Adventures in Tofu Making

The final product

I am a big fan of tofu... always have been since I discovered it in my teens so it seems strange that I never tried making it until now (many years later).  I suppose it must be just because I have never knew how to do it. Unless you knew someone who knew how to make it or found it in some obscure book then you would never know. So this is where the internet becomes very useful... and really we have only had that in the last 5 or 10 years. But obscure culinary knowledge is gradually getting broadcast far and wide thanks to the world wide web. (sorry to China and Japan - I know it is not obscure there but believe me in deepest darkest Somerset it is.)

My aim is to someday make tofu from growing to finished product (yes I am going to try and grow soy beans in this country). It can be done but probably not at the moment on any type of commercial standing.  We still do not have the correct climate for that quite yet. But who knows.  It puts me in mind of Geoff Ryman's science fiction novel The Child Garden where rice paddys grow around London and everyone has been cured of cancer by intaking viruses.... we don't know where quite where our world will lead us.

Anyway back to tofu!

So I am indebted to Just Hungry for posting such great posts on Japanese food (not just tofu making).  So thankyou Makiko Itoh for posting such great instructions on making tofu and for the great blog posts about the food life as an ex-pat, the local cuisine and occasional foodie travel logs.

The first step is to make soy milk.  Just go to Just Hungry for all the information....http://www.justhungry.com/2006/03/milking_the_soy.html....

This is my show and tell. I will just be giving the highlights....

What you start with is of course the soy beans...  I followed Maki's instructions here about how many to use... I would advise that you do that as you will be surprised about the amount of soy milk you can produce. Remember to have 2 large saucepans ready, some muslin cloth and a blender.









Next soak the beans for at least 8 hours.... (I soaked the beans overnight). Place in a blender (please follow Maki's instructions because they do genuinely work!) and whizz up.
















It should turn into a foamy consitency that you can cook up in 2 large pans. Cook for about 20 minutes until it turns granular.

Drain it through muslin into a container... this is what you should get.... some granular material and your wonderful soy milk.  

If you dry the above you get this....okara.... apparently can you use it to cook with but I had so much I decided to give it to the chickens (it was supposed to be highly nutritious) ... they didn't touch it!

So I now have my soya milk ready to produce my tofu. This is where we add the magic ingredient....  nigari, magnesium chloride or calcium sulfate (gypsum).... this acts as a coagulant. You add this to the warm soy milk until it starts to congeal....

Now you need to drain all that liquid off.  You can start by scooping out the liquid with a ladle like below....

When you have got all the liquid out via this method just drain it into some muslin in a tofu strainer.  Now my tofu strainer is homemade.... just an baking tin with holes drilled in the bottom and sides. Check out this link on how to make your own homemade tofu press.... http://ieatfood.net/2009/05/09/how-to-make-a-heavy-duty-steel-tofu-press/.

Wrap the muslin around the tofu curds and then put another baking tin on top and weigh down with some tins on your draining board.

When you think your tofu has been pressed enough rinse the tofu in water like below...

It is now ready to use....