Homemade tofu!

The surge towards self-sufficiency in our house is reaching pretty heady levels. I'm not saying we could survive in the outback if left with nothing more than a Swiss Army Knife and Grandad's old tinderbox but we have come a long way.

No 'store-made' bread can cross the threshold, we've got an allotment, Anne has been carrying out semi-industrial scale baking, I've been brewing my own beer (which helps to explain why I've been distracting from the food blog) and now, I decided this morning to have a bash at making my own tofu.

Making our own tofu stacks up. We go through a lot of it as a vegan/veggie household but just as importantly if we are to fully evolve in to Tom & Barbara from the Good Life in an 'homage' to Richard Briers then clearly we need to pull off the magic transformation of dried soya beans into a quivering block of lovely bean curd.

Now I know what you're thinking. 'Lovely'? 'Tofu'? We'll if you've tried any of the recipes on this blog you'll know that tofu can be bloody amazing if you cook it properly – too many people have had lumps of poor quality tofu stick to the bottom of a wok before they've even managed to get the lid off the Blue Dragon ready made sauce. Tofu's worth it, I promise.

Anyway, Making the stuff! Dead easy. In terms of equipment, ready yourself with the following:

Large (5-10 litre) cooking pot
Muslin fabric or bags
A large colander or sieve
Blender
Thermometer
and… (drum roll)… a tofu press!

Now on the last bit, the press, having a proper tofu press is the posh option, I however made do with a oblong piece of tupperware with some holes drilled in it and a piece of wood cut to the same size as the tupperware's opening. The drilled holes should be right across the bottom and in a line just around the four bottom edges. And to drain the contraption I used a couple of chopsticks. Seemed appropriate.

The other critical bit is having a coagulant. This is a substance that separates the soya milk you're about to make into curds and whey, just like making cheese. Traditionally you need to use an extract of sea salt called Nigari - but you can also use Epsom Salts or even apple cider or lemon juice. I used Epsom Salts this morning.

So the ingredients look like this, to make a good sized (one meal) serving of tofu:

400g dried soya beans
2.5 tsp Epsom salts
… and a fair bit of water

Method:

Soak the dried soya beans overnight in around double their own volume of water. By the morning they'll have expanded dramatically. Blend them in their soaking water as fine as you can.

Bring 1 litre of fresh water to the boil in your large pot and then add the blended soya beans. Bring back to the boil and simmer for around 10 minutes. Watch out for extreme foaming and keep stirring the thing - it's lively!

Cover your sieve or colander with a muslin bag or piece of muslin and strain the soya beans through the muslin to extract the soya milk into another container, leaving the fibrous bits of soya beans left behind (it's called okara by the way). Squeeze very last bit of milk out of the bagged up beans. You've got soya milk!

Now rinse out that big pot you've been using. Add the soya milk and bring up to around 85-90 degrees - just below boiling point. Dissolve the epsom salts in a cup of boiling water.

When the soya milk is up to temp remove from the heat and stir in half the dissolved salts solution. Stir in a whirlpool vigorously for 5-10 times then stand your spatula in the middle of the pot and wait for the turbulence to stop. Then gently add the rest of the salts and stir in gently until the mixture starts to coagulate. Pop a lid on it and leave for 15 minutes.

Line your press (or diy drilled tuperware in my case) with a muslin cloth and transfer the soya bean curds into the press, cover with the cloth and then press with a board and some tins or other weights. I added the big pot again, with some water, just to make sure!

Timing is key here. We like extra firm tofu so went for 60 minutes of pressing but If you want a more silken tofu you could make it shorter.

When you're done pressing, fold out of the cloth and eat – or store in a sealed container in the fridge in a little water until needed.

Squashed up noodles...

