Asian Tofu: Discover the Best, Make Your Own, and Cook It at Home [A Cookbook]

I was disappointed when my local health food store stopped carrying my favorite brand of tofu. My remaining choices were not that tasty to me, so I decided to learn how to make my own tofu. I love learning new things, and this sounded like a lot of fun. However, the idea still intimidated me. Fortunately, this cookbook took me through every stage of making tofu. The steps were very concise and eliminated the guesswork for me. I don't own a soy milk maker, so I followed her directions for making it from scratch. It really is a lot of work, but I found the process to be rewarding and calming. I would buy a soy milk maker if I made larger quantities of tofu, but I only have to feed myself. This cookbook truly taught me how to successfully make tofu. Not only that, it introduced me to many forms of tofu that I was unfamiliar with. I have enjoyed experimenting with techniques and flavors, and have greatly expanded my knowledge of tofu. The tea smoked pressed tofu was a nice surprise and I've made it several times. The tofu skin was also new to me, and I enjoyed making it along with the companion recipes in the book. I expected the book to offer detailed directions for making tofu, and it provided so much more than I anticipated. I was surprised by the number of recipes in this cookbook. The photos in the book are gorgeous and mouth-watering. The book even includes recipes for Asian sauces such as Thai chili sauce from scratch. There are a variety of seasoned soy sauces that are perfect for dressing simple tofu, but also work well integrated into more complex recipes. I've had this cookbook for almost a year and I've referred to it many times. It quickly became one of my favorite cookbooks and is one I doubt I'll ever part with.

I've had this book for about a week and I've already made block tofu as well as tofu pudding. Both were a success and incredibly easy to make the first time around. All the utensils/cookware/gadgets you need are probably already in your kitchen (large pot, strainer, slotted spoon, blender, etc). You don't even need a thermometer and obsess over hitting the right temperature. So there's no need to buy another thing for your kitchen just to make tofu. The only thing I didn't have was the tofu mold but I fashioned one from a half gallon carton with holes punched on the bottom. I used a jar filled with water as my "weight" for firm block tofu. So that took care of that problem (though now I might buy a proper mold since I'm never buying the supermarket stuff again!). The instructions are very easy to follow and detailed. The author provides a list of ingredients you will need along with the various options you can use for coagulants. I used food-grade gypsum, which I bought on Amazon, but you can even use Epsom salts. You will need to get dry soybeans, which I haven't seen at my local market so I ordered 4 pounds of organic soybeans online at a reasonable price. I'm sure you can find some at an asian grocery store if you have one available to you. Now, it's true that there are thousands of instructions on the web to make tofu. But I like that this book goes deeper into some history about tofu. Every chapter opens with the author recounting her travels to a certain place and how tofu is used by various peoples and what it means to them. So it's not just a how-to for tofu making, it also offers good stories and information. I found myself cuddling up to the book and reading it for the sake of just reading it. I especially liked reading about artisans making tofu and families migrating to the US who had to make their own if they wanted to have any tofu. As far as the recipes go, I have no idea how authentic they are, but the ones I cooked from are delicious! Some are vegetarian, some are not. I, myself, am vegetarian and I think the dishes with meat can easily be adapted with seitan or some other mock meat. If you eat meat, then it might shock you to find meat in a tofu book. Fear not. As the author points out, Asian cuisine doesn't delegate tofu to vegetarian fare, but rather, meat and tofu are used together and play off each other's tastes. So the recipes are great for just about anyone. The instructions for the recipes are also easy to follow and there aren't ingredients that are hard to find. Overall, a great guide for making tofu, awesome recipes to kick up tofu from bland to ka-pow!, and just plain fun.

It has helped me make great tofu udd adding my soy milk maker machine and helped me know what ingredients and supplies I needed.

This a great cookbook about ways to use tofu in your cooking. As someone who has been cooking tofu for five years, I was getting bored of my same recipes. I was getting into a bit of a rut about using tofu, this book has helped me discover new great ways to use tofu. Although I knew tofu could be used in desserts, this book gave me the ways to do that. Most importantly about this cookbook, not all of the recipes are vegetarian. That's right, just because tofu is used doesn't mean it has to be a vegetarian dish. I do eat vegetarian most of the time, but I love using pork as seasoning some times. I have found two new recipes that combine pork and tofu. I even learned about fermented red tofu, which creates an unusual, but tasty combination with pork. I am looking forward to using the red tofu as a marinade with pork belly as Nguyen suggests.

