Ginger Tofu with Blistered Eggplant and Shiso
Planks of firm tofu browned hard in a skillet with blistered eggplant, a pan sauce of ginger, soy, and yuzu, and a handful of torn shiso leaves stirred through off the heat.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
Eggplant and tofu are two foods that people describe as bland, and both of them are simply waiting for heat and salt. Eggplant is a sponge with an open, airy structure, so it takes a hard sear better than almost any other vegetable and turns from squeaky to silky in about six minutes. Tofu wants the same treatment, a hot pan and the patience to leave it alone. I built this around the two of them because they cook at similar speeds, taste completely different from each other, and between them make a dinner that takes under half an hour on a weeknight.
Shiso is the leaf that makes this dish what it is. It grows in Japanese and Korean gardens the way basil grows in Italian ones, and it tastes like a cross between mint, basil, and something faintly citrus and anise that has no other name. It goes in at the very end, off the heat, because thirty seconds over a live burner turns it dull and grassy and takes the perfume out of it. If you cannot find it, torn basil with a little mint gets you somewhere close, and I have used both without regret. Yuzu juice does something similar from a different direction, floral and sharp at once.
Savory and bright, with the kitchen not turned into a project and no more than one pan dirtied. It eats well hot from the skillet and just as well at room temperature twenty minutes later, which makes it forgiving on the evenings when somebody is running late. The tofu planks hold together well enough to lift with a spatula, so it plates properly rather than arriving as a heap, and the eggplant goes on quietly soaking up the last of the ginger and yuzu sauce while it sits on the platter.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lb firm tofu (two blocks), drained, pressed, and cut into 3/4-inch planks
- 2 Japanese eggplants (about 1 1/4 lb), halved lengthwise and cut into 1-inch wedges
- 6 scallions, thinly sliced, whites and greens kept separate
- a 2 1/2-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and cut into fine matchsticks
- 3 garlic cloves, grated
- 1/2 cup shiso (perilla) leaves, torn, about 12 leaves
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp yuzu juice, or lemon juice
- 1 1/2 tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar
- 1 1/4 tbsp avocado oil
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 2 1/2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
Instructions
- Press and cut the tofu: Drain both blocks and set them on a folded towel with a second towel and a plate on top for ten minutes while you prepare everything else. Cut each block into four thick planks and pat the cut faces dry. Dry faces are what let the tofu brown rather than stick, and this is the single step people skip.
- Blister the eggplant: Heat the avocado oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high until it shimmers. Add the eggplant wedges cut side down in one layer and leave them for three minutes, until the cut faces are deep brown and blistered. Turn, cook three minutes more, then move them to a plate. They should be collapsing and glossy, not squeaky.
- Brown the tofu: Add the sesame oil to the same pan and lay the tofu planks in without crowding. Leave them undisturbed for four minutes until a golden crust forms and they release from the pan on their own, then turn once and give them three minutes more. Resist moving them early, since tofu sticks until the crust is set and then lets go.
- Build the pan sauce: Scatter the ginger matchsticks, the grated garlic, and the scallion whites around the tofu and stir them in the fat for forty five seconds, until they smell sweet. Pour in the soy sauce, the yuzu juice, and the rice vinegar. It will hiss and reduce to a syrupy film in under a minute. Spoon it over the planks as it thickens.
- Finish off the heat: Return the eggplant to the pan and toss gently so it takes on the sauce. Turn the burner off, then add the torn shiso, the scallion greens, and the toasted sesame seeds and fold everything over twice. The shiso should still be recognizably a leaf when it reaches the plate.
Variations
- Add mushrooms: Half a pound of sliced mushrooms browned with the eggplant makes the pan deeper and more savory, and they drink up the sauce the same way.
- Tempeh planks: Swap in a pound of tempeh cut into slabs. It browns faster than tofu and brings a nuttier, firmer bite to the same sauce.
- Green and crunchy: Toss in a large handful of snow peas for the last minute so they stay bright and snap against the soft eggplant.
- More heat: A teaspoon of gochugaru bloomed with the ginger turns this warmer and redder without covering the yuzu.
