Tofu pudding is a very soft and mildly flavoured tofu that is often eaten as a sweet snack. A famous variation is slightly sweetened tofu in ginger syrup, but there are endless variation.
I myself am partial to savoury or spicy broth and toppings (pictured: black vinegar, ricewine vinegar, soy sauce, chilli crisp, zha cai, spring onion).
If you look up how to make it online you would come away with the impression it is difficult, those people are wrong. It is easy to get "good enough" results and I'll tell you how.
A note: it's best made fresh, this was made last night and it's already firmed up a bit from pressing the water out under its own weight.
First, make soymilk the lazy way (Only needed if you can't buy normal, plain, soymilk):
Ingredients: 1 part soybeans, 8 parts water, extra water for soaking, optionally salt or sugar.
Equipment: High speed blender, measuring cup, pot to cook in.
- Soak 1 part soy beans to 8 parts water, 4 hours is fine but overnight is convenient.
- Pour off the water and rinse
- Grind them in a high speed blender with 1/2 to 3/4 of the measured water.
- Filter the resulting liquid in a fine mesh.
- Take the pulp out of the filter, mix with the reserved water to extract anything remaining, and filter this.
- Discard the pulp.
- Put the solution in a pot on the stove and gently heat. A light simmer is as far as you want to go but just prior is best. Stir regularly during heating.
- It will foam a lot, continue gently heating adjusting to avoid foaming over. Do not skim the foam.
- After around 20 minutes of being near boiling the foam will mostly go away. Your soy milk is cooked now.
- If you want to season it do so now.
You can use it now or fridge it for later.
Second make dou hua.
Ingredients: Soy milk, gypsum.
Equipment: Measuring jug, scales, steamer, bowl that fits in steamer.
- If using hot milk let it cool slightly. If a skin forms you can eat it, it's delicious.
- Dissolve ~8g gypsum per 1L milk in a small amount of the milk.
- Add that slurry to the milk and mix it well. If the milk is hot work quickly as it will start to coagulate and you want the bulk of that to happen as it sits undisturbed.
- Put the soymilk in something that fits in a steamer, cover it (lid/plastic wrap/whatever) and steam it for 15 minutes.
- Enjoy!
I'd believe you. I came to this via learning about curdled soymilk breakfasts popular im Taiwan but not liking something so sour all the time.
I can barely buy more than extremely overpriced "soft, medium, and firm" tofu without travelling for an hour or so. So I have been learning to make my own, I love a lightly spicy and easy to digest breakfast that's also quick :)
Imho silken tofu is a poor substitute, fresh hot douhua is so good. Although maybe it's better if you can get better tofu. The stuff sold where I live has very little flavour and aroma. It's kinda like comparing freshly baked bread and wonderwhite.
oh i also love taiwanese xian doujiang, starts out smooth and curdles as you eat it, and the vinegarness is a key flavor. i love the taiwanese breakfast joints that open at like 10pm until mid-morning so you can have breakfast before bed
yeah the tofu selections in western supermarkets are kinda poor. even in asia, nen doufu is not a perfect substitute for fresh douhua, douhua is more curdly, creamy and interesting.
if you have a chance, try Kunming douhua mixian (rice noodles with douhua and spicy sauce) and Sichuan douhuafan (big chunks of douhua served in their "whey", with a spicy little dipping sauce, served with rice). you can find douhuafan in good sichuan restaurants all over china, but douhua mixian i've only seen in yunnan and mostly kunming
In Australia, where I live, Guangzhou influence is the most significant and a lot of Chinese stores/restaurants cater to that, and particularly a very sweet and westernised style. Although I recently discovered a tofu restaurant in one of the chinese cultural hubs. Unfortunately it's 1.5 hours travel ;_;
They do serve something like Sichuan douhuafan and it was indeed a revelation. I also got to try exploding juice tofu which frankly blew my tiny mind.
I'm vegan, and therefore eat a lot of tofu. It is a tragedy how many years I spent pressing tofu very firm and having like 2 styles. I only recently learned of the blanching technique to let you cook with softer tofu and not have it fall apart.