Saturday, January 26, 2008

Stuffed Yuba & Salad

My WHB post. Well, it's late Friday night, and I've finally gotten home from Napa and Sonoma through all the flooding and closed roads! Yikes! What a night in Southern Sonoma/Northern Marin counties! I went to meet Linda for her birthday wish of a spa day at the Silverado Spa in the afternoon. The service and services are impeccable and oh so relaxing! Then off to dinner at Shiso, a delightful Japan-esque Asian fusion restaurant in Sonoma. Then I came home with the navigational efforts from my friend Daniel at his desk in Berkeley and the kind CalTrans gentleman who stopped and asked if I needed help! Yes! How to find a road not flooded out/closed. He steered me well and I'm alive to write this post for Saturday!

Tofu, egg & Beech Mushrooms

So most of my ingredients were picked up a the San Rafael Farmer's Market (Sunday), the eggs, yuba and tofu all were purchased there. Fresh yuba to die for! The recipe is actually quite simple. I took a cake of medium firm tofu, well drained and mixed in a package of beech mushrooms and two eggs beaten. Probably one egg would have been enough, but I wanted to be sure the mix held together well.

Yuba skins

Then I opened up a piece of fresh yuba (the package had three sheets) and filled it with a third of the tofu mixture and wrapped it. Yuba is proportionally high in protein and low in carbs. This is great for those wanting a wrapper without the grain products/gluten.

Steaming basket

I lined the steamer bottom with parchment paper, and placed the wrapped tofu in them and steamed for about fifteen minutes.

Stuffed Yuba on plate

So I just took it out of the steamer and plated it, drizzling with ponzu (soy citrus) sauces and adding some mixed green salad to the plate.

Stuffed Yuba, interior view

Here is what it looks like cut open. It's a healthy and delicious entree that is quite hearty. And I have the pleasure of hosting this week!

My herb is the yuba, which is basically the skin that forms on thick, heated soy milk that's carefully removed and folded. It's usually found in dried form, which is soaked in water to reconstitute. Fresh is best though, and I am so lucky to find it at the Farmer's Market!

Yuba has the same great nutritional qualities as the soy milk it's made of -- high in protein and a goodly amount of calcium, low in sugars/carbs.

If you would like to participate this week, send me your entry before 3 p.m. Mountain Time on Sunday, you'll make the round up here and be part of the drawing for a food-related book!

6 comments:

Kalyn Denny said...

Anna, I've never heard of Yuba! I'm always learning something from you. It sounds like it would be perfect for South Beach; I will definitely be looking for it.

Anonymous said...

Anna, this looks terrific! I'm also not familiar with yuba (is it similar to the thin tofu-based wrap on unari sushi?), and it looks like a great thing to try. With so many different food markets here in Toronto, I'm sure I could find it somewhere. . . I'd love to try out this dish!

Thanks so much for your comment on my blog. I've bookmarked yours and look forward to going through your older posts.

Wandering Chopsticks said...

Ah, I posted about bean curd skin this week too. Not for WHB though. But wrapped around shrimp paste.

Anna Haight said...

Kayln: It can be found in Chinese markets as well as Japanese, it can also be called 'bean curd skin'.

Ricki: Inari sushi pockets are made from deep fried tofu slices. Yuba is pre-tofu, thinner, and only fried if you fry it. You might want to check out Wandering Chopsticks' (below) post that uses it as a crispy wrap around shrimp paste by deep frying.

Wandering Chopsticks: Your recipe using bean curd skin looks fabulous!

Katie Zeller said...

Wow! Does that ever sound interesting! And yummy!
I's never heard of it either.
(BTW, I just sent my submissions... late...sorry - I got confused..)

Laurie Constantino said...

Lucky you to have fresh yuba - and you have certainly made good use of it. What a wonderful sounding recipe!