drain the cooked noodles, add them straight into the stir fry. At the same time add the spinach.
Add the remaining sauce and cook until it is mostly evaporated and the spinach has cooked.
Serve and sprinkle with white sesame seeds, shichimi and a drizzle of sesame oil
SUBSTITUTIONS
Kuzukiri Noodles - Try Vermicelli or rice noodles, these work well but will cook a faster so check those timings!
Kikurage Mushrooms - any dried mushrooms, like shiitake. You can use fresh too, but will lose some of the intensity of flavour that dried brings. You could use any fresh type such as button mushrooms, or oyster mushrooms, shimeji or king oyster.
Dofu - Firm tofu from the supermarket, I like Tofoo’s Naked Firm Tofu
Vegetables - Any vegetables you like, or that are in season, that you have in stock
Dashi - A simple, fast homemade dashi from shiitake or kombu is ideal. Try my cafetierre made dashi using bonito flakes. You can also use pre-made fresh dashi from supermarkets.
Definitely, a restacker for the Bay Area and Silicon Valley where we can get these three items at H Mart or even in the international aisle of grocery stores.