After reading a lot of reviews on-line it seemed too much of a pain to try and make tofu at home. Then, however, I found this book on Amazon and figured I'd give it a try. This is a well written book with clear instructions. I read the basics when the book arrived and then ordered gypsum and a plastic press. In her book she states she doesn't much care to use a soy milk machine, as it cannot hold 8 cups of water. So... I simply did 2 batches, one right after the other, using 4 cups of water and 1/2 the amount of soybeans called for in each batch. As I strained the milk from the pulp for the first batch, my second batch of milk was being made in my soy milk machine. When my second batch was complete, I strained the milk from the pulp and proceeded to cook it the second time on the stove, adding the coagulant and so forth. Following her instructions was easy and I am happy to say - my very first batch of tofu turned out perfectly. It's a personal thing, but, I really like knowing what's going into my food and exactly under what conditions my food is being made.

Andrea Nguyen is pretty much my hero, and this book does not disappoint. There's a lot in here about making your own tofu, which I haven't tried yet, but the recipes are great even aside from that. (Of course, anyone familiar with Ms. Nguyen's other books will not be surprised -- she has a definite flair for the homemade, even the labor-intensive homemade. It's part of why she's so wonderful.) The Hmong tofu-and-chicken meatballs are a particular favorite at our house, but there are lots of winners. Some of the other reviews express consternation that these aren't western vegetarian recipes that use tofu as mock meat. Well, no -- the book is called pretty clearly "Asian Tofu," the recipes are Asian recipes, and they're recipes that star tofu, often with meat as accompaniment or flavoring. (In some recipes, tofu only makes an appearance in fermented form in the marinade.) If you're looking for crunchy granola hippie tofurkey, this isn't the book for you. If you're looking for interesting new ways to use all kinds of tofu in Asian recipes, this book is *great*.

I have all of her cookbooks, and they are all good. I wish it had more recipes, but there are admittedly a lot of recipes here. I'm not sure I'll ever make my own tofu, and a lot of paper goes into that (which is where I think more recipes should go), but it was interesting. The breadth of tofu recipes was quite refreshing. It doesn't feel like the same thing over and over. Lamb and tofu kebabs sound amazing (or maybe it was goat, I don't have the book handy to look it up). I've made one recipe so far, and I'm one ingredient short of making a second. I've definitely learned a better way to season and drain my tofu than I've previously used. She has me pour boiling salted water over it, letting it sit, and then draining it for a while. It seemed to work well the one time I've tried it. I strongly recommend this book, as well as all her others.

Has some good information about tofu generally, but there weren't enough recipes to keep it interesting for me. I was hoping for more korean and chinese dishes, but there were a lot of western style ones.

fast shipping once recived the transaction, less than 10 days to reach home, book in great condition. thanks for everything!

… um Tofu zu machen. Prima.

This book is great. Just GREAT. Go get it. I own a lot of cookery books, and can sometimes be disappointed when I open a new book to find the same recipes, cooking process, ingredients, just in a different order and with a different name, Not this book. I had never cooked (/heard of) many of these recipes. And so far, all the recipes work. I bought the e-book by Andrea Nguyen, (see review) and it was good in that I successfully made several batches of Tofu, but there were difficulties in navigating a cookery e-book, for me. I was then concerned that the hard back print edition was going to be largely a duplicate of what I already owned in the e-book. The print edition has So much more information than the e-book, it is easier to use, and (although I hate to admit it) coloured pictures help! There is more information on Tofu, how to make it, and the recipes (of which there are A LOT) really work. They are detailed and delicious. Veggies: be pre-warned this is not a book for vegetarian cooking (many dishes reference pork, fish, etc), it is a book for Tofu cooking, although most longstanding vegetarians will not break sweat making any recipe in the book Vegetarian (simple). I am so glad I have this book as I feel it really is something new, and it really is all so delicious. Even my omni husband has been converted to Tofu. 10 out of 10 Andrea.

If your looking at this book long enough to be reading the reviews, you should have already purchased it.

Pour vous qui voulez faire votre tofu, vous qui voulez en apprendre plus sur les genres de tofu, ... TOUT EST LA!!! Mais c'est en anglais...