Cold Tofu in Sesame Sauce

I’m seldom not hungry. The very name of this blog should give you a hint of that…most parts of the day I do think of what has been lined up for the next meal, much like most Singaporeans who literally live to eat. So I knew something was wrong when I was at hub’s medical school reunion and I could barely touch the buffet dinner. There was a mild sense of food aversion…eating was just like going through the motions…and by the end of the evening when the muscle aches and raspy throat came on, I knew why.

I HATE BEING SICK. But I decided to knuckle down and catch up on a month’s worth of sleep debt. After a day or so of decadently snoozing in bed, I thought I was ready to up and go, only to discover myself hacking and wheezing, worse than before. And resigned myself to another day of hiding out in the bedroom.

Still, since the low grade fever was over I felt ready enough to make it for a potluck dinner cum mentoring group meeting tonight. The appetite is barely there and so I wasn’t in the mood to make a hearty stew or casserole. Thanks to SJ, friend in Australia who recently discovered cold tofu as the next big thing in low carb eating, I was reminded of this kind of low-effort dish. This cold tofu is less traditional than the one I posted before, but it still gets its inspiration from Japanese-type cold tofu. I used the sesame “goma” sauce that we often use as a dipping sauce in steamboat and Shabu-Shabu and mixed it with some ponzu sauce and sesame oil. This dish is light, cold and refreshing and should be a relief in the blisteringly hot weather we have been having lately.

From left: Japanese sesame sauce and yuzu citrus “ponzu” sauce.

Cold Tofu With Sesame Sauce

Servings: 4
Time: 30 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
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Ingredients

2 blocks of soft tofu
1/3 cup sesame sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp ponzu sauce
1/2 Japanese cucumber
1 century egg
1 tbsp chopped spring onions (green parts only)
1 tsp toasted white sesame seeds

Method

Cut the cucumber into sticks, slicing away the inner portion with seeds. Slice thinly into 1/2 cm thick slices.
Cut the tofu into 1 cm by 3 cm pieces (slice the block of tofu into half, lengthwise, then into smaller slices). Place the tofu into a glass container, arranging the slices neatly and evenly.
Mix the sesame sauce, ponzu sauce and sesame oil. Taste and adjust the mixture. Pour over the tofu.
Scatter the cut cucumber over the top. Dice the century egg and scatter over the top as well. Sprinkle the spring onions and sesame seeds over the top.
Cover the container and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes or until ready to eat.