How Katakuriko is Used In Japanese Cooking

July 17, 2017

Katakuriko is potato starch, and it is used in Japanese cooking mostly as thicker.
It is the Japanese equivalent of corn starch. It’s often used in dishes such as soup or curry and also used for making ankake sauce (thick sauce) for meals like ankake-
soba or tension-han.

Ankake sauce is normally flavoured with soy sauce, mirin, and sake. Katakuriko is dissolved
in water and then added to soups or sauces. When making ankake sauce, the ratio of katakuriko
and water needs to be 1:1. Katakuriko adds thickness when boiling.

Katakuriko can also be used for coating food before deep frying or frying. Katakuriko is good for karaage butter (Japanese style fried chicken) rather than using a normal flour that is made from wheat. Katakuriko soaks up less oil than if you use a normal flower. This is because the particles that makeup katakuriko are larger and allow less oil to be absorbed. This results in a crispier coating to the chicken. It also doesn’t burn as easy as a flower coating. For that reason, katakuyriko is used for dishes like agedashi nasu (fried tofu). Now you know the
usage of katakuriko, you’re ready to cook a meal with it!

Easy fried tofu

Ingredients:

· 1 Block of tofu ( firm, soft )
· Tsuyu (if you are using straight tsuyu, 150ml-300ml is ideal).
· Katakuriko
· Oil




Method:

· Cut the tofu to the size you like, not too small, probably about 6 pieces.

· Wipe the water off from tofu with kitchen roll carefully and cover all sides with katakuriko.

· Heat the oil in a pan, and fry both sides of the tofu until golden.

· Heat the tsuyu

· Pour the tsuyu on top of fried tofu and top with spring onion. To add more colour and taste, you can add shichimi spice as well.

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