Miles to go

豆花, Making soya beancurd

Now and then I have a craving for tou hua, and it is impossible to get this in France. There are only 2 decent asian grocery shops in Reims. About a year ago I found this instant soya beancurd mix in one of the shops, and I was really very happy(!). However it turned out quite a disappointment.

So I start from scratch and make it from the bean.

I ground the beans with my cold-press juicer/grinder, mixed the ground beans with water, and sieved them twice through muslin cloth(or cotton. I don't know exactly, but I just found some cloth idling around in a cupboard)(This process reminds me of how grandma always makes authentic coconut milk by adding water to the freshly grated coconut and getting the liquid as milk)

That gave me soya bean milk.

From the milk, I tried two recipes, one for tofu and one for touhua. The tofu didn't turn out like the Japanese silken tofu that we like, but a sort of Italian faisselle kind of cottage cheese. It was not too bad, tasted natural and nice.

I tried the second recipe for tou hua, and when I was stirring it, I was afraid that it wouldn't coagulate like it was supposed to be, so I quickly added a 2 tbsp of agar agar powder instead of 1/2 tbsp..in the end I realised that it was supposed to coagulate when it was cooling, not during the warming process.
(Unlike the tofu, which used alcohol vinegar and sea salt to coagulate, formed during the warming process)





Shall remember to add just a tbsp for 2 litres of milk as indicated next time!

posted by minitotoro @ 1:28 AM