One of my favorite afternoon snacks is inari. The little sushi shop on the corner usually has little sets of three that I grab when I need just a little something extra to get through the afternoon. Inari is made by taking thinly sliced tofu and deep frying them twice so that the tofu cooks and allows the air pockets in the tofu to puff out, so that you end up with a light fluffy tofu pita. These deep fried slices of tofu are called abura age. The abura age are sometimes sliced thinly and added to miso soup or odon noodles.
For Inari, they are cut in half to make pouches that are then boiled in dashi – a fish stock, mirin – a rice wine with a low alcohol content, but high sugar content, sugar, soy, and sake. Depending on the maker, the abura age is sometimes lightly boiled first in water to remove the excess oil and then flavored in a second boiling. The flavored pouch is then filled with sushi rice. The rice can be plain, but is often sprinkled with sesame seeds or poppy seeds or have azuki – the ubiquitous Asian red bean used in Chinese and Japanese confections – addes. Inari or inarizushi can also be ordered in sushi restaurants. It is generally eaten at the end of the meal; a dessert sushi if you will.
I prefer ones that have been double boiled to remove the excess grease. In Kanto, the region around Tokyo, the inari usually look like small logs. In Kansai, the region around Osaka/Kyoto, and the region from which they originate, they are most often in the shape of triangles. In Kansai, inari tend to be far sweeter than in the Kanto region.