I’ve been a little under the weather this week, so it’s taken me longer than anticipated to share my experience using the Morinaga tofu kit that I posted about in the weekly giveaway on Tuesday. However, in the spirit of better late than never, here we go!
You start with a carton of soy milk and one small packet of nigari. The directions say that it’s best to chill these ingredients to ensure proper setting, so I left mine in the fridge overnight before starting my tofu making process.
When you’re ready to make your tofu, you pour the chilled soy milk into a saucepan and set it over medium heat so that it slowly comes up to a simmer (no need to stir). You don’t want the milk to boil, instead you want to heat it until it beings to form a skin.
Once you see that skin forming, pull the pot off the heat and stir the nigari in briskly and thoroughly (the instruction sheet specifies that you need to integrate it within three seconds).
While the soy milk sits and curdles for five minutes, set up your tofu mold. Set the bottom part of the mold in a baking dish or a shallow bowl. If it’s the first time you’re using the cheese cloth, rinse it in water and then line the mold with it.
Once the five minute rest period is up, pour the soy curds into the lined mold.
Fold the cheese cloth over the nascent tofu, position the top of the mold in place, and set something heavy on top of it. I happened to have a can of coconut milk on my counter, so it was called into action.
You can drain the tofu for as little as ten minutes, or up to two hours, if you prefer a firmer finished product. Whenever you decide that you’ve drained yours enough, fill a bowl with cold water, gather up the cheese cloth bundle, and submerge the tofu to unwrap it (this helps prevent the cloth from sticking to the tofu).
There you have it! Fresh tofu to use in soup, a stir fry, or however else you like it!
I think it’s spelled “nigari”, as in your earlier post.
You’re right! Fixing that typo now!
I used to make tofu before you could find shelf stable soy milk. I used to cook soybeans, puree them in boiling water, filter out the soy milk from the okara paste and then put the soy milk back on the stove and add the lemon juice, nigari or whatever coagulant I had available.
Seeing your pour already made soy milk into a pot shocked me and I wondered what you did with all the hours you didn’t have to spend making the soy milk from soybeans!