Summer = Cold Tofu

Herbs are always hard to purchase at stores. Usually they sell too many in a package that are too old already, and you have no time to use them. I started growing my own chives for tofu - it's delicious with cold tofu and fresh grated ginger with a little bit of soy sauce over it... refreshing...



Now, being Japanese, the summer cold tofu just doesn't feel complete without Shiso. You may see this used as garnish on your sashimi or sushi dishes, but it is super fragrant and quite lovely to eat.



It's sometimes called Perilla in English, but it's not very common in western culture. It's a bit minty, but not tooth pastey, and the texture is somewhat like parsley, but not as prickly... hmmm... it's hard to explain.



My favorite way of using Shiso is, of course, with sushi and sashimi. But since I can't have that at home nearly enough, I have to have another way of enjoying Shiso. It worked really well in my cod-roe pasta the other day, so I'm going to have to try it with a garlic pasta and see how that goes, but always a summer favorite is on top a block of chilled tofu with chives and ginger on the side for a variety of simple but refreshing flavors!