Agedashi is silken tofu encased in a gelatinous yet crisp coating of potato starch, and swimming in umami packed tsuyu. The truffled mushrooms add a delicious complexity to this already luxurious dish.
Combine the ingredients in a saucepan and bring up to a high simmer.
Simmer for 5 minutes to evaporate off the alcohol.
Remove from the heat.
Reheat if necessary before use.
Fried Tofu
Lay out several layers of paper towels.
Sprinkle salt onto the paper towels.
Carefully cut the tofu into bite sized pieces and place on the paper towels.
Sprinkle some more salt onto top of the tofu pieces.
Lay some more layers of paper towels on top of the tofu.
Allow to sit for 20 minutes to allow the salt to draw out some of the moisture.
Put the potato starch onto a plate.
Heat the oil in a pan to 150 degC.
Coat pieces of tofu with potato starch and carefully put in the hot oil. Don’t crowd the pan. Do 5 or 6 at a time. Because of the water content of silken tofu, it may splatter a bit at first.
The fried tofu will become quite crispy while still looking white. There is no nee to cook them until golden. Or maybe just slightly golden.
Drain on paper towels.
Garnish
Remove the stems and finely dice the shiitake mushrooms.
Stir-fry the mushrooms until starting to brown and significantly reduced in size. Transfer to a bowl.
Finely dice the truffle slices and add to the mushrooms, together with 2 tsp truffle oil. Stir to combine. Cover in plastic wrap.
Finely dice the chives.
Put 4 pieces of fried tofu in a dish.
Top with some truffled mushroom mix.
Pour some tsuyu into the base of the dish. Don’t pour over the tofu as that will make it soggy.