Home-made (Seasoned) Tofu

Many of you guys seem to be very impressed by me making tofu at home. Well, not that I wouldn't be pleased to hear it (my favorite is : `I thought tofu came form a SOY COW´ ;-), but my modest ME urges me to reveal the truth: Making Tofu from scratch is NOT A BIG DEAL! Trust me, if I can do it, YOU can do it (dramatic music in the background).
I know why you re still hesitating. There are tons of recipes that advise you to have all kinds of thermometers, special dripping containers, ...etc, but my input on those is, unless you are about to win Pretty Tofu Contest this month, don't worry about those...

So, there are two ways of making tofu:

1. Long process (when you start from plain happy soy beans).
2. Short process (when you start from ready-made soy milk).

Either or, you end up having a nice smooth yummy block of warm fresh Tofu:

I have already blogged about making Soy Milk (there is also slide show available), so I will stick to the quick version. (a recipe is easy to multiply, since one liter doesn't feed the cow).

TOFU FROM SCRATCH:

prep time: 50 minutes

• 1 l soy milk
• 1 generous tsp Terra Alba
• 1 dl warm water

Note: Yes, terra alba or gypsum is that white powdery stuff you use to make paper, ceramics or whiten the walls with. HOWEVER, .... you can also use it (in small quantities) to make food items, such as tofu. Now, I don't know how healthy this is, but everybody (who is it anyway?) says that tofu is good for you, so as my primary school mathematician says: If A and B equals C, then A and C equals B... If she wasn't lying to me all those years, then terra alba must be good for you, too... Maybe it whitens your teeth, what do I know?

What I know is how to make a good tofu. There are tons of super elaborate recipes out there, but believe me, no matter how clumsy you are, you will always succeed. The worst you get will be a tofu that crumbles too much.

Bring soy milk to boil, let simmer for 7-8 minutes, let cool to about 75 degrees (no need to fiddle around with thermometer, I usually turn the heat to the lowest and let it stop bubbling for about 5 minutes).
Meantime, mix the terra alba with warm water, so there are no lumps left.
Pour this mixture slowly into the soy milk, mixing constantly. Stop and let the soy milk curdle.
When you see the ´meat´separating from the water, turn of the heat and let sit for another minute or two. Strain carefully.



Transfer the tofu (by now it is mainly a homogenized goo of not really holding together tofu) into a musselin cloth (or something a bit ´airy´) and onto a colander.


Wrap it carefully and heavy with a plate. Let sit in the sink.
The water will drip away and tofu gets firmer and firmer. It is up to you to decide when it is ´ripe´.
Unwrap the cloth, take the tofu out and enjoy.

If you don't want to eat it immediately, transfer to a container that has been filled with water, soak in and close. Keep in refrigerator. The water keeps it fresh. However, eat within 5 days (change the water once or twice)...

Now, this much for the plain tofu. Now what I like to experiment with is:

1. Savory variety
2. Sweet variety
   

Often times when making tofu (right before I wrap it to let the water drip away), I like to add diferent spices (cumin seeds, paprika powder, black pepper, oregano and salt is a good combo) and let sit to absorb all the flavors.

My sister, on the other hand, likes to add vanilla or cinnamon-flavored sugar.
Both taste great.