Because summers in Japan are hot and humid, Japanese cooks know a thing or two about the refreshing dishes such sultry days call for.

Gomadofu falls into that category: a concoction of sesame paste cooked with a thickening agent until set, it resembles tofu in color and texture, hence the name (goma = sesame), and is served chilled.

I first came across it when Maxence and I traveled to Japan last spring, and stayed overnight at a temple in Koya-san. There we were served a shojin ryori dinner, the vegan cuisine that is practiced by Zen Buddhist monks in Japan*, and one of the many little dishes brought to us was a shallow cup of gomadofu, silky on the tongue and richly flavorful.

I hadn’t really thought to make it myself until I found this post on Maki’s ever-helpful Japanese food blog. Her recipe seemed so easy, I couldn’t not try it.

I already had sesame paste on hand — mine is a Middle-Eastern-style tahini I buy at the organic store — so all I needed to get was some kudzu powder, a starch drawn from a Japanese vine, which is not hard to find if you have access to a natural foods store or a Japanese market.

I made my first batch following Maki’s recipe, to deliciously rewarding results. All you do, really, is combine the sesame paste with kudzu powder and water, heat it up to thicken, then chill to set.

On a later occasion, I used a couple of tips I got from another inspiring Japanese food blog I frequent, called Tess’s Japanese Kitchen. I steeped some kombu (a type of seaweed) in the water first, and added a little sake for flavor, but both of these steps are optional.

All in all, very little exertion is required to create your very own sesame “tofu,” which you’ll then divide into cubes and serve cold, as an appetizer or as part of a light meal, typically pairing it with soy sauce, wasabi, and freshly grated ginger, or the homemade sauce Tess suggests.

I myself like it with yuzukosho (a yuzu and pepper condiment) and a little seaweed — strips of torn nori or, as pictured above, a sprinkle of freshwater seaweed from Jugetsudo in Paris — in addition to soy sauce.

Having made the original sesame version a few times now, I am planning to branch out and make amondodofu with almond butter and kashudofu with cashew butter**.

Don’t forget to read Maki’s post and Tess’s post; they both offer interesting info on gomadofu.

* If you’d like to learn more about shojin ryori, Maki recommends a book called The Enlightened Kitchen, by Mari Fujii.

** Not official names; I’ve just made them up.

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