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Sunday, March 16, 2014

Making tofu (or soymilk)

I eat loads of the stuff, and I reckon our fridge always contains at least five different kinds (right now: silken soft, silken firm, firm, extra firm, dry 5-spiced). But I'd never really even thought about making my own. I bought a bag of dried soybeans the other day (for miso attempt), and with lots left over it seemed like time to give tofu making a try. It is a bit more straightforward and much quicker than miso, thought it might be fun. Basically followed this recipe (and this one a little bit).

(makes approx 1 lb of fresh, silken-style tofu)

1 1/2 cups dried soybeans
4 1/2 cups water (and more later)
coagulant: 3 tbsp cider vinegar, 4 tbsp lemon juice, 2 tsp Epsom salts (magnesium sulphate) or 2 tsp nigari (I used vinegar)

Put the beans and water in a large pan or bowl, cover and leave to soak for 8 hours or overnight.

Grind the soaked beans together with their water until as fine as possible in a blender or food processor.

Boil five cups of water in a large pan. Add the ground beans. Reduce heat to medium and keep just below the boil for 8 minutes. A layer of foam will form on top.

Line a colander with cheesecloth  and put it over a bowl. Strain the mixture, reserving the liquid (soymilk). Squeeze the cloth bundle to extract as much milk as possible. Undo the bundle and set aside the contents - this is okara. Rinse out the cheesecloth.

Mix the coagulant with 1 cup of water in a small bowl.

Rinse out the pan, then add the strained soymilk and heat gently, stirring continuously, until it reaches 65-68C (150-155F) - I judged this as cool enough to put a finger in but too hot to be comfortable. Take off the heat.

Add half the coagulant mixture to the pan and stir like a whirlpool six times. Hold the spoon in the middle and wait until the swirling stops. Add the remaining coagulant and stir in a figure of eight six times. It should start to coagulate. Cover and leave for 15 min.

Line a colander with cheesecloth and put it over a bowl. Transfer the soymilk with a ladle into the colander. Fold the cloth on top, then put a plate and a weight (large tin or jar) on top. Let stand for 15 min to press out excess water. Put it in the fridge to chill and firm up slightly for one hour. Discard flowthrough. Fill a large bowl with cold water then transfer the cloth-wrapped package to it and remove the cloth. Let water run gently for 10 min or so.

Eat immediately (I had some for lunch as this salad) or store covered in cold water for up to three days.


This was good. Very soft and creamy, quite lovely. Worked really well in the salad. I kept about half for something else tbd. It didn't keep shape well when cut - more creamy than shapely or crumbly - so perhaps best for dips, puddings etc. Most comparable with silken tofu.

Notes: If I ever get into doing this frequently I might try drying and grinding the okara so it can be stored for later use. I baked cornbread with the (undried) okara produced from this batch (2 cups). I think the creamy rather than choppable consistency was probably due to guessing temperature before adding coagulant - was probably not hot enough. I might finally invest in a thermometer one day soon.
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