"Yuba" tofu 湯葉豆腐

I saw this recipe on the Internet. Since my attempt at making tofu from store bought soy milk was somewhat less than successful and a bit more work than warranted by the end product.  The idea of making a tofu-like dish using gelatin and soy milk appealed to me. This was very simple to make and the texture was great. The original recipe called for thinly sliced fresh okra as a garnish. Since I did not have fresh okra, I used "pickled" okra instead (below).

Here is another version of the garnish; finely chopped scallion, nori strips and a dab of yuzukosho and Ponzu sauce.

I am just translating from the original recipe. This will make very generous servings for two.

Water 2 Tbs
Gelatin powder 4grams
Soy milk (unsweetened and un-flavored) 360ml
Salt a small pinch

I mixed water and gelatin in a small cup and let it sit for a few minutes. I put the store bought non-sweetened and non-flavored soy milk and salt in a small sauce pan on a low flame until it started just gently boiling. I cut the flame and mixed in the gelatin bloomed in water. I mixed well and dissolved the gelatin. I poured the mixture into a small Pyrex baking dish. When the mixture cooled to room temperature, I covered it with plastic wrap and placed it in the refrigerator overnight.
The next day, I scooped it out into a serving bowl and garnished with sliced pickled okra and poured Ponzu sauce (from a bottle) on top.


This has a nice smooth mouth feel and is quite good. The first few bites had a subtle almost vanilla flavor (even though the soy milk was supposedly unflavored). Probably I should use fresh instead of pickled okra. The pickle was a bit too strong relative to the very delicate soybean flavor of the dish. The dish I garnished with scallion and nori strips and yuzukosho was better. I think this is almost like silken tofu (the texture is subtly  different, though) and much easier to make than real tofu from store bought soy milk.