Ingredients
360g Dried Soya Beans
Plenty of filtered water (2.4 L - 3.6 L)
3 tsp Nigari (Magnesium Chloride, a common tofu coagulant)
Method
Give the soya beans a quick rinse, then soak them overnight in fresh water. They will increase be approximately 2½ times their weight after soaking.
Drain off all the soaking water, and in a high powered blender, blend the beans with filtered water. 3 batches of around 290g of soaked beans and between 0.8 L and 1.2 L of water, depending on how thick you want the soya milk to turn out, should have all the beans blended.
Pour the soya bean slurry through some muslin or a nut milk bag, to strain off the solids, which you'll collect a lot of (about the same weight of it as dried beans you used), and is known as "Okara". This stuff is packed full of nutrients, protein and fibre, but has an extremely short shelf life, and must also be cooked in a wet heat before you can eat it, and as such, is usually thrown in the compost.
The remaining raw soya milk should then be bought to a boil on high heat, and a very close eye should be kept on it, string continually, and lowering the temperature as soon as it starts to foam up, which it will. You need to cook the milk for at least 10 minutes on a high heat (as high as you can manage without it violently erupting with foam), then a further 10 minutes at a simmer, string throughout.
After cooking, let it cool. A skin will form, which can be fished out and saved for adding to various dishes. Now is a good point to reserve any of your fresh soya milk to store in the fridge, in which case pour off however much you want to save.
Dissolve the nigari into some water, then add to the warm soya milk. Stir gently once, then leave for 10 minutes.
Pour the coagulated soya milk into your muslin lined tofu press, and place a heavy weight on top, to press out the excess liquid. Leave for between one and four hours, depending on how firm you want your tofu. After its been pressed, place the tofu into a Tupperware box filled with fresh water, and refrigerate. It should be left in the fridge for at least two hours before using, to allow the bitterness from the nigari to be leeched back out of the tofu. Change the tofu's water at least every other day, preferably daily, and it will keep fresh for 3-5 days.
Other things to do with your fresh soya milk:
1. Add a pinch of salt, and a squeeze of agave nectar, and use it like you would shop bought soya milk
2. Add some agave nectar and an Acidophilus Lactobacillus tablet to make soya yoghurt (just keep it warm at 27°C for around a day or two).
3. Freeze it into ice cubes, and use it to enrich smoothies.
2 comments:
I've made tofu at home, but not completely from scratch. I cheated a little bit and started with ready-made soymilk. I'm afraid if I went through all those steps first, I would be too tempted to just drink the fresh milk and abandon the rest of the mission! ;)
It does seem like a lot of work, its the straining and squeezing that's the hardest bit! But its worth it, freshly made tofu, drizzled with soya sauce and topped with a bit of Wasabi is the best thing ever! And it works out really cheap to make from scratch, how did shop bought soya milk turn out? I can only think of one brand here that would turn out well (Bonsoy) but at £3.75/L it definitely would be cheaper to just buy the tofu! Thanks for stopping by =)
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