TOFU!!!!! (It really is very simple to make!)

Tofu is such a great vegan substitute for meat and is an essential part of a vegan kitchen (at least to me anyway!) I thought that tofu had some really difficult process to make it, and was impossible to make by hand - but I was so wrong! It is actually really simple to make, with no complicated ingredients or steps. You also get so many products from making your own tofu - soy milk, okara and, of course, tofu.

The only one thing I don't like about it is that it leaves a lot of washing up to do afterwards!!!

This is my first major experiment and, apart from yielding a surprisingly small amount of tofu and me spilling soy milk ALL OVER my cooker, this turned out excitingly well! Word of advice: watch the boiling process AT ALL TIMES otherwise when you come back you will have froth, soy milk and okara all over you cooker and counter tops that you will have to clean up (not pleasant!) I doubled the recipe I used so that you get more tofu.

All you need is dried soy beans, water and lemon juice (or other coagulants, however I liked the taste of lemon juice tofu!)

Apparently, according to Viet World Kitchen , nigari and gypsum produce the best tofu - but all I had on hand was lemon juice, which is supposed to give a grainier texture, and I did like the flavour of it. Gypsum is supposed to make tofu that is slightly sweeter, so can be used in puddings etc. whereas I found that the lemon juice made my tofu quite springy (and maybe the same sort of texture as very thick scrambled egg!)

You also can make or buy tofu moulds, which would be better than what I did. However with my method you won't need that special equipment.

My 'Mould' - I used the okara and soy milk filled jar as my weight

Finished tofu! 

Okara - after being pressed to a semi - dry state 

Ingredients 

• 400g dry soya beans (I got mine at Whole Foods in Kensington, in the bulk section, for under a £1)
• A lot of water (not sure of exact amount used!) 
• 50ml of lemon juice (or you can use other coagulants like nigari, gypsum, epsom salt or vinegar - but I used lemon juice and like the flavour) 

Equipment Needed 

• Food processor or blender
• Nut bag or cheese cloth
• Small colander + a pot to go underneath it 
• Very large sauce pan (unless you want to do it in batches)
• Large sauce pan 
• Very fine meshed sieve 

Method 

1. Soak the dry soya beans in enough water so that it covers the beans by around 10cm - the beans will triple in size so make sure that they have enough room in the bowl to do that. Put the beans in the fridge uncovered to soak overnight.
2. Take the soaked beans out - drain and rinse them.
3. Put the beans in a food processor or blender with enough water to cover them by around 7cm. YOU MIGHT HAVE TO DO THIS IN BATCHES (I am not angry, I just want you to realise this because I didn't and by food processor started leaking everywhere!) Process until relatively smooth (it will look like thick milk but will feel a little grainy) 
4. Put this 'milk' into a saucepan with around 2.5 litres of water and cook on a medium heat for around 30mins. Stir constantly and when the foam starts to rise - it will be after the 30mkns of cooking time - take off the heat straight away. (WATCH AT ALL TIMES otherwise you might come back and the milk will have boiled over and spilled all over your cooker)
5. Put the fine mesh sieve over another large saucepan (doesn't need to be as large as the previous one). 
6. (You might need another person for this step) Pour the 'milk through the mesh sieve so that the soy milk drains out into the saucepan and the okara (the grainy byproduct) is left in the sieve. Press the okara with a spoon until feels like all the soy milk has drained out and the okara is pretty dry. DON'T THROW THE OKARA AWAY, it can be used in many recipes that I will be posting on the blog!
7. Heat the soy milk until it boils. At this point you might want to take some soy milk out for drinking use (I took a jar out) -  but you don't have to and you will get more tofu 
8. Add the lemon juice to the remaining soy milk in the saucepan (or all the soy milk if you didn't take any out for drinking). You should see that the lemon juice works almost immediately in separating the soy from the water 
9. Let it keep boiling for around 4 - 5mins 
10. While it is boiling prepare the mould  - Put the colander inside a pot the fit underneath it. Put the nut bag/ cheesecloth in it 
11. When the soy milk has finished boiling pour the contents into the nut bag/ cheesecloth in the colander. Wait till most of the water drains out and then fold the nut bag/ cheesecloth over the tofu inside so that the tofu is completely covered by the cloth/bag. 
12. Place a plate on top of the nut bag with tofu in it and then place a VERY heavy object on top of that (I used the bowl of okara and the jar of soy milk because I was too lazy to find a really heavy object!). Leave for 15 - 40mins (depending on how stiff you want the tofu). 
13. You can use the tofu straight away or store it:

Storage 

1. For up to a week tofu can be stored in the fridge. You will have to slice it up into smaller blocks and place it in water in a airtight jar
2. You can also freeze it for up to 4 months, I would say, at the most