There's been a butternut squash lurking in our kitchen for a good few weeks now and tonight was its night for fame and glory... I combined it with some courgette and leeks in a very light sub-satay over some noodles and topped with some roasted tofu and toasted seeds. Here's the drill:

Ingredients:

Half a butternut squash
One courgette
One leek
Tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp sugar
250ml vegetable stock or bouillon
Tbsp peanut butter
Tbsp light soy sauce
Tbsp corn syrup
3 cloves garlic
2 tsp cornflour
3 bundles noodles, cooked and rinsed in cold water
500g firm tofu
Tbsp sesame oil
3 tsp sea salt
3-4 tbsp mixed sunflower and pumpkin seeds

Method:

First of all get the tofu going as it takes 20 minutes or so. Tofu is really great baked - crispy, chewy and and generally yummy. Heat the oven to 200 degrees C. Drain the tofu and slice into thick, long slices. Place on an oiled baking tray, brush with sesame oil and then sprinkle with salt. Then bake the tofu for 20-30 minutes or until brown and crispy.

Skin and chop the squash into small-ish cubes and then start to fry in a large wok, chop the courgette and (well-washed) leek into similar sized pieces and, after around ten minutes when the squash has started to brown really well, add these pieces to the wok and fry with the squash. While the vegetables are cooking, sprinkle with the sugar and with a tsp of sea salt.

Now make the sauce. In a blender combine the stock/bouillon, peanut butter, soy sauce, syrup and garlic. Blend until nice and smooth. Then add to the cooking vegetables and cook for 3 more minutes to take the edge of the garlic and to let the sweetness of the syrup lift the vegetables. Combine the cornflour with a little cold water and add to the mix gradually until the vegetables and sauce are thickened up nicely. Set to one side.

With ten minutes or so to go for the tofu, you can do the noodles and the seeds. I used udon noodles here, boiled for 4 or 5 minutes in a large-ish pan and then rinsed well in cold water and tossed in a tiny bit of sesame oil to stop them from sticking together.

To prepare the seeds, sprinkle them over a baking tray covered with a little soy sauce and 2 tsp sea salt. Mix through well and bake in the over with the tofu for 5-6 minutes only, until they start to brown.

When the tofu and seeds are done, serve the noodles topped with the vegetables, the tofu and the seeds. Yum. As ever, this dish was designed to be kiddy/wife friendly and so wouldn't suffer at all if there was some cheeky chilli included.

Satay tofu & aubergine skewers

The sun's out today and we've got a few folks over for little person's birthday... but have resisted the BBQ in favour of a buffet type-thing that's largely asian, including dumplings, rice buns and, as you can see, some satay skewers. Quite yummy these.

Ingredients:

500g firm tofu
1 medium sized aubergine
Tbsp light soy sauce
Tbsp sesame oil
Tbsp tomato ketchup
4 tbsp peanut butter
150 ml boiling water
3 tsp tamari or dark soy sauce
1 tsp rice wine vinegar

Method:

First of all make a marinade with the light soy sauce, sesame oil and ketchup. Slice the tofu into small cubes and then cover with the marinade and set aside for 30 minutes or so. Slice the aubergine into similar sized cubes and then salt (to reduce bitterness later) and leave to one side for 10 minutes or so, then cover with boiling water and leave for another 5 minutes, then drain. Toss the aubergine in a little sesame oil and then bake it, along with the tofu cubes, at 200 degrees C for around 30 minutes.

While the cubes are baking, crack on with the marinade. Put the peanut butter (crunchy or smooth, doesn't matter), boiling water, tamari and rice wine vinegar in a blender and blend down to a smooth sauce. I'm cooking for toddlers, so that's as far as I go with the sauce but if you're not worried about spiciness, add a little fresh chilli and ginger at this point too.

When the cubes are baked, pop them onto the skewers, smother with the satay, and serve! I did these on cocktail sticks today, to make them bite-sized, and you could even put them on a barbecue...