- Cold noodle bowl: Chill the whole thing and serve it over cucumber ribbons with an extra splash of rice vinegar for a hot-weather version.
Storage & Leftovers
It keeps three days covered in the refrigerator. The eggplant carries on absorbing the sauce, which is no bad thing, and the tofu firms up as it chills. Add fresh shiso when you serve leftovers, since the leaves that sat overnight go dark and lose their perfume.
Reheat in a skillet over medium for three or four minutes rather than in the microwave. The tofu regains some of its crust that way and the eggplant warms without going watery. A fresh squeeze of yuzu or lemon at the end brings the whole thing back into focus.
This is one of the few tofu dishes I am happy to eat cold, straight from the container, so consider deliberately cooking extra. I would not freeze it, since eggplant that has been frozen and thawed goes stringy and gives up too much water to save.
Notes & Tips
- Cut side down, then leave it: Eggplant blisters where it makes flat contact with hot metal. Laid cut side down and left still for three full minutes, it browns; stirred every thirty seconds, it steams and goes gray.
- Press the tofu while you prep: Ten minutes under a plate is enough, and it happens for free while you slice the eggplant and cut the ginger. Wet tofu will not take a crust.
- Matchstick the ginger, do not grate it: Grated ginger dissolves into the sauce and disappears. Fine matchsticks stay as bright little bites you find as you eat, which is the point of using this much of it.
- Shiso goes in with the heat off: Delicate leaves cooked even briefly turn dull and lose the anise note that makes them worth buying. Fold them in after the pan comes off the burner.
- Keep the acid for the end: Yuzu and rice vinegar poured in early boil away to nothing. They go in when the sauce is already forming, so the sharpness survives to the plate.
- Give the tofu room: Eight planks want a twelve-inch pan. Crowded tofu drops the pan temperature and everything steams, so brown it in two batches if your skillet is smaller.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Tofu, eggplant, and sesame make a full plate between them. The tofu supplies the protein and the substance, the eggplant gives volume and fiber for very little carbohydrate, and the sesame and its oil bring the fat that makes both of them taste finished.
- Firm tofu is pressed soybean curd set with calcium salts, which is why a block of it carries so much calcium along with its protein. Pressing and searing drives off water and concentrates everything, which is also why the planks eat so much more substantially than the same weight of soft tofu.
- Eggplant is mostly water held in an open, spongy structure, so a large amount of it cooks down to a silky texture while keeping its fiber. The deep purple skin is worth leaving on, since that color comes from anthocyanin pigments that sit almost entirely in the peel.
- Ginger used by the tablespoon rather than the pinch is what gives this pan its warmth and its faint burn, and the gingerols behind that heat have been studied for their effect on digestion.
- Sesame seeds toasted until they pop are the last thing to hit the bowl, and their nutty aroma carries calcium and copper into a dish that is already generous with both.
- As you eat, catch the shiso and the yuzu against the softness of the eggplant, and let a dish this quick still be something you sit down for rather than finish standing over the pan.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do I find shiso?
Japanese and Korean groceries carry it fresh most of the year, usually in a flat pack of large green leaves near the herbs. It is also one of the easiest things to grow in a pot on a windowsill. Torn basil with a few mint leaves stands in well enough that nobody at my table has ever complained.
Which eggplant should I buy?
Long slender Japanese or Chinese eggplants, if you can get them, because they have thin skins, few seeds, and they cook through in the time this recipe allows. A large globe eggplant works too, cut into similar wedges, though it takes a couple of minutes longer and the skin is chewier.
Do I need to salt the eggplant first?
Not with the varieties here and not for a fast sear like this one. Salting draws out water and some bitterness, which matters for a large seedy globe eggplant going into a long braise. For six minutes in a hot pan, dry eggplant straight from the board browns better.
My tofu fell apart in the pan. What happened?
Almost always either soft tofu or an early flip. Buy the block labeled firm or extra firm, press it properly, and then leave it alone for the full four minutes. Tofu that is stuck is tofu that has not finished browning, and it will release itself when it is ready.