Japanese Ganmodoki Cakes

My university serves Ganmodoki cakes in the dining hall every so often. I wrote down the name so I could find the recipe. Looking at them I thought they probably wouldn't be that good as most of the tofu patties or tofu swedish meatballs aren't very good. BUT, Ganmodoki cakes are AMAZING.

I found a recipe here:

Quote:

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BRYANNA’S GANMODOKI (JAPANESE TOFU PATTIES)
Makes 8-12
From my book “Soyfoods Cooking for a Positive Menopause”.

This simple tofu dish is made every day in tofu shops in Japan, using the remaining tofu that was made the day before. These patties are usually deep-fried, but can be successfully shallow-fried or oven-fried. They are delicious cold or hot and will keep one week in the refrigerator. They make great snacks and day-hiking food, too.

You can use large patties like regular burgers, or small patties as appetizers. You can eat them plain or with soy sauce, chutney, ketchup, salsa, etc.. Cold ganmodoki can also be sliced and added to Japanese-style soups and stews (oden), or braise whole cold ganmodoki patties for 4-5 minutes in a mixture of 4 C. water, 1/4 c. Japanese soy sauce, 1/4 c. dry sherry or mirin (Japanese rice wine), and 1 T. unbleached sugar.

10-12 oz. firm tofu
2 T. grated carrot
2 T. grated fresh ginger
2 T. minced onion, green onion, or leek
2 T. frozen baby peas (petit pois), thawed
2 T. lightly-toasted sesame seeds
3/4 tsp. salt
OPTIONAL: 2 T. chopped mushrooms (preferably fresh shiitake or soaked dried shiitake or Chinese forest mushrooms-- discard stems)
cooking oil for frying or brushing

Crumble the tofu very finely, or process in a food processor. Add the remaining ingredients and knead together by hand or in the food processor until it holds together. Form into 8 to 12 patties (or more tiny ones for appetizers) with smooth edges.

To shallow-fry, heat about 1/2" of cooking oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the patties and fry til golden and crispy on one side. Turn over and fry until the other side is golden and crispy. Drain on paper towels.

To oven-fry, preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Place the patties on dark oiled cookie sheets and brush or spray with a little cooking oil. Bake about 6 minutes per side, or until golden and crispy on both sides, and slightly puffed up.

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I haven't made this particular recipe, but if they taste anything like the one's I've had they're sure to please.:heart:

Sounds great and simple - are the peas whole in the ones you have?

They certainly do!:bigsmile2:

They were whole peas.

I'm deffo going to be giving this a whirl - will report back!

Well... I know where I went wrong! Firstly, I didn't look up on teh internets what they were supposed to look like before I started making them. Had I done so I would have realised straight away that frozen/thawed tofu was a BAD IDEA, but I was mislead by the word "crumbled" in the recipe. So because I used crumbly defrosted tofu, there was nothing to bind it together even when I shoved it back in the processor and blitzed it some more... it just disintegrated in the pan to a ganmodoki mush, so it ended up as one big pattie.

Tasted lovely though - here with some tamari sauce and a few left over onigiri.
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m.../moto_0047.jpg

Will try again another time and this time get it right!

they sound really nice, thanks :)

That does sound a bit misleading, but I'm glad they came out tasting delicious! I think I'm going to make them this week and see out it goes.

http://i40.tinypic.com/32zj75v.jpg

Had them in the dining hall today. Usually they look more like patties but not today, they tasted more like gnocchi, still good though.