Taho
silky tofu pudding topped with chewy pearls and palm sugar syrup
January had been going smoothly — I was hitting deadlines, teaching on a consistent basis, cooking lots, enjoying spending time with new friends and old, and then out of the blue, I got infected with a severe stomach bug. I woke up one night and ran to the bathroom to throw up as Wex held my hair. Initially, there were no other symptoms but it soon developed into a fever. Too sick to do anything, I lay in bed all day while Wex cooked porridge and soups for a few nights. And then, while I was on the cusp of recovery earlier this week, something happened that shattered me emotionally. I made an appointment with my therapist and am working through the grief, but the combination of the two has meant that I’ve not been eating very much this week, if at all. The only things I’ve been wanting to eat are that which are simple and bland.
I recalled that I’d bought a packet of gypsum a long time ago to make tau huay (or dòu huā) 豆花, a soymilk pudding that owes its poetic name “bean flower” to its delicate pudding-like texture. Typically, a coagulant such as gypsum is dissolved in water, then freshly boiled soymilk is streamed in. When the mixture cools, you have your tau huay. Sweetened with sugar syrup, it’s the pure expression of soybean. While traditional, this method can be inconsistent; the temperature of the soymilk and the height from which it is poured into the bowl can both affect success. An alternative method that is easier in my view involves dissolving the gypsum in soymilk, then steaming the mixture until very softly set:
It’s not uncommon for tau huay to demonstrate some weeping, as you can see in the video above, but a little starch (such as sweet potato starch or tapioca starch) mixed into the mixture before steaming can circumvent this. This tau huay is whiter and coats the tongue more luxuriously:
Gypsum is not an easy-to-find ingredient and requires some luck at your Asian grocer, so it’s worth exploring alternative setting agents. Gelatine, available at any supermarket, can produce a panna cotta-like tau huay that is very smooth and tastes exceptionally clean. However, with gelatine, the downside is that it demands utter precision, especially when working in small quantities. Too little and the custard does not set, too much and you get tau huay with the texture of rubber. Derived from pork skin or fish scales, it is also not ideal for vegetarians. Agar powder is often suggested as a plant-based substitute for gelatine but the result cannot really be considered a pudding, since the texture is more brittle and less creamy:
With all this tau huay, I thought I’d turn them into taho, a Filipino dessert of tofu pudding topped with brown sugar syrup and tapioca pearls. Some video tutorials offer silken tofu as a substitute for the tofu pudding, but compared to the latter, silken tofu has an intensely beany aroma and a slightly rough and astringent mouthfeel. It also tends to be more firmly set than tau huay. That said, steaming silken tofu for 5 to 10 minutes to thoroughly warm it through can accentuate its delicacy.
These are my rankings for how well each tau huay works in taho:
1. Tau huay with gypsum and tapioca starch: Exceptionally smooth, silky, and luxurious.
2. Tau huay with gypsum: Slightly leaner and lighter compared to #1.
3. Tau huay with gelatine: Can be smooth and silky but narrow margin for error.
4. Silken tofu: Strongly beany in flavour. Silky but slightly rough and astringent. In taho, however, these faults are less apparent.
5. Tau huay with agar powder: Brittle and least pudding-like. With this, I didn’t feel like I was eating taho.
TAU HUAY (Vegan)
Makes 1-2 servings
200g unsweetened or barely sweetened soymilk, homemade or store-bought
1.5g / ⅜ tsp gypsum with or without 2g / ¾ tsp tapioca starch
(*Or 1g/ ½ tsp agar powder, or 4g/ 2 sheets gelatine leaves)
For gypsum and tapioca starch-set tau huay: Fill a steamer with water and bring it to the boil. Meanwhile, place the soymilk in a small heatproof bowl. Mix a small amount of soymilk into the gypsum and tapioca starch to form a smooth slurry. Pour this slurry into bowl, “washing” it with the soymilk in the bowl to make sure every trace is in the bowl. Cover the bowl with foil and steam for 13 minutes on high heat, or until the tau huay is very gently set and wobbly. Remove it from the steamer and allow it to cool down slightly before eating.
For agar powder-set tau huay: Place the soymilk in a small pot. Mix a small amount of soymilk into the agar powder to form a smooth slurry. Pour this slurry into pot, “washing” it with the soymilk in the pot to make sure every trace is in the bowl. Bring to a gentle boil, stirring, then turn off the heat and allow it to cool down and set, about 30 minutes.
For gelatine-set tau huay: Soak the gelatine sheets in cold water until they are soft and rubbery, about 5 minutes. Place the soymilk in a small pot and bring to a simmer. Squeeze the gelatine sheets to expel excess water, then add them to the soymilk. Bring to a gentle boil, stirring, until all of the gelatine is dissolved. Turn off the heat and allow it to cool down and set in the refrigerator, about 1 hour.
Making taho is easy once you have tau huay. Instead of a brown sugar syrup, I use palm sugar blocks that I melt down with water, with several thick coins of ginger. You can also use pandan if you wish.