My Journal

Tofu made from soybean

Below is Black Tofu made with black bean. The way to make it is the same as the white tofu above with soybean.

 As an expat in China who like to go to public market and visit a tofu store, I find the smell and the look are so inviting. I decided to give it a try. The idea to make tofu can't be simpler, but to actually make it right is far from it.

Idea: Make a soybean milk -> add coagulant -> let it sit. Done. 

Coagulant. As of now, I only use 盐卤 (yan lu) or what's commonly known as nagiri.

TIPS on how to make homemade Tofu

 1. Make the soybean milk

There are countless ways to make soybean milk. But for a homemade one that will be used to make tofu, I think this way is the most convenient:

Ingredients:

1 cup Soybean  (黄豆）

5 cups of water*

* TIP: I use soy:water to be 1:5. Some use 1:8, 1:10... depending on the coagulant used too... I think 1:5 is good, basically the less amount of water to deal with the simpler. Because: 1. the more water we use, the bigger pot is required to prevent over spilling. 2. The less amount of liquid we need to squeeze to remove the pulp. 3. The shorter tofu colander needed to form tofu later.

Method:

. Soak soybean overnight (8-12 hours depending on the weather).

. Ground soybean in 2 batches. Each batch with about 1 cup of water and at least 5 minutes*.

* TIP: Don't do it less than 5 minutes. Although YES you can make delicious tofu but the grain is not as fine and delicate as, say, you do it for 10 minutes.

. Squeeze the pulp with a piece of cloth. (You could buy a special cloth or just use your used white shirt).

. Throw away the pulp. See picture, you'll get lots of pulp!

. Boil the remaining water and pour the soy liquid into the pot. The liquid easily overflows so be sure to lower down the temperature after boiling. Boil for about 5 minutes.

. Turn off the fire, wait until the temperature goes down to 80C. (Depending on winter/summer could take 5-10 mins).

2. Put the Coagulant

Read the instruction. But typically for nagiri or 盐卤 (yan lu)：

For 1 cup soybean, 5 cups water, will need 4 gram (1/2 teaspoon) yan lu.

. add 1/2 teaspoon of yan lu to 2 teaspoon of water. (yan lu and water comparison is about 1:4)

. The easy way to incorporate the nagiri is by put the nagiri in another container and quickly pour the soybean milk into it. See photos below. Mix for a few minutes.*

TIP: usually I don't use ALL nagiri in the pot but keep some. After mixing if the tofu dough is still too soft then I add some a bit by a bit. If already coagulated enough, then stop, we really don't need to put all nagiri in it. Other ways to mix: Drip one drop nagiri at a time to the soymilk. Stir very gently. If too quick, the tofu would fall apart into little grains. You might want to put a spoon in the middle of the pot to stop the movement.

. Keep mix gently until the soymilk becomes a tofu mixture. The soybean milk will coagulate that you could spoon it with a spoon with holes. See below.

3. Make the Tofu

. Pour the tofu to the colander in the set up above with cloth lining. See picture below. The container is used to capture the dripping water. Put a weight, just about a glass of water*

*TIP: The goal in this step is to remove excess water to form tofu with pressure.

1. If the cross section of the colander is too big or the weight is too small, the tofu won't be pressed hard enough. As the consequence, water won't be squeezed out thoroughly and the tofu won't form well. It will be falling apart when cooked.

2. Water will come from the bottom of the colander. But you want to remove the water that comes out from the top too. Just tilt the colander to remove the excess water.  

. Wait for 30 mins.

. DONE.

 Note:

There are other variations on how to make soybean milk. One is to boil the soybean mixture first then remove the pulp. I found this one is hard to do since the milk is very very hot. So I like this way better. In addition, the pulp becomes too soft after cooked that it penetrates trough the cloth.