Tofu has a long history of existence, and is rumored to have been invented by Liu An, the grandson of Liu Bang, the Gaozu Emperor of Han Dynasty in China, in 164 BC. Liu An invented tofu when he was burning medicine and making elixir on Bakong Mountain, on the border of Shouxian and Huainan in Anhui Province, and accidentally made soybean juice with gypsum. Yuan Hanqing believes that tofu was not produced until the 5th Dynasty. It was only in the Song Dynasty that tofu became an important foodstuff. Lu You, a poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, recorded that Su Dongpo liked to eat candied tofu and gluten; Wu Zimu's "Dream Sorghum Record" recorded that the wine store in the capital city of Lin'an sold tofu and fried tofu.

Over the past 2000 years, with the exchange of Chinese and foreign cultures, tofu has not only traveled across the country, but also to the world. It is as famous as Chinese tea, porcelain and silk. Today, tofu can be found in Asian product markets, produce markets, health food stores and large supermarkets in the West. In Chinese supermarkets, tofu can be found in four to five different softness levels.

Tofu production has evolved to a point where it is no longer done by human hands, but rather by modern technology that produces beautiful, nutritious, and versatile tofu.

Production process

Tofu is made from soybeans, mung beans, white beans, peas and other beans. First, the beans are shelled and washed, and after washing, they are put into water, soaked for an appropriate period of time, and then a certain proportion of water is added and ground into raw soybean milk. Next, the ground pulp is packed in a special cloth bag, the bag is closed and squeezed hard to squeeze the soybean milk out of the bag. Generally squeeze the pulp can be squeezed twice, in the first after the first squeeze will open the bag mouth, into the water, close the bag mouth and then squeeze again.

Raw soybean milk squeezed, put into the pot to boil, while cooking and skimming the foam floating above. Cooking temperature to maintain between 90 ~ 100 ℃, and need to pay attention to the cooking time. The boiled soymilk needs to be brined to solidify. The method of brining can be divided into salt brine brining and gypsum brining. The main component of salt brine is magnesium chloride, and the main component of gypsum is calcium sulfate.

Here is the main introduction of gypsum point brine method: first roasted gypsum crushed into powder, add water into gypsum slurry, poured into the soybean milk just scooped out of the pot, and gently stirred with a spoon. Soon after, the soybean milk will curdle into tofu flower, and within about 15 minutes after the tofu flower has curdled, gently spoon it into a wooden pot or other container that has been lined with a wrapping cloth. When full, wrap the tofu flower with the wrapping cloth, cover with a wooden board, and press for 10 to 20 minutes, that is, into water tofu. In the south there are also directly with raw gypsum and water grinding pulp, point brine when the ground gypsum pulp poured into the soybean milk and stir. Just need to master the amount - need tofu older then add more gypsum paste. If you want to make dried tofu, you have to scoop the tofu flower into the wooden tray basin, wrapped with a cloth, covered with a wooden board, piled up stones on the board. Pressing out the water, that is, into dried tofu.

Tofu with fish

Ingredients:

Tofu a fungus 3 carrots a sugar salt vinegar starch garlic cloves 3 scallions tomato sauce

Practice:

1, first cut the tofu into 2 cm square block, soaked in lightly salted water for 10 minutes (to prevent a moment of frying broken)

2, the fungus soaked and shredded carrots shredded, small parsnip minced, large onions, and then cut into small pieces, the carrots shredded. small onion finely chopped, garlic minced

3, 2 spoons of sugar 1 spoon vinegar 2 spoons of ketchup 2 spoons of water 1 spoon of soy sauce blended into a sauce to be used

4, tofu from the salted water drained, hot pan cool oil, put the garlic minced incense, put carrots, fungus, stir-fry, hear the fungus popping out loud, put the tofu stir-fry, to golden brown, put the adjusted juice on a small fire coo a little bit, put a spoonful of salt, to be thickened after the broth Turn off the fire, out of the pan on a plate sprinkled with small scallions can be.

Pocket tofu

Ingredients:

750 grams of tofu, 50 grams of asparagus, 50 grams of cabbage, 10 grams of cooking soda, 500 grams of cooked vegetable oil, 500 grams of broth, 500 grams of broth, 2 grams of pepper, 10 grams of cooking wine, 3 grams of Sichuan salt, 1 gram of monosodium glutamate.

Practice:

1, peel the tofu, cut into 6 cm long, 2 cm square strips, **** 30 strips.

2, asparagus cut into dominoes slices. Vegetable heart washed. Two frying pans will be placed on two stoves, one of which is placed in a pot of boiling water 500 grams, plus edible alkali to maintain a slight boil.

3, another pot of cooked vegetable oil to seventy hot (about 175 ° C), the tofu strips in batches, fried to a golden brown fish out, into the pot of alkaline water to soak for about 4 minutes, pick up into the water in the alkali, and then put into the alkaline pot of soaking for about 5 minutes after the second time, and then bleach again with clean water.

4, the fried soaked tofu in boiling water once more, and blanch 2 times with broth. Milk broth into the pot to boil, add asparagus, pepper, cooking wine, Sichuan salt after boiling, under the tofu strips, cabbage, monosodium glutamate, start the pot into the soup bowl is complete.