THOUGHTS- Today I made tofu from scratch. Three ingredients. Soy beans, water and nigari. I admit I was a little worried when I started researching the products that I would find that it wasn't at all suited to the earth diet. Tofu is such a widely known healthfood and very versatile. I love tofu and would make recipes with it everyday if I could. That would be silly though because then I would be missing out on many other wonderful products. The typical ingredient list for tofu is nothing to worry about but I decided that not only would I save on the packaging but also save on money. It is very time consuming but at the same time VERY rewarding. I used the soy milk maker at work to save on time but it still took almost an hour to make a block that i pretty much inhaled.
Here is the information from the website of the company I bought the tofu making kit off. Explaining what Nigari is.
Pink Lake Nigari
Nigari is the most commonly used coagulant for making Tofu and has been used for thousands of years in China and Japan. Read how Nigari is used as an ingredient for Tofu and see Lake Crystal’s easy to follow Tofu recipe.Nigari is composed mainly of Magnesium Chloride (also known as Magnesium Oil), but also contains other mineral traces that are naturally occurring in natural lake salt brines. Pink Lake Nigari comes from natural salt-lakes formed over 20,000 years ago. The salt crust of the lakes is 0.05 metres thick and during the hot Australian summer the surface of the lake appears pink in colour. This is why the lake became known as “Pink Lake”.
In the winter, rainfall of 700-900mm sits on the surface of the lake taking some of the crust of the lake into solution to make salty water or brine. Because magnesium together with a number of other trace elements is naturally occurring in the lake’s salt crust, these trace elements also naturally occur in the brine. This brine, which is pumped from the surface of the lake, is a complex mineral salt containing several trace elements such as calcium, magnesium and potassium for example. The brine passes through a series of evaporation ponds where the heat from the sun evaporates the brine and as it does so several of the trace elements such as calcium, sodium chloride, magnesium sulphates “drop out”.
Because the Magnesium ions are the last element to “drop out” of the brine, the density of the Magnesium within the resulting Magnesium Chloride (MaCl2) or Nigari, increases.
Nigari is the most commonly used coagulant for making Tofu and has been used for thousands of years in China and Japan. Read how Nigari is used as an ingredient for Tofu and see Lake Crystal’s easy to follow Tofu recipe.Nigari is composed mainly of Magnesium Chloride (also known as Magnesium Oil), but also contains other mineral traces that are naturally occurring in natural lake salt brines. Pink Lake Nigari comes from natural salt-lakes formed over 20,000 years ago. The salt crust of the lakes is 0.05 metres thick and during the hot Australian summer the surface of the lake appears pink in colour. This is why the lake became known as “Pink Lake”.
In the winter, rainfall of 700-900mm sits on the surface of the lake taking some of the crust of the lake into solution to make salty water or brine. Because magnesium together with a number of other trace elements is naturally occurring in the lake’s salt crust, these trace elements also naturally occur in the brine. This brine, which is pumped from the surface of the lake, is a complex mineral salt containing several trace elements such as calcium, magnesium and potassium for example. The brine passes through a series of evaporation ponds where the heat from the sun evaporates the brine and as it does so several of the trace elements such as calcium, sodium chloride, magnesium sulphates “drop out”.
Because the Magnesium ions are the last element to “drop out” of the brine, the density of the Magnesium within the resulting Magnesium Chloride (MaCl2) or Nigari, increases.
I was very impressed with my productivity today. I have now found ways of making two products that I was not sure how I would ever be able to stop buying the commercially made versions. But there is a way for everything and my mission over the time I take on this earth diet challenge is to find as many foods in the skin they are in and make all the products I like myself. 2 down many more to go. Today was very satisfying I encourage everyone to try and make more things from scratch. It may be time consuming but it saves money, tastes great, feels satisfying and is just plain fun.
CHALLENGES- Making tofu from scratch
TRIUMPHS- Making tofu from scratch
WHAT I ATE-
BREAKFAST-Beetroot, carrot, ginger, celery and parsley juice.
Strawberry soy smoothie.
Tofu Orientale (Blue lotus packaged flavoured tofu)
SNACK- Banana
LUNCH- Roast Veg salad- Lettuce, shallot, cucumber, onion, capsicum, avocado, roast potato, pumpkin, orange and white sweet potato. Chickpeas.
dressing- Flaxseed oil and garlic.
SNACK- Carrot, celery and capsicum sticks. Cherry tomatoes and olives.
Avocado dip- Avocado, shallot, tahini, home made vegetable stock, lemon juice and pepper.
A few nuts and sultanas and a bar of loving earth chocolate.
DINNER- 2 soy burgers and a block tofu orientale.
Scrambled tofu
Essene Bread with avocado dip spread and raw cashew cheese
SNACK- Popcorn cooked in olive oil with tumeric and oregano
RECIPES
SOY BURGERS
INGREDIENTS
Soy pulp
Red onion
Shallot
Shoyu
Chickpea flour
Garlic
Olive oil
METHOD
Chop all veggies finely. Mix together in a bowl and fry lightly in olive oil.
SCRAMBLE TOFU
Mashed home made tofu
Shoyu
Parsley
Red onion
Red Capsicum
Garlic
Olive oil
METHOD
1. Brown onion, garlic and capsicum.
2. Add other ingredients.
3. Heat through and serve.
EXCERCISE- none
No comments:
Post a Comment