Toan is Yamaki Jozo’s tofu factory.
Toan tofu is made daily from Japanese soybeans grown by contracted farmers, local mountain spring water, and nigari (bittern: a natural by-product of the salt-making process). The fragrant nuttiness of the beans and the purity of the water come together into a beautiful silky custard, like no other.
To truly taste the nuance of tofu, you should first try it naked, without salt or soy sauce.
But if you just want to sit down and enjoy tofu as a side dish, serve cotton tofu, silk tofu, and yuba cold; but sear fried tofu products in a little oil on a pan, to re-crisp. Garnish with one of, or a combination of, the following: freshly grated ginger, chopped scallions, shaved katsuobushi (smoked, fermented, sun-dried skip jack tuna) and organic soy sauce. Yuba is particularly good with freshly grated wasabi. And any of our products are also lovely in simmered dishes, soups, or one-pot dishes (nabe).
Toan soy milk is lusciously flavorful and makes a protein-rich substitute for milk in savory or sweet custards as well as a creamy base for soups and stews.
Silken tofu (kinudofu): Silken tofu is made by stirring Izu-oshima Island nigari (natural by-product of the salt-making process) into hot soy milk and then held until set. The texture is smoother and more slippery and delicate than cotton tofu. Silken tofu is good in composed salads, and on its own garnished with chopped scallions and grated ginger.
Cotton tofu (momendofu): To make “Cotton-style tofu”, we first make silk tofu by stirring Izu-oshima Island nigari (natural by-product of the salt-making process) into hot soy milk, then poured into muslin cloth-lined molds and mixed, and weighted until set.
Yuba: Soy milk skimmed off the surface of scalding soy milk. Delicate and highly perishable.
Usuage: Thinly sliced pressed tofu, deep-fried in rapeseed oil to puff up into crispy pockets for stuffing, simmering, or stir-frying. Also called abura-age.
Atsuage: Deep-fried pressed blocks of tofu, used in simmered dishes.
Ganmodoki: Tofu croquettes formed from pressed tofu, carrot, shimeji mushroom, konbu (kelp), dried shrimp, grated mountain yam, then deep-fried in first-pressed rapeseed oil. Good as is, or in simmered dishes.
Soy Milk: Thick soy milk extracted from Japan-grown soybeans, suitable for drinking, cooking, or making fresh tofu.
Okara (soybean pulp): Dried soybean solids that are the by-product of making soy milk. Easily reconstituted and most often stir-fried with julienned root vegetables.
Natto: Japan-grown organic soybeans inoculated with natto bacillus spores, and fermented in charcoal-heated rooms following age-old traditional methods. Packed in paper-thin sheets of pine.