Tofu & Miso Soup

My lot at home don't like chilli. Or curry for that matter. Wifey blanches at the very thought of such ingredients, and the little people do a lot of screaming on the very odd occasion where some of the chilli or hotter ingredients (which I love) sneak into their food, usually airborne. This means that when cooking vaguely oriental dishes, I need to pile in the other flavours to make up for the fact that for family cooking, I can't use chillis to fire up the taste... here combinations like coconut and peanut butter work brilliantly, even bringing a bit of umami to soups and stir fries.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp miso paste
2 litres boiling water
2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
2 carrots, chopped finely
1 tbsp peanut butter
150g bean sprouts
1 head pak choi, finely chopped
200 ml coconut milk
Few chunks of deep fried tofu
Handful of fresh, chopped, coriander
Splash of tamari

Method:

In a large saucepan, dissolve the miso paste in the boiling water, and simmer as you add the crushed garlic and the chopped carrots. Continue to cook for two minutes or so, and then stir in the peanut butter. Allow to simmer for another few minutes and then add the pak choi and breansprouts. Bring back to a simmer and then turn the heat way down before adding the coconut milk (you don't want it to boil from this point on). Stir through, and then add the remaining ingredients...

Roasted leeks with tofu & mustard mashed potatoes

Right, if you do nothing else in the next week, roast some leeks in olive oil until they're crispy, sweet and delicious. Tonight's dinner was a bit of a triumph, mainly because of the playful, crunchy, delicate strands of roasted leek that played across the plate. Total winner. Also a great 'new best friend' for our roasted cubes of tofu. Roasting tofu is fabulously easy, low fat, and results in lovely, crispy bits of yumminess that are miles away from the mush that some people may have suffered.

Alongside the Leek + Tofu super combo we did a 'pimp my mashed' tonight round our gaff with mashed potatoes combined with steamed kale and dijon mustard. Quite lovely.

And we had some mushy peas. We're not ashamed. We like them. A lot.

Ingredients:

Roasted leeks with tofu

450g tofu
One large leek
2 tbsp olive oil
Garlic salt or mixed herbs
Black pepper

The mustard mash

750g potatoes
130g kale
Tbsp marg
1/2 cup soya milk
2 tsp Dijon

And...

One tin of mushy peas
Malt vinegar

Method:


Coat a baking tray with half the olive oil, and pre heat the oven to 175 degrees centigrade. Cube the tofu into 2-3 cm cubes and arrange on the baking tray, then sprinkle with garlic salt and black pepper. Pop into the oven and set the timer to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile slice the leeks lengthways into quarters, and then half the long strands of leek so they don't become to unwieldy once on the plate. Wash thoroughly - there's always a lot of muck in a leek - and then toss in the other half of the olive oil.

When the tofu's gone for 20 minutes, remove from the oven and sprinkle the strands of leek across the tofu, mixing it in a little. Return to the oven and let roast for a further 15 minutes or until the leeks and tofu are looking golden and crispy.

While all that roasting is going on get the mustard mash ready. Peel the potatoes, and then boil them until soft. If you've got a steamer like mine, boil 'em at the bottom, and use the upper tier for the kale. Steam the kale, only for ten minutes or so, and set aside. When the potatoes are softened, drain and pound with a potato masher. Still using the masher, introduce the margarine and then the soya milk. Finally mix through the mustard. You're done.

To serve:

The kale, mash and mustard mix and the leek and tofu roast work great together but we threw in a tin of mushy peas... Beautifully green and silly amidst the lightness of the tofu and leeks. We also dashed a little malt vinegar over said peas. Well you have to, don't you?

Breakfast tofu

What? More tofu? Yep! If you are looking for the very definition of 'staple', the only thing that beats tofu in our house is houmous. Oh and margheritas. This is an unashamed 'bacon butty' replacement that I've been making for years now and which always goes down well, even with the odd meat eater. Sorry, that came out wrong. Meat eaters aren't odd. Well not that odd. Anyway onto the recipe.

