This recipe with dried tofu skin or yuba is inspired by a fucha ryori (普茶料理, Buddhist vegan cuisine) recipe from the Zen temple cookbook I bought in Japan. My variation is to make yubamaki: I wrapped the tofu skins in nori seaweed like a sushi maki roll. The stewed hijiki is similar to my previous recipe but with added aubergines. I serve this with Japanese rice.
Dried tofu skin is also called dried (soy) bean curd. The brand I got is Zheng Feng Dried Beancurd Sheets (正豐三邊腐竹). The hijiki seaweed I used is Wel-Pac Dried Hijiki Seaweed. All the other ingredients can be found in ordinary supermarkets.
This recipe takes about 45 minutes apart from the soaking.
Japanese-style vegan gluten-free • 625 kcal per person 
Ingredients
For two people:
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For the dashi
- a piece of kombu of about 2.5 cm x 10 cm
- 2 dried shiitake mushrooms
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Main ingredients
- 2 aubergines (400 g)
- 2 medium carrots (300 g)
- 1 cm ginger, finely chopped
- 4 sheets of dried tofu skins. The sheets I use are about 15 cm x 25 cm. The sheets are quite brittle and might break but don’t worry about that.
- 3-4 tablespoons hijiki seaweed
- 1 cup Japanese rice (200 g)
- a sheet of nori seaweed, approx. 20 cm x 30 cm. You need 8 pieces of about 7 cm x 10 cm in total.
- 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 teaspoon sesame oil for frying
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Seasonings
- 4 tablespoons soy sauce
- 4 tablespoons mirin
Preparation
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Soaking
Several of the ingredients for this recipe require soaking:
- hijiki: in 1 l cold water for at least an hour.
- Japanese rice: wash and strain and let it sit in the sieve for 30 minutes. Then soak in 1.2 cups of cold water for 30 minutes. See Makiko Itoh’s site Just Hungry for a detailed explanation.
- kombu and dried shiitake: in 500 ml water, either overnight in cold water in the fridge or for 30 minutes in hot water. This is dashi.
- tofu skins: in warm water for 30 minutes.
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Cooking
- Cook the rice (see The Basics for full details).
- Heat the dashi in the microwave for 4 minutes at full power (900W), taking care not to boil it. Remove the kombu and shiitake from the dashi.
- Drain the soaking liquid of the tofu skins and roll them up starting from the short side. Wrap any smaller pieces which may have broken off inside the larger ones. Simmer in 250 ml of dashi with soy sauce and mirin (two tablespoons each) for 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool.
- Cut the aubergines in small chunks and cook them for 7 minutes in the microwave at full power (900W).
- Cut the carrots in small strips.
- Heat a tablespoon olive oil and a teaspoon sesame oil in a frying pan with a lid.
- Fry the carrots and ginger for a few minutes over high heat.
- Add the soaked hijiki and fry for another minute over medium heat.
- Add the aubergines.
- Add 250 ml dashi with soy sauce and mirin (two tablespoons each), cover and simmer over low heat for 20-30 minutes until the carrots are tender.
- Remove the skin rolls from the pan. Cut each roll in two and wrap each half in a sheet of nori seaweed of about 7 cm x 10 cm. Trim excess tofu skin off the edges.