Home Made Tofu / The Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association Recipe

This recipe is not published anywhere else I far as I can tell. I took the painstakingly task to review the video published on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uPmsArokCY)

Several times and write down the recipe. The video is very worthy to be seen.

Ingredients:

600 gr. (21 oz) soy beans 20 gr 0.7 oz edible anhydrous calcium sulfate.

250 ml lemon juice can be used as tofu coagulator to replace calcium sulfate.

Utensils:

Blender

Cheesecloth and containers

Mold

Heavy object

Cleanse the soybeans and soak in water for 6 hours in summer or 12 hours in winter.

You need:

Soaked beans

4200 cc water

Blend the soybeans in several portions.

Filter milk from the soy with cheesecloth.

Cook the soy milk for 10 minutes over medium heat till the fragrance is noticeable. Keep stirring the milk while cooking.

Turn to lower heat and continue cooking untill boiling.

Measure temperature: The ideal is 85 F if calcium sulfate is used and 40 F if lemon juice is used. Use 20 gr. calcium sulfate with 250ml water or use 250 ml lemon juice (without water) as coagulator.

Mix water and calcium sulfate evenly. Pour the coagulator in a container and shake well

Hold the soymilk 60 cm above the coagulator and quickly pour into the container.

Do not move or shake the container and let the mixture set for 5 minutes until the soy pudding is set.

Cover the mold with a big piece of cheesecloth. The mold has to have the ability to drain water.

Gently break the soy pudding into pieces and put into the cheesecloth in the mold.

Cover with the cheesecloth.

Close up the mold and put a heavy object on top of the mold.

Leave the weight for 25 minutes for soft tofu, 30 minutes for medium soft and 35 for hard tofu.

When the tofu is ready, remove the mold.

My Very Own Soy Milk Recipe (if you have to pick just one, this is it!)

Making home made soy milk at home it is possible, easy and very rewarding. Home made soy milk done the right way taste delicious and it costs three times less than its commercial counterparts and four times less than cow's milk. So check this out:

1. Utensils: nothing fancy, all you need you possibly have it at home. Please don’t buy anything: try garage sales first or your close by dollar store. To start with: a couple of pans, a colander, a piece of cloth to strain the soymilk (half a pillowcase will do, it is actually my favorite option after trying several), at least twelve cups of boiling water (I use a big water thermo), gypsum salt, measuring cups and spoons and a blender. If the jar is made out of glass, phenomenal. If not, it will work well anyways, but the plastic jar may end up damage.

2. 1 1/2 cups whole soy beans soaked for at least eight hours to a max of 12 in a lot of clean water. If the day is hot don’t hesitate to put them in the fridge, otherwise they may spoil.

3. Pre-heat the blender with boiling water (preferable) or at least the hottest tap water.

4. Pour eight and a half cups of water into pan and bring to a boil.

5. In the meanwhile put the beans into the blender with three cups of boiling water. Blend for a couple of minutes till it is apparent that the beans are all mashed and they are now a homogeneous slur.

6. When they are ready pour them into the pot with the boiling water. Turn off the heat and let it stand for five minutes, covered.

7. Meanwhile prepare a clean pot into the sink, big enough to hold the colander inside. Line the colander with a wet piece of cotton cloth or ideally half a pillow case (a friend of mine use one of this bags that are sold to hold plastic bags, with one end tided up.

8. Pour the soy slur over the lined colander that is already into the pot. Rinse the blender with 1/4 cup of boiling water and pour over the colander. Let it drain for a couple of minutes.

9. Add three additional cups of boiling water to the colander. Let it drain.

10. At this point you may want to accelerate the process by squeezing the soy residue (at this point called okara) with the back of a glass jar or even better, a potato masher.

11. When you extract all the milk possible squeeze the solids dry by hand.

12. Bring the pot over the flame and bring it to a boil. As soon as the boiling starts turn down the heat till medium because the idea is that the milk gently bubbles. Let it simmer for 7-20 minutes. If you plan to make tofu out of this batch of soy milk, seven minutes will be o.k. If you are planning to drink it boil it longer, to a maximum of 20 minutes.

13. Let it cool covered. Store it in a glass bottle or pitcher. Refrigerate. In glass it will last well over a week.

Notes:

* If your blender is not big enough to accommodate 1 1/2 cups of re-hydrated beans, divide them into two batches and grind each part with 1 1/2 cups of water.