First of all tofu. Or compressed soya beans if you'd like a more straightforward definition. A lot of people have had bad tofu moments. Mostly this is because of poor recipes and the terrible brand of tofu that dominates all the main supermarket chains. The best tofu can be had from health food stores or, even better, from Chinese supermarkets. If you have to buy the brand in the supermarket whose brand name brings to mind the witches of Macbeth, go for the smoked option as it stays together better. The tofu I've used for this recipe is Clear Spot. Just as good is Pauls. I've used plain tofu, but opt for smoked if you want to really emulate bacon.

Ingredients:

450g block of firm plain or smoked tofu
Tbsp vegetable oil
Sprinkle of salt
Tbsp of sesame oil
Soya sauce
Sunflower and pumpkin seeds

To serve:

Toasted pitta bread
Ketchup, Piri piri or pepper sauce

Method:

Slice the tofu lengthways into slices 3cm wide by 1cm thick. Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan and then begin to cook the tofu on a low to medium heat. You may be at this some time, as tofu really repays a bit of patience when you're cooking. Try to rush things and it could fall apart. This morning I took 30 or 40 minutes with this dish, just leaving it to gently cook whilst mucking around with the kids.

While the tofu is cooking, sprinkle over the salt, the sesame oil and, gently, the soya sauce. Let this seep into the tofu for a good 10 minutes or so, and then turn the tofu over. Leave cooking for another ten minutes or so. When the tofu is looking pretty good and brown, tip a tablespoon or so of mixed seeds into the pan, which add extra crunch. Continue to cook until everything is browned nicely.

To serve, toast the pitta, slice it open and then pop the tofu and seed mixture in. Finish the whole thing off with ketchup, or in my case a hot pepper sauce. Breakfast sorted.

Am aiming for the next recipe to be less tofu-centric, promise! May also include a slightly differentiated colour palette as I've noticed this blog is looking a bit muted for my liking. But then it is January...

Tofu & Pak Choi Noodle Soup

The level of domestic craziness was pretty high tonight as I cooked this, so it's all from memory and the weights are guessed. At least I remembered to take photo. So - noodle soup - spectacularly easy dinner to do, dead popular with the kiddies, practically makes itself. You'll note there are no chillies in the recipe, this is because my loved ones, unlike me, aren't up for a bit of firey fun so if you decide to make this ADD CHILLIES! Yum.

Ingredients:


One small onion
100g carrots, sliced into thin, 5cm batons
200g shitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
150g cubed, deep fried tofu
200g pak choi
300g wheat noodles
750cl vegetable stock
One can coconut milk
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp coriander
3 cloves garlic
3 tsp fresh root ginger
3 tsp soya sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
Juice of one lime
2 tsp sugar or mirin
1 tsp rice wine vinegar

Method:

Right, once you've started cooking this it goes like the clappers, so try and prep all the ingredients beforehand if you can. First of all, I'd soften up the noodles in boiling water for three minutes and then rinse and let to stand in COLD water while the rest gets done.

If you've got a blender, it works well if you blend the coriander, garlic, root ginger, soya sauce, sesame oil, lime juice, mirin (or sugar) and rice wine vinegar beforehand too. If you've no blender don't worry - just finely chop or mince them all, mix in a bowl and retain to add at the right moment.

So with noodles softened and the sauce mix prepared, start off by frying the onions, in a large wok, in the vegetable oil. Once they've gone translucent and are on the edge of browning, add the carrot batons. When the carrots are softening, add the tofu and then, after a minute or so, the mushrooms. Let the mix cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add the sauce mix, and cook for a further five minutes.

Now add the vegetable stock and coconut milk, and bring to a gentle simmer. At this point add the softened noodles and stir through well. All done.

To serve: 

Some more fresh coriander is dead nice now, and if you're feeling dead posh, some sesame seeds sprinkled over the top looks rather swanky. Have some soya sauce to hand in case you want some more and, don't forget - add some chillies!