豆腐のホワイトソース

お豆腐という食材はもはや外国の方がよほどポピュラーに使われているようです。海外のお料理サイトを見ていても、豆腐レシピの多さに驚きます。アマンダに聞いたところ、固いステーキ用の豆腐とか、日本にはないような種類の豆腐が欧米のスーパーマーケットにあるとか！

だいぶ秋めいてきた今日は、秋野菜をたっぷり入れたクリームシチューを豆腐で作ってみました。

小麦粉で作るホワイトソースに負けず濃厚な風味で、カロリーも低め、カルシウムも摂れます。

豆腐で作るホワイトソースはミキサーかフードプロセッサーがあれば驚くほど簡単に作れますので覚えておくと重宝です。

豆腐ホワートソースの作り方

材料

・木綿豆腐…400g

・牛乳…100cc強

・コンソメキューブ…1個

・塩、こしょう…適宜

・コーンスターチ…小さじ２

作り方

1.木綿豆腐をしっかりと水切りする。クッキングペーパーに包んでザルに入れて重しを乗せて一晩冷蔵庫に入れておくと簡単。

2.水切りした豆腐と牛乳70cc、コンソメをミキサーに入れて豆腐の塊がなくなるまで撹拌する。

なめらかな状態になったら鍋に移し、弱火にかけながら残りの牛乳をソースの固さを調節しながら加えていく。

コーンスターチを倍量の水で溶いたものを加え、とろみがついたら火を止める。

3.塩、こしょうで味を整える。

ドリアやシチュー、青菜のクリーム煮などに使えます。ダイエット中の強い味方ですね！

濃厚に豆腐の味がしますので、シチューの具材にハンペンやシイタケ、長ネギや里芋など日本の食材を使ってもよく合います。

ドリアにも普通に使えますが、せっかくの豆腐ソースなので醤油味の炊き込みご飯を作って海苔を乗せ、チーズを重ねて和風ドリアを作ってみたらとても好評でした。

Miso Tofu Bruschetta

Bruschetta have been appearing on the menus of Italian restaurants here in Tokyo for a while now. They are simple to make and extremely satisfying either as lunch, brunch, or - with a large glass of chilled white wine, as a light evening meal, and I'm definitely into eating light right now. Made the traditional way, bruschetta are a wonderful way to capture the flavors of ripe summer tomatoes, fresh garden basil and garlic, but I wanted to do something a bit different so decided to marinade some tofu (I'm getting through a block a day right now, in one way, shape or form). 

Mielies!

The delivery man brought me a box of delights yesterday - a great mound of fresh corn-on-the-cob straight from the fields of central Nagano, with dark brown whiskers and bright green husks clasped snugly around ears of corn that peeled back to reveal tight rows of plump, golden kernels, gleaming and glistening like pearls. They looked so good, I was tempted to take a bite right off the cob to taste the sun-warmed sugar on my tongue.

What a difference light makes!

I've been having a bit of difficulty with the shooting element of this venture. I realize that natural light produces the best results, but by and large, the recipes that end up here are things I've cooked for an evening meal, and by the time I get around to eating - even in the height of summer - it's dark outside. My kitchen-cum dining and living room is lit for ambience, not for photography, which either means attempting to shoot my dinner with a lens long enough to capture wild life or fiddling with the white balance and jacking the ISO up to astronomical levels, and still ending up with odd-tinted results. It's also why so many of my photographs are shot at very close range; that element is unlikely to change since I like getting up close, but the addition of powerful spotlighting has made a massive difference to the results I'm getting, and I haven't even got my 50mm fixed focal length lens yet...! That's going to take a bit of adjustment as I'm used to shooting with a zoom of some description: the lens that's currently on my camera is a Nikkor 35-70mm, f3.3, which isn't that light at the best of times and I'm mostly photographing at 70mm, which gives me a maximum of f4.5. The new-old lens - it's pre-loved, but new to me - is a Nikkor 50mm, f1.8. It's due to arrive tomorrow and I can't wait.