Tofu skin is a great alternative to the same old tofu. It's got a firm but soft texture unlike the spongy tofu. It's sweeter, more flavorful, and concentrated. Making tofu skin is easy, but takes a bit of time. All you need is soy bean and water to create this delicacy.
Prep Time10 minutesmins
Cook Time40 minutesmins
Total Time8 hourshrs50 minutesmins
Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: Asian, Taiwanese, Vegetarian
Servings: 2People
Author: Choochoo-ca-Chew
Ingredients
1C Organic Soy Beans
6C Water
Instructions
Cover 1C Soybeans with at least 5 times the water and let it soak for at least 6 hours, or overnight. The soaked soybeans should be roughly the size of an edamame bean (That's the "fresh" soybean!) My soybeans came up to about 2.5C after being soaked
Drain the soy beans
Add the soy beans and 6C of water into a blender and blend on slow for 30 seconds then high for about 1 minute
Strain the soy milk into a pot with a cheese cloth or any durable fabric. There are soy milk cloth, or I simply used my laundry bag. Squeeze and rinse out as much soy milk as you can. You might need to do it in a few times if making double the recipe.
Move the soy milk pot to the stove top and cook on medium heat, stirring constantly as it's rich and thick the bottom gets burnt easily.
The soy milk will foam up while heating up, it's not really boiling. It will take about 15 minutes to bring to a boil. Remove foam on top if necessary.
Turn the heat down to low, just keeping the soy milk hot but not boiling. You can also use a double boiler or a rice cooker. The soy milk needs to be at about 80°C (180°F). You will start to see a film forming on top after about 2 minutes depending on how cold it it.
After the whole layer is covered with tofu skin, using a chopstick, scrape the sides of the pot making sure that the film isn't sticking to the sides. Insert the chopstick underneath the tofu skin from the side and lift it up. Drain and place on a plate.
Repeat the process until you have the desired amount of tofu skin.
You can use the tofu skin as is or add 1 TBsp oil in a pan and fry the tofu skin until golden on both sides.
Notes
Serve tofu skin as a easy side dish:Use either the freshly made tofu skin or the fried version, drizzle thick soy sauce, sesame oil over the tofu skin and sprinkle with chopped spring onion or cilantro. Young ginger strips is also a popular topping.