Tao huay (douhua) with Thai tea and pandan syrups
The syrup recipes make far more than you'll use with the tofu. You can use also them with ice cream or in cocktails. Mix the Thai tea syrup with oat milk for a half-arsed Thai milk tea. This recipes makes enough for two pretty generous lunch or snack servings. I measure water in grams for accuracy, but it's the same number in millilitres (1 gram = 1 millilitres)
Ingredients
Soy milk
- 150 grams dried soybeans
- 850 grams water
- ½ tablespoon powdered gypsum
Pandan syrup
- 160 millilitres water
- 75 grams pandan leaves shipped into approximate 1 centimetre segments
- white sugar see instructions for quantity
Thai tea syrup
- 2 tablespoons Thai tea
- 100 millilitres boiling water
- 85 grams brown sugar about ½ packed cup
- pinch salt
Instructions
Make the soy milk and tofu
- Soak the soybeans in plenty of water the night before you plan to make tofu. The next day, drain the beans and add to a blender with about 700 grams of the 850 grams of water (you can eyeball it; no need to be precise). Turn your blender up to the highest speed and leave running until the soybeans have broken down into a pulpy liquid. Pour into a saucepan. Use the remaining water to rinse the soy dregs from the blender jug and add this to the saucepan as well.
- Turn the heat on the hob to medium and cook, stirring regularly to prevent burning, until the raw beany aroma has dissipated. When you taste it, there should be no bitterness. Turn off the heat.
- There are two options for straining. One is to line a sieve with a large square of muslin cloth, through which you'll pour the contents of the pot. Bundle up the corners and squeeze until you've got as much liquid out as possible. The other option, which is my preference, is to use a mesh filter bag designed precisely for this job. Pour the contents in the bag, cinch it at the opening, and squeeze until you've got around 700 millilitres of fresh soy milk. Whichever method you use, you'll probably have to leave the mixture to cool slightly before you can squeeze with your hands. And yes, your hands will be tired from squeezing.
- Leave the soy milk to cool completely and don't discard the pulp, which you can repurpose in okara recipes.
- When the soy milk is cooled, set a steamer going at a steady, vigorous simmer. Find a large heatproof bowl or multiple bowls that will fit inside.
- Whisk the gypsum through the soy milk and pour into your containers. Cover them, whether with a lid or cling film, and place them in the steamer. Steam for 15-20 minutes, until the tofu is jiggly but set. It will firm up as it cools. When the tofu has cooled, place the container(s) housing the tofu into the fridge.
Pandan syrup
- Combine the water and pandan leaves in a blender and liquidise until you've got a grassy smoothie. Pop a mesh sieve over a small saucepan and tip the contents in. Squeeze, either with your hands or a silicone spatula, through the sieve. You should get somewhere in the vicinity of 190 millilitres pandan water.
- Measure the same amount of sugar by volume (e.g. if you have ¾ cup pandan water, use ¾ cup sugar). Add to the saucepan with the strained pandan water and heat until the sugar is dissolved. Leave to cool and then refrigerate.
Thai tea syrup
- Add the Thai tea to a heatproof bowl and pour the boiling water over. Leave to steep for 5 minutes. Grab your mesh sieve again and place it over a small saucepan. Pour Thai tea contents into the sieve and press with a silicone spatula to extract as much water as you can.
- Add the brown sugar and salt to the saucepan and heat until the sugar is dissolved. Again, leave to cool completely and then refrigerate.
To serve
- If you've steamed your tofu pudding in one large vessel, use a large serving spoon to scoop out servings into smaller bowls and top with a few tablespoons of one of the syrups. If you've used smaller bowls, add the syrup directly to those. Remember, you can always add more syrup if you want a sweeter tofu.