In the slightly cramped kitchen of Sona restaurant in West Hollywood, chef de cuisine Kuniko Yagi is standing over six bowls of tofu that she has made using three different methods in the interest of soybean curd experimentation.
It's not that she hasn't already discovered a recipe for making her own tofu perfectly -- silky-smooth, creamy and luscious, with the fresh -- really fresh -- flavor of soybeans. But she's making a point. "It seems so simple, but it means you have to get everything just right," she says.
Traditional tofu makers start with the beans, and coax them through a long, involved process to create tofu. But with just soy milk and a brine called nigari (a coagulant derived from seawater), it's easy to make kinugoshi (soft, silken) tofu at home, at least in theory. It isn't that easy to get the exact-right consistency, but for anyone who loves tofu, it's worth the effort. Kinugoshi tofu is delicate and pudding-like and almost melts on the tongue. Made fresh, it's exponentially better than any store-bought blocks of tofu.
It was shame that led Yagi down the path of tofu making, she says: "I have so many vegetarian customers that love it, and I felt embarrassed I couldn't make it, being Japanese." Maybe being an obsessive chef had something to do with it too.
Several failed attempts (including starting from scratch with soybeans, as well as using various kinds and brands of soy milk and nigari) left a trail of discarded soybean curd mush. "I was so [mad], I couldn't sleep well," she says. "I was struggling for the perfect tofu and kept asking myself, 'What's wrong with it?' "
So she made some calls that eventually led her to Shogo Kariya, the owner of Meiji Tofu in Gardena, whom Yagi calls "the tofu master."
This is his recipe for making tofu from soy milk, and it's the one Yagi uses: Add a teaspoon of liquid nigari to 500 milliliters of cold soy milk and stir. Then pour it into heat-proof bowls and cook (in a water bath or steamer) until it sets like custard. That is it. There's no heating the soy milk to bring it to a certain temperature before adding the nigari. No separating liquids from solids. No straining once it's cooked.
