I've made plenty of tofu since then. This old technique is definitely one of the best I've tried. It's nice to have a soy maker, but the processes of tofu making is not really shorten.

Music by Kevin MacLeod.

Homemade tofu with nigari tastes definitely excellent, for this reason I don’t mind to spend some time to make it by myself.





Ingredients:

Dry soy beans 500 grams

Water 3.5 Liter

Nigari 1 ½ tbsp





Steps: Soak soy beans in cool water overnight, unless the area is very cold you don’t need to soak in warm water. But if you’re from a warmer climate area, you might need less hours. Alternative to this is to soak beans in warm water (35-38 degrees) for 4-6 hours. In general, the beans will be twice as heavy as when they were dry. So now you’ll have about 1 kg of beans.





The tofu box I use is for making 800 grams of tofu, and my preference is adding 7 parts of water, that’s why I’ll need in total 3.5 liter of water. My blender can’t handle this amount at once, so I separate the process into 4 times. Each time I use a bit less than 2 cups of soaked beans and add 875 ml of water. The pulp of beans is called okara which is also excellent to use for making cakes, bread, falafel and hamburger etc. To make sure it’s not toxic, boil it twice. It’ll take about 15 mins to boil it in the summer, and don’t forget to stir it for the whole process otherwise it’ll boil over.





Turn down the heat and keep stirring and turn the heat on again if necessary. You can in fact smell it when the milk is ready. The ideal temperature to add nigari is 73 degrees C. If you don’t have thermometer, then just simply turn off the heat and let it cool down for 5 mins. (You might need to move your pot to a cooler spot, if you’re using an electronic stove.)





Dissolve 1 ½ tbs of nigari in the warm water and add it to the soy milk evenly by stirring gently. Then you just need to wait for about 15 mins for the soy milk to curdle. You can also wait a bit longer if you want, say 30 mins. Now you get your “tofufa” (豆花) in your pot.





Place it to your tofu box with cheese cloth inside, cover it and press it down for half to 1 hour or longer. To have a square shape, you’ll need to fit the cloth perfectly to the box. If you want to have firmer tofu, simply apply more pressure. Voila, your tasty homemade tofu is done!!! Enjoy. 3 tips to be successful: 1. Quality of the soymilk 2. The temperature of the soymilk 3. The amount of coagulant