TABLE-SIDE HOMEMADE SOFT TOFU

Table-Side Homemade Soft Tofu image

You want to make relatively easy tofu at table to impress your friends and family? You can sometimes order this in some Japanese restaurants in Japan and also as I understand it at Morimoto's Restaurant (never ate there so not sure if it's similar but reading about it I think it is) here in US. Although somewhat similar to silken (soft) tofu since no weight is placed on tofu to extract liquid, this type of tofu is not quite silken in texture. If is much softer and fluffier than silken and does not have the crisp form cutting quality of silken tofu. Is it good? You bet it is! Although you can eat this immediately at table, I like to normally refrigerate this type of tofu for later use. By refrigerating you lose some of the water which firms up the tofu a bit. Also you can use this in cooking. To use this type of tofu for cooking I suggest you cut up the desired pieces and gently simmer in hot water for 5 to 7 minutes. This procedure firms up the tofu for later cooking. But this is still a soft tofu and care should be taken when using this type of tofu for cooking. The inspiration for this type of tofu came from a lady in Okinawa who used to make homemade tofu with only one stirring after adding soy milk to nigari. The first picture with tofu shows tofu formed in a small clay container without any draining of liquid whey. The other two lower pictures show tofu formed in rectangular container and allowed to drain and refrigerated to form up.

Provided by Rinshinomori

Time 30m

Yield 1 tofu

Number Of Ingredients 3

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups soybeans
800 ml water
7 ml liquid nigari

Steps:

Have ready liquid measuring cup that has ml numbers and a small metric dropper (I use a dropper for measuring liquid medication for this purpose).
Soak dry beans in 6 cups water for at least 12 hours. Drain beans. You want to get approximately 400 grams of soaked beans. You may have leftover beans after measuring. Use extra beans for other use.
Divide the 400 gram beans in half. Divide 800 ml water in half.
Using a blender, blend the 200 gram beans with 400 ml water until very smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Put this in non-stick pot. Repeat with remaining 200 gram beans and 400 ml water.
Let the mixture come to boil stirring frequently and as soon as it comes to boil, turn down the heat to simmer. Cook, stirring frequently for 2-3 minutes. Make sure it does not burn.
Using a colander and a large bowl, line the colander with heavy duty cheesecloth, muslin, or cotton cloth large enough to completely cover the colander.
Pour in the soy milk mixture and twist close the cheesecloth, muslin, or cotton cloth. Squeeze the milk out. I use a can to help squeeze the milk out.
Use leftover solids or okara for other use.
Measure the milk. You want to have 700 ml soy milk. If not enough, add some hot water through the okara again to get 700 ml soy milk.
Put soy milk back into a large non-stick pot and heat until the mixture comes to 75 C to 80°C or 167 F to 176°F.
At the table (if you are serving this at table side), have ready a container approximately 5-6 inches x 4-5 inches and 4-5 inches depth. Basically you can use any small container that will be big enough to hold the milk, but not too big that tofu will not form up. You can also use round, square or oblong containers.
Put in 7 ml liquid nigari into the container ready for tofu. I use a liquid medicine dropper for this purpose since I do not have anything small enough to measure 7 ml.
Pour or dump in hot soy milk into the container with nigari. No stirring is necessary. The act of pouring in soy milk stirs the nigari enough to form the tofu. Wait 3 to 5 minutes for tofu to form.
You can either eat immediately or refrigerate for later use. See my description above.