* This is a highly digestible milk; I really like how it tastes although I recognized that can be kind of an acquired taste for newcomers to soy products. If this is your case feel free to add a pinch of salt to the almost 2 litres of soy milk that this recipe yields and a tablespoon or more of honey, good quality maple syrup, carob, coffee, etc.

* The pup that now is left in the colander it is called okara. It is a good source of proteins and fiber and tastes sweet and delicious. It is highly perishable out of the fridge, though. So I recommend to freeze it immediately in plastic bags.

* The okara as it is the by-product of this way to make soy milk it is raw and should be cooked thoroughly before consumed. Or you may want to steam it for 20 minutes before storing it

* You may want to gently greased the top of the pan where you are boiling the soy milk. It will prevent it from boiling over, which by the way it will happen as soon as you take your eyes off the whole operation. Been there, done that. It is not pretty, and in fact it is really messy.

I want to encourage you to experiment and have fun making soymilk. Please share your adventures with me. You can contact me at greenbutterflies@gmail.com

Keep in touch!

Make your own Tofu

Step 1: Ingredients

To produce about 400 g of tofu you need:

- about 2 liters soy milk

- two teaspoons natural calcium sulphate

Step 2: Boiling the milk

Pour 2 liters soy milk into a pot and simmer the soy milk for 5 to 10 minutes. Cool down to about 70°C.

Step 3: Preparing the coagulant

Dissolve two teaspoons natural calcium sulphate (Gypsum Salt) in one cup of warm water. Less coagulant produces a softer tofu, more coagulant produces a harder one.

Step 4: Curdling the milk

Pour the prepared coagulant solution slowly into the hot soy milk while gently stirring the soy milk. If there is still some milky area after adding all coagulant solution, mix some more to use.

Step 5: Forming the tofu

Once all soy milk is separating into small white curds of tofu and an amber liquid, transfer coagulated dispersion into a mould lined with cheesecloth. Any plastic container with small holes can be used as mould. A lid is placed on the forming container. A small weight of 1 kg is placed on the lid of the container and allowed to sit for at least 20 minutes. Empty the resulting block of tofu into a tub of cold water and store it in refrigerator and change soaking water daily.

You may want to add some salt to the soaking water for better conservation.

How to make Soy Milk

It's very easy to make soy milk at home, even if you make soy milk on a daily basis. As an alternative, you might find a soy milk maker (or soy milk machine such as Soyajoy, Soylife, Miracle...) very helpful.

Step 1: Ingredients

You need about 125 g whole soy beans to make 1 liter of soy milk.

Step 2: Soaking the soy beans

Clean the soy beans and soak them in water for 10 - 16 hours. Although not necessary, you can remove the hulls be kneading the soy beans and flushing the loose hulls with water. Removing the hulls makes the extraction process more efficient. An alternative is to crack the soy beans before soaking. The hulls come loose easily and can be washed away. When you use cracked soy beans you need less soaking time: 6 - 8 hours. I personally never de-hulled the beans and I had optimum results.

Step 3: Heating the soy beans (optional, but recommended). This is what is called Cornell Method (developed at Cornell University). Heated soy beans in addition to very hot water used in the production of soymilk make for a final product with little (or non-existent) beanie flavor.

Heating the soy beans will destroy enzymes which are responsible for the development of beanie flavor. This heating can be also achieved by microwaving the wet soaked soy beans during 2 minutes.

Step 4: Grinding the soy beans

Grind the soaked soy beans and 1 liter water in a blender. Sieve the mixture trough a cheese cloth and recover the soy milk. The insoluble material which remains on the sieve is called okara, and can be used as an ingredient for bread making or as integral part of delicious dishes that feature okara as a main ingredient. When soy milk is industrially made okara is sold as cattle feed. It is a very versatile by-product and yields to a lot of different uses.

Step 5: Boiling the soy milk

Heat the soy milk till boiling point and continue boiling for about 7 to 10 minutes. After cooling, the soy milk is ready and can be kept in the fridge for another 3 - days. Glass containers are recommended since prolong the soy milk’s life. At this point flavorings and a little salt (for improved taste) can be added.