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Monday, 18 August 2014

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....





Sunday, 17 August 2014

Columbia - World Cup Special

The Columbian Feast
For our Columbian feast we turned to Erica from http://www.mycolombianrecipes.com/ . Thank you Erica and to your Mamita - your grandmother for inspiring you.  To accompany the cooking we listened to the rather marvellous Colombia! the Golden Age of Discos Fuentes. the Powerhouse of Colombian Music 1960-76 


Arepas
A Columbian meal would not be complete without arepas.... so here is the excellent recipe from Erica to make 4 filling arepas - http://www.mycolombianrecipes.com/cheese-cornmeal-patties-arepas-de-queso. Now to make it vegan I bought some sheese (that is vegan cheese)... a rather odd texture mozzarella type vegan cheese that tasted ok but really had the texture of polyfilla (I know I am not selling it well).  It made a passable alternative to mozzarella but if you are not vegan I would not advise it!


Chuyaco (Colombian Orange Salad)
We served the arepas and beans (see below - http://www.mycolombianrecipes.com/frijoles-rojos-colombianos-colombian-style-red-beans) with this zingy chuyaco salad again from Erica's blog.  http://www.mycolombianrecipes.com/chuyaco-colombian-orange-salad

Frijoles Rojos Colombiano

Aji Picante (Colombian Hot Sauce)
We finished off the feast with the fiery aji picante or Colombian Hot Sauce with plenty of chilli, parsley, and coriander.


Game: 4 Food: 5 (Columbia... our new favourite team of the world cup... we had already experienced them in the Greece game but they just excelled themselves against Uraguay.... good football, good music ( check out Soundways record label for some hot beats).

Courgette Polpette



Courgette Polpette
In the process of finishing some of the posts that I had started... but had not got round to writing up.  With that glut of courgettes that you get at around this time of year (August) I just had to find a great recipe to really showcase this wonderful summer ingredient.  Do try this recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.... hopefully I will get the opportunity to veganize it! I will keep you posted.


Saturday, 16 August 2014

World Cup Special - Algeria


Algeria is our next stop on our World Cup tour.... and we didn't want to produce the obligatory cous cous. We thought we would do something completely different.  And we found some fantastic recipes online... felfel(stuffed chilli peppers), and garantita (a great chickpea dish like no other).  Accompany that with some seasonal green vegetables in a tarragon vinaigrette (a nod to Algeria's French colonial past) and  one of my own recipes for broad bean falafels and we had a perfect non-dairy Algerian feast.

Garantita

A real revelation to me... I thought I knew most chickpea dishes but little did I know of the sheer versatility of this humble pulse.  

Essentially this is a baked chickpea flour flan that gets used to smear hot over fresh baguettes.... My garantita was less of flan and more of a solid affair (think I cooked it too long) but it was very delicious.  The recipe is here on the Teal Tadjine blog ... and if you want a vegan version just scroll to the end of recipe for a replacement to egg (a flax 'egg'). I put plenty of cumin and smoked paprika in mine which I think really lifted the flavours.

Felfel

Now to the stand out dish felfel or stuff chilli peppers.

I found these wonderful mild chilli peppers from the local farmers market and mixed them up with some longer green peppers for contrast... I think traditionally it is made solely with larger chilli peppers but using other pepper types did not detract from magical dish.

The inspiration for this dish was dandelion vegan blog.  We couldn't access the recipe so just looked at the instructions on the blog and made it up.

Ingredients
6 mild chilli green peppers (you can use red or green long peppers)
100g walnuts and pine nuts combined - more walnuts than pine nuts
1 clove of garlic
lots of chives (you make it up... if you like the chive have lots, if you don't, just put a few stalks in)
salt
olive oil
1 tablespoon of lemon juice

1) Gently blend the walnuts, pine nuts, garlic, chives and a little olive oil.

2) Take your chilli peppers and cut off the end.  Scoop out the seeds with a spoon.

3) Take the nut mix and spoon into the peppers and gently press into the pepper.

4) Heat the rest of the olive oil in a frying pan and cook the peppers on gentle heat.

5) When the peppers are gently browned take out of the pan and onto a serving plate.  Sprinkle over the peppers some freshly squeezed lemon juice. Ready and perfect! 


Cook this dish! It is so delicious and I am addicted.

Broad Bean Falafel

Now I have published a recipe for broad bean falafel before but I thought i would create a more subtle falafel... which is only broad bean and is pretty plain and simple.

It is astounding ... it is a wondrous vibrant green and taste amazing... if you want to zing it up a little serve with harissa or any local chilli sauce.

300g broad beans shelled and skinned (after podding just blanch the beans for about 3-5 minutes)
1 small onion finely chopped. 
2 garlic cloves 
2 tsp ground cumin
 1-3 tbsp of gram flour
Oil for frying.


Add the onion, garlic, cumin, and salt to the beans. Puree and add a little water and pulse until the mixture is gritty but fine and green. Scrape the paste into a bowl. Add the gram flour and mix.
In a small heavy pot or wok heat 6cm of oil to 180C. Scoop the mixture into the palm of your hand and fashion into little flying saucers. Spoon into the hot oil and fry for about 2 minutes in small batches until crisp and brown, then drain on paper towels.


Seasonal Greens with Tarragon Vinaigrette

Gather a selection of seasonal green vegetables like spinach, asparagus and peas depending on what time of year.

Prepare the vegetables and blanch for about 3 minutes.

So the vinaigrette:

1 tbsp tarragon or white wine vinegar
 1 tbsp of chopped tarragon
1/2 shallot very finely chopped
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp maple or date or agave syrup
3 tbsp olive oil

Mix all the ingredients and season well... it is up to you.. if you like the tarragon then add a little more.  I tend to whisk all the ingredients together and add a little more of what I like....just taste.



Serve it all with a couple of baguettes... 

Score:
Game: 4 Food: 5 (Algeria were fantastic to watch and were unlucky not to win against Russia... I was rooting for Algeria all the way through.... and this little sample of Algerian food has had me craving for more.  Felfel - to new favourite dish.... I am loving that the world cup is introducing me to so many new recipes).