Atsuage

There are a handful of different types of fried tofu in Japanese cooking. Among the most popular are aburaage, agedashi, and, in this case, atsuage.

The key distinguishing characteristics of atsuage is the type of tofu, thickness, and cooking method. While agedashi tofu is made of soft tofu with a starch dredge and tentsuyu dipping broth, and aburaage is specifically thin, atsuage is made of thick slices of firm tofu, fried with no dredge at all.

This type of tofu is popular in much of Asia in curries, soups, noodle dishes, stir fries, or just on its own as a snack with dipping sauce. It tends to hold up better than unfried tofu, since the crispy exterior helps hold things together — and it has much more structural integrity than soft tofu, for obvious reasons.

Atsuage is generally either cut into thick triangles or rectangles. Before frying, the tofu is wrapped in a paper or cloth towel and pressed with either a heavy object like a cookbook or pan, or in an actual tofu press. This helps “squeeze” some of the moisture out, allowing it to cook smoother and fry faster so the outside gets golden crispy without retaining too much oil.

One of the nice things about atsuage is that it doesn’t require any breading or dredging — all you do is fry the tofu all by itself, with the exterior naturally becoming golden brown. This might make it the easiest ingredient to deep fry of all time.

Although frying does add some fat, atsuage is by far one of the healthiest fried foods you can eat; tofu is extremely high in protein, has no cholesterol and is low in fat in general, while also being a good source of calcium, iron, potassium, and fiber.

Atsuage can be found at Uwajimaya already fried and ready to add to your dishes, or you can easily make it at home with firm or extra firm tofu, which you can get in our grocery department.