Soymilk and Tofu Recipe
As many of you probably know, one of the activities I have started to take up in Njinikom is teaching individuals how to make soymilk and tofu. Meat is often too expensive for families to afford here, so soybeans are a great way for people to add much needed protein to their diets without spending too much money. There is also a huge potential to sell fried tofu sticks as an income generating activity, but my post mate and I are yet to see anyone take the initiative and start selling them in Njinikom. Hopefully that will change soon.
A number of you have asked me how exactly do you make soymilk/tofu, so I figured I would post the recipe! Enjoy!
Step 1: Soak 6 cups of soybeans in 10L of water for 10-12 hours. Drain water.
Step 2: Take soybeans to a wet grinding mill. (I would guess in the United States you can just use a food processor or blender?)
Step 3: Mix the ground up soybeans with 6L of water in a large bucket.
Step 4: Using a cheese or diaper cloth, strain the mixture little by little into a large pot. At this point you can either discard the soybean particles (left in the cloth) or dry them out to make soy flour.
Step 5: Bring the liquid in the pot to a boil and allow it to boil for 1 minute.
*At this point if you add sugar and lemon zest to taste you have made soymilk!
Step 6: Add 2 ladles of alcohol vinegar.
Step 7: Stir the liquid slowly for 15 seconds and then cover. Leave the pot on the fire (or the stove for those of you not using an outdoor kitchen) for 5 minutes and then take it off.
Step 8: After waiting 20 minutes, uncover the pot and strain out the tofu chunks into a cheese or diaper cloth.
Step 9: Tie up the diaper cloth with the tofu inside and place a weight on top of it for 30-45 minutes.
Step 10: Take the tofu out and cut it up into small cubes. Voila! At this point you have tofu the way you would pretty much buy it in a store in the USA, but this
wouldn’t really sell well in Cameroon so….
Step 11: Add condiments (Salt, hot pepper powder, etc.) and fry cubes in peanut or soy oil.
