Home made soft tofu

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    • #66358
      Lynnjamin
      Participant

      I got a book called “Asian Tofu” and the author shows how to make soft tofu from scratch. I had to give it a try because I hate to drive all the way to the market just for a tube of soft tofu.

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    • #66394
      Oxide
      Participant

      Lynnjamin, nicely done. I occasionally make tofu, too. A couple of tips:

      1 – after soaking the beans, remove the hard shells before making the smoothy. There is a hard shell on the tip of your finger in your first photo. Soy beans used to be considered poisonous because they interfere with the body’s ability to digest foods. The chemical that causes that effect is found in the hard shell. Use only the softer meaty part inside.

      2 – adding more coagulant (I use Nigari, a natural product derived from the sea) will make medium firm tofu. Adding even more will make firm tofu.

      I use a simple tofu press available at Amazon or soymilkmaker.com.

      In the U.S. an outstanding source of soybeans is LauraSoybeans.com. They sell non-GMO soybeans.

    • #66406
      Lynnjamin
      Participant

      @Oxide, thanks for the tips. This is exactly what I was hoping my post would generate. I will definitely order those non-GMO beans you suggest. I have been using the rest of soft tofu in smoothies with banana, almonds and cinnamon and it is delicious. I have a LOT of tofu to deal with right now :)

      1) The skins came off easily before I made the smoothie, but I gave up trying to get them out of the bowl of beans. They just clung everywhere. Any suggestions on how to separate them out?

      2) I used food-grade gypsum as a coagulant (2 1/2 tsp for 5 cups soymilk). It made ultra-tender curds. The book said they add a significant amount of calcium to the tofu. But I wished the tofu had a little more “bite”. I think nigari will do the trick.

    • #66503
      Oxide
      Participant

      When I make soymilk or tofu I literally remove the skins bean by bean. It does not take that long. Leave the cooked beans soaking in cold water then scoop them out and squeeze/pop them out of their skins. It is harder to pop the beans out of their skins if they start to dry out.

      Oh, if you have a pressure cooker you can seriously reduce the time it takes to cook soybeans. I make natto more often than soy milk and tofu. It takes about 40-minutes to pressure cook the soybeans to point they easily squish between your fingers.

      I use “sprouting” soybeans to grow sprouts or for making natto. If you order soybeans from Laura’s you may want to get a small bag of sprouting soybeans, too. The skins do not come off the sprouting soybeans when the cook the way they do on regular soybeans. Here they are, the smaller soybeans on the left are for sprouting and natto, the larger, regular soybeans on the right are for soy milk, tofu, doenjang, etc:

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    • #66633
      charlottemk1
      Participant

      this is awesome!
      I wanna try this at home

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