Hi Karen! Since you're, among other things, a connoisseur of Japanese food, I was wondering if you knew how to make Japanese dipping sauce - the kind that Agedashi Tofu sits in (is that the same as what they serve to dip the tempura in?)

Thanks!
Lily

Don't have a specific recipe, but it's a combination of dashi, mirin and soy sauce, heavy on the dashi. Tempura dipping sauce is similar but contains sake, less dashi and more soy.

I would skip the mirin and add a touch of sweetener instead.

Karen

Thank you Karen! You probably recommend making my own dashi - but to be honest, I can't be bothered to make it each time. Is there a powdered (or liquid) brand that you might recommend for the dashi? How about the mirin? I guess it makes my whole question on "how do you make the agedashi sauce" moot! LOL!!

Yes, it does make your question moot!

There's a type of dashi that comes in a tea bag that's pretty natural. All the powdered kinds are full of icky stuff. Mirin? Too full of sugar for my taste. Use sake and AS instead.

Make your own dashi. It's an uplifting and enlightening experience.

Karen

Excellent! I'll use Sake (which I have quite a lot of) with AS in place of the mirin and I think I will take your advice and give it a try making my own dashi. There are so many variations on how to make it. I think making it with shiitake would be really tasty, but the majority of recipes I've seen are for the type with bonito flakes (this must be the main way to make it).

Thanks again Karen!
Lily

Karen,

Do you have any on-line sources for the agedashi or fried tofu? I am a horrid fry-girl and would rather just buy it already done.

thanks!

I don't know where you live but most Chinese or Japanese grocery stores will have fried tofu and so will most progressive supermarkets. I did a brief search using the keywords "buy tofu online" and didn't come up with anything.

Karen