Often made today with cream and sugar as a dessert, this milk pudding originally was improvised as a quasi-tofu dish about 300 years ago when the Shogun, during a visit to the pastures of Mineoka, simply mentioned his desire to eat tofu. Upon hearing the Shogun’s words, a cook accompanying the Shogun made the pudding using cow’s milk and kudzu found at the pastures. Traditionally, milk is the only dairy ingredient that goes into the pudding; I mixed it with additive-free tonyu soy milk to cut back on sodium in the recipe below. This pudding contains no sweetener, but its milky taste and creamy texture are quite gratifying.      

1 serving (1/4 of Mineoka-dofu recipe, 1/2 of sauce recipe, shrimp & arugula):
113 calories; 5.7 g protein; 5.3 g fat; 10.8 g carbohydrate; 9.9 g net carbs; 105 mg sodium; 19 mg cholesterol; 0.9 g fiber


Whole recipe of Mineoka-dofu only:
388 calories; 14.4 g protein; 20.6 g fat; 37.8 g carbohydrate; 10.8 g net carbs; 85 mg sodium; 24 mg cholesterol; 2.4 g fiber

<Ingredients>
For Mineoka-dofu

(One 12 cm x 7.5 cm x 4.5 cm mold; 1 serving in top photo is 1/4 of whole recipe)
200 g milk
100 g additive-free tonyu soy milk
25 g kuzuko arrowroot starch
1 tbsp tahini or nerigoma white sesame paste

For sauce and accompanying shrimp & leafy greens

(For 2 servings)
2 shrimp in shell (34 g with heads in photo; 22 g without heads; 17 g when shelled + tails removed)
     Sake (to cook shrimp, not in photo)
Handful (approx. 20 g) leafy greens (21 g arugula in photo)
2 tbsp dashi (to marinate blanched leafy greens; not in photo)
Sauce
     3 tbsp dashi
     1/2 tsp usukuchi pale soy sauce
     1/2 tsp sake
     1/2 tsp mirin
1/2 tsp wasabi powder
     Slightly below 1/2 tsp water (to mix with wasabi powder; not in photo)

<Directions>
1.

Make Mineoka-dofu.
In a pot, put kuzuko and some milk, and mix well.