5/17/2007

Tofu skin or Yuba is a well known ingredient in Japanese cooking. It’s the same ingredient used for Inari sushi, except that the tofu skin is marinated in a sweet sauce. Yuba or tofu skin is a Chinese and Japanese food product made from soybeans. During the boiling of soy milk, in an open shallow pan, a film or skin composed primarily of a soy protein-lipid complex forms on the liquid surface. The films are collected and dried into yellowish sheets known as tofu skin or soy milk skin.

Tofu skin may be purchased in fresh or dried form, in the latter case, the tofu skin is rehydrated in water before use. It is often used to wrap dim sum or sushi or as anything that the imaginative mind can think of.

Here’s a step by step process on how to make Yuba, courtesy from Bento.com.

I found a very cool recipe using Yuba as a skin for a roll. It’s pretty easy to make too. You just need to wrap and deep fry and then eat with maybe chili sauce or any sauce you like. I just prefer spicy stuff.

The recipe was taken from Bento.com as well:

Ingredients:

* 8 slices dried yuba, each about 8 inches (20cm) square
* 2 ounces (60g) nagaimo yam, peeled and finely diced
* 8 fresh shiitake or button mushroom caps, finely diced
* 1/2 ounce (15g) carrot, peeled and finely chopped
* 1 teaspoon salt
* dash white pepper
* 2 tablespoons cornstarch
* 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, dissolved in 2 tablespoons water
* vegetable oil, for deep-frying
* salt, for garnish

Method:
1. Combine all ingredients except oil and salt.
2. Put about 1 tbsp of ingredients on the Yuba and roll them up into tubes
3. Heat vegetable oil and deep fry the rolls until golden brown.

Serve with your favorite sauce and sprinkle some salt on your hot rolls.

Source: Bento