Home-made extra firm tofu
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Inspired by a friend who mentioned homemade tofu and its incredible taste in comparison with its store bought counterpart, we decided to make it at home from scratch. Honestly, we weren’t sure that one could actually make tofu at home at all! It was quite a revelation when we realized that one could not only make tofu but also make soy milk from scratch! Once we started reading more about it, it looked rather easy just like making any other cheese.
We made soy milk and then used a coagulant until it separated into solids and then pressed those solids into a tofu mold to get a firm block of delicious tofu. We needed a tofu mold/press that is both, easy to use and effective as we love extra firm tofu. There are a number of variations available in the market and we eventually chose TofuXpress as it had the best reviews and we couldn’t be happier with it! It is a very well built tool that can be used to mold homemade tofu into an extra firm block or just press store bought one into perfection. It can also be used to press vegetables, etc.
We also needed soy beans (available in Whole Foods) and a coagulant that would break the soy milk. There are a number of coagulants that can be used – Epsom salt, Calcium Sulphate (Gypsum), Nigari (Magnesium Chloride extracted from sea water), etc. It is easiest to find Epsom salt but we wanted to go with the traditional Nigari. We found it painful to find as it is a Japanese ingredient and we were looking in Asian/Chinese stores who obviously had no clue. Eventually we found a Japanese grocery store that had liquid Nigari and it worked out very well!
One could also use a soy milk maker, as making the soy milk is a big portion of making Tofu. However, since this was our first time making tofu, we didn’t want to spend too much on fancy gadgets as just a blender works very well. Hope you enjoy this super delicious recipe for your next high-protein meal!
Tofu
By
Published: March 9, 2012
- Yield: 1 block (14 oz)
- Prep: 2 hrs 30 mins
- Cook: 20 mins
- Ready In: 2 hrs 50 mins
Inspired by a friend who mentioned homemade tofu and its incredible taste in comparison with its store bought counterpart, we …
Ingredients
- 2 cups soy beans dry
- 10 cups water boiling
- 1 blender
- 1 thick rubber gloves
- 1 cheese cloth
- 3 teaspoons Nigari
- 1 cup water
- 1 tofu press/mold
- 1 thermometer Optional
Instructions
- Wash the soy beans, pick out any discolored beans and soak overnight
- Drain the soy beans, rinse and notice that the soy beans are much larger in size. So, now the 2 cups of dry beans will almost be 5 cups of soaked soy beans. In batches, place 1 cup of the soaked beans in the blender with 2 cups of boiling water. Blend on the highest setting for a minute. Now, you have unfiltered soy milk!
- Put the gloves on as the milk is very hot due to the boiling water. Pour this mixture into a colander in a large pot covered in tea cloth/cheese cloth and squeeze out the milk until the cloth is dry. The filtered out mixture is known as Okara which can be used to make burgers, cookies, chili, etc. as its a high fiber ingredient
- Repeat the above process till all the soy beans are converted to filtered soy milk
- Boil the soy milk for about 20 minutes on medium heat till it reaches 75°C / 165°F. Use the thermometer to get the temperature right
- Add 3 teaspoon of Nigari to 1 cup of water and mix well. If you have a powdered coagulant, then add 1 teaspoon to 2 teaspoons of water and place it in the microwave to make sure that the coagulant is dissolved well. Stir the soy milk vigorously and then pour in half of the coagulant liquid, cover the pot and wait about 3 minutes
- After 3 minutes, stir the top 1/2″ of the pot gently and pour in the remaining coagulant. Close the lid, and wait for 20 minutes while the curds start forming
- To separate the curds from the whey, place the curd in the cheesecloth which in turn is placed in the tofu mold. Close the lid and let it press for 1 hour – This time depends on how firm you want the tofu to be
- Remove the tofu block from the tofu mold and its ready to be made into any delicious dish. You can store this by placing the the block in cold water. Its best used within a week as it doesn’t have any preservatives
- We grilled it to make delicious grilled sandwiches!
This is awesome!! I make paneer at home but tofu never!! I will try some time soon…..it sounds and looks very easy….I have to try it…
Thanks!! It’s really fun, let us know how it turns out!