Oh Soy!

I saw this show on T.V. a while ago teaching you how to make soy milk and tofu at home without any fancy gadgets.

I was so fascinated by its ease that I bought 2kg of soy beans that very day. It was simple, you were supposed to soak the beans in water overnight and blend them with water the next day. After that you simply needed to push it through a cheesecloth and presto! Soy Milk!

You could boil that Soy milk with a little coagulant and voila! tofu! I did it for two days in a row, smug as ever about my great achievement. And then that evening my ego deflated.. big time. I fell ill. Got a disgusting nauseous feeling and I knew it had to be the tofu.

I did not want anything to do with tofu or soy milk for weeks. And then I read this article on Bryanna's Blog. She clearly mentioned two critical things:1. Soak the beans in boiling water and 2. Boil the milk for about a half hour!

So the reason for the naueseousness was undercooked soy milk!
So I did it again.. only this time I did it right! wow I feel great! the tofu tasted even better than before and no nauseous feeling this time!


What I did:



took 2 cups of soy beans and soaked them in boiling water over night




next morning this is what happened; the beans just blew up!





Then I had to grind them first with a little water and then more water till I got this thick paste.. which I pushed through a cheesecloth, and that lovely amber liquid is the Soy Milk!





I had to wind the cheesecloth several times and completely squeeze out the soy milk till this is how the husk looked; completely dry. If you don't feel like throwing this away, don't! u can always use this as a replacement of soy protein in dishes.. but remember to cook for at least 1/2 an hour, because I learned the hard way, you don't need to do that :)


You boil the lovely amber colored soy milk till it almost boils over on a high flame. Then reduce the flame to low and cook for about a half an hour, stir frequently. Turn off the flame.


When the milk is a little cool, turn on the heat again and add about 2-3 teaspoons of vinegar and see if it starts breaking up.. if it does, you don't need to add more if it doesn't, add more!
Push this through a cheesecloth and place in a colander and weigh down with any heavy object.





Once dry ease away from the cheesecloth, and behold! Tofu!

You can stop reading here and do you own thing with the tofu. You can store it in the refrigerator in a little water and be sure to change the water everyday. But if you want to know what I did with it.. read on!



I sliced them up.. it is a bit crumbly. I put some rice flour in a bowl and mixed it with a bit of salt and oregano and dipped the pieces of tofu in it.




and fried them. The reason I dipped them in rice flour is because it gives a wonderful crisp coating and at the same time rice flour absorbs less oil than wheat flour.




Drain them on paper towels.. OK I cheated. I coated pieces of cottage cheese with the same flour and flied them after I fried the tofu. Can u guess which is what?




These taste great with any kind of sauce. You can eat them just this way or do what I did above, stir fry them with veggies and any stir fry sauce! YUM!

What a day!