kuruma-fu

Awhile back I tried using kuruma-fu but it was too watery.

This time I soaked the rings in water for at least 6 hours and squeezed out as much water as I could, not "gently" as the package says.

After squeezing out the water, I soaked it in the milk and egg mixture overnight that I use whenever making french toast (1/2 cup milk + 1 egg) .

This turned out a little watery but not as watery as when I first tried it.

Another way I tried it was pan fried then drizzling some leftover obihiro pork bowl sauce.

After squeezing out the water, I added a little oil to a heated pan then sauteed the pieces 

When the pieces were heated through I drizzled the sauce to caramelize.

It is a nice meat substitute.

If I think of other ways to use it, I'll post about it.

And if you have a different way to use it please tell me about it in the comments.

kuruma-fu

Have you ever seen these at the market? Kuruma-fu.

They are wheat gluten rings.

Apparently they were created for Buddhist monks to replace the meat in their diets.

It reminded me of bread.

When I looked online, there were people using it as bread too.

To reconstitute them, you need to put them into water for about 10 minutes.

Then using your palms, gently press out the water from the kuruma-fu.

I made this into french toast.

It was watery, so I need to press out more water.

And these rings were getting larger and larger as I was cooking them, soaking up whatever liquid it could get.

2 rings per person was very filling, so I am thinking that the next time I make this, I will use only 1 ring per person and soak it overnight in the milk-egg mixture.

Will let you know how my experimenting goes...