If you are asian you should be familiar with soya bean products. Products made from soya beans are a staple or a must have in any asian pantry. Recipes using these products are limitless. I don't think i need to introduce these products and i am sure all you readers already know what they are. I am a soya bean fan and my brothers have mentioned that i will and can survive if i am to be put in tofu land. Soybeans are considered to be a source of complete protein. A complete protein is one that contains significant amounts of all the essential amino acids that must be provided to the human body because of the body's inability to synthesize them.
I have tried making tofu fah/douhua using the way of pouring the hot soya bean milk into a tall pot which has diluted gypsum powder mixed with water at the bottom(this is called 'chong kau' in cantonese) but, at that time i made a very very large batch of soya bean milk and it was scary for me, as it was a huge large pot of hot boiling soya bean milk!!!!! So, i tried another process by just stirring in the diluted gypsum into the hot boiling milk, the recipe is here HERE. I went through the comments in this post and found so many unsuccessful attempts by my readers and would like to comment further as to what might have caused it. Most of the time, the result is like scrambled eggs. First caution is - the boiling has to ceased and the heat from the stove turned off before adding in the diluted gypsum and when you are stirring the hot soya bean milk, do it in a front and back motion and then bring the wooden spoon or wooden spatula to the middle of the pot and hold it there. This will stop the motion of the soya bean milk , cos vigorously movement will break up the protein which the gysum has just coagulated it. So, do not stir round and round when the gypsum solution is added, just move front and back and stop at the center of pot, hold the spatula/wooden spoon at this position until the movement stops.
What i am about to share is a recipe using less beans with the same amount of water and instead of using cornstarch/potato starch, i have used RICE FLOUR. The method will the pouring method and this time is not so intimidating as it is a smaller portion and can be managed in any home environment.
Ingredients:
150 gms soya bean
2 liters water
1 1/4 tsp gypsum powder dilute with 1/4 cup warm water
60 gms rice flour
Method:
Wash soya beans and soak it with water which is 3 times the amount of soya beans for at least 4 hours in the summer or 6 hrs in the winter (i left it soaking for longer, if so, remember to change the soaking liquid).
When soya beans are soaked thoroughly, they should be plump looking. Drain all the soaking liquid.
Put 500 gm/2 cups/1/4 liter of water into an electric blender and add in 1/2 of the drained soaked soya bean. Use the liquefy function and buzz away until all the soya beans are crushed. Place a large muslin/cotton bag into a large pot and pour this liquefy soya bean into the bag and squeeze all the liquid into the pot. Repeat to liquefy the remaining half of the soya bean and squeezing out all the soya bean milk.
In a bowl, mix 150 - 200 ml of soya bean milk with 60 gm rice flour. Pass this through a fine sieve and leave aside.
Put in the remaining 1 liter of water into a large tall pot and bring it to the boil. When water starts to boil, add in the soya bean milk. Stir to prevent burning and boiling over. (this way of boiling plain water first then add the thick soya bean milk prevents the soya bean milk from burning)
Now, stir the rice flour mixture to combine before pouring all at once into the hot boiling soya bean milk all. Stir to combine well.
In the mean time, dilute 1 1/4 tsp gypsum powder with 1/4 cup warm water and pass through a fine sieve into a 3 or 4 quart pot. Put this pot with the gypsum powder solution in it in the sink and make sure to swirl around so that the gypsum powder solution is well mixed before you pour in the hot boiling soya bean mixture. Pour the hot boiling soya bean mixture from a considerable higher position and aim the hot liquid into the middle of pot below. This will ensure that the hot liquid poured in will reach the bottom and pick up the gypsum powder liquid, then it will come to the top and sink back down, mixing everything evenly. Cover the pot with a thick tea towel, put the lid/cover on and then cover with more tea towel, this will keep the mixture warm and set the tofu fah in 20 - 30 minutes. Take the pot out of the sink as gently as possible.
Serve tofu fah with ginger syrup.
Enjoy
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