Homemade soya milk and tofu - step by step, part 1

First of all, thanks to one of my favorite bloggers at http://www.justhungry.com/ I got the overview on tofu making. I couldn't get hold of nigari or gypsum, so after further research I decided to try Apple cider vinegar as a coagulant. And it worked just fine! I'm working on getting hold of nigari though.

If anyone knows a store that ships nigari to Norway, please leave a comment!

So here's how I did it:

First I made soya milk. This is step 1:

I bought soya beans and soaked them aprox. 20 hrs. I could've soaked them less, but I had to go to work! I used 500 grams of dried beans.

This is how dry and soaked soya beans look like (I actually didn't know!):










The soaked beans goes in a food processor with enough cold water to just cover them. Depending on your food processor (I got a very small one) you might have to do this in batches. Pulse on full spead for 2-3 minutes untill you get a foamy white mass. Put this into a large pan.













When all the beans have been processed, measure the amount of soya mass and fill the same quantity of water in the pan.
My bag of 500 grams dry soya beans gave me about 2.5 liters of mashed soya foam...












Put it on the heat and let it boil. At this point it'll probably start foaming a lot. If the foam reaches the edge of your pan - pour some cold water on it and stir. Or take it off the heat a bit. After a while the foam will subside and your soya beans + water should be left to simmer for aprox. 20 minutes. Stir it now and then.











The soya grain (okara) will separate from the milk and all that is left now is to strain the liquid. Pour it through a sieve cloth and squeese it with a big ladle or your hands (it's hot!).











Voila: soya milk! Use this as you normaly would use soya milk, it keeps for 2-3 days in the fridge. Or make tofu.... see part 2! Picture shows the fresh soya milk and the okara that was left after sieving.

Don't throw away the okara! It's great stuff, full of nuticious value, so keep it for baking etc. Recipes coming... Dry it in the oven on low heat or freeze it for later use. It keeps fresh in the fridge for a couple of days.