Hello everyone!
If you celebrated Mother’s Day last weekend, I hope it was full of love and hugs for the people who have one of the hardest careers ever. Thank you for all the warm responses to the post about my mom.
We’re leaving for an overseas trip this week so I’ve been rushing to finish projects. That’s why this dispatch is a little tardy.
So quick notes for your spring garden!
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If you reside in the Seattle area, garden and are interested in growing perilla, PTFS founding member Tom Dullum has starter plants for sale. They’re very healthy and he’s become quite expert at propagating Asian herbs. Contact Tom at: [email protected]
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If you live in the San Jose area, Asian herbs and plant starters are available at Thien Thanh, Dai Thanh and Battambang markets.
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Don’t live in either places? My tips on sourcing Vietnamese herb plants here.
Onward to the tofu of the week!
I’ve been talking about tofu commonly found at regular markets to get you into the soy mood. Now, let’s discuss tofu that’s tofu, but not tofu.
– yes, of the Rodale family that has pushed organic farming and natural living since the 1940s, asked to know more about TOFU SKIN. A request that was music to my soy ears.
If you’re a Trader Joe’s shopper, the store recently carried “Tofu Sheets” which was basically tofu skin. “Tofu Sheet” is confusing because there is a specific Chinese ingredient called “tofu sheet”. TJ should have hired me to help name the product!
Made in Malaysia, TJ’s tofu skin is currently unavailable.
No problem. There’s lots of tofu skin elsewhere. You just have to know what to look for and where to go.
In this post, let’s address tofu skin basics:
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What is tofu skin? (What’s up with the sheet, skin, and yuba?)
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How do you buy tofu skin?
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What to do with tofu skin?
Silky, soft and chewy, with a high protein content, tofu skin can be used in a variety of ways. It’s available fresh, dried, and frozen. It can be dropped into broth for soup, cut into noodles of sorts, employed as a dim sum wrapper, and manipulated to mimic meat. It’s high-protein and tastes nutty, fatty, and umami. You can just eat the fresh stuff as is, too!
Tofu skin is simple but not. What’s easy to understand about tofu skin is this: Tofu skin is basically the thin layer that forms on top as soy milk boils in a pan.
Think of the film of milk that forms when heating a pan of milk. The difference is that tofu skin is made on purpose, with the soy milk being heated in a wide and/or shallow pan to create more surface area for the skin to form.
After the film forms across the surface, the cook gingerly pulls up the skin — the proteins are that strong! They may use fingers like this fellow at Hodo Soy in Oakland, CA, or they may slide a thin rod under the skin to lift it up.
Tofu skin can be eaten fresh, folded, or left to dry. How the tofu skin is manipulated determines its appearance and uses.
So, despite being called “tofu skin”, there’s no coagulant involved. Tofu skin is just soy milk. Its flavor is super savory and umami loaded because for soy milk to form a skin, it has to evaporate a lot.
Tofu skin represents soybean essence.
With regard to protein content, soybeans are the vegetable that’s closest to being an animal! I suppose you could think of tofu skin like jerky but texturally, fresh tofu skin is tender, rich and ethereal tasting.
The Japanese enjoy eating nama yuba (fresh, raw tofu skin) like sushi, dipped in a bit of excellent soy sauce (my fave is the seasoned soy sauce in this post) and grated ginger, reflecting the specialness of the fresh skin.
It takes a lot of time to make a decent portion, so it’s precious. I have instructions in Asian Tofu and guarantee that going from bean to skin is a worthy project. Plus, the dregs at the bottom of the pan are extra nutty and tasty.
If you have a tofu shop near you that makes fresh tofu skin – such as Hodo Soy in Oakland or Pheonix Bean in Chicago, see if you can get access to day-of tofu skin. Once it’s been packaged, tofu skin becomes another thing – still incredible but not worthy of sushi-like treatment!
And, on the off chance you’re in Kyoto, you can buy dried yuba souvenirs. Those are 2010 prices, by the way (3150 Yen = 20 USD in 2024).
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豆腐皮 dòu fu pí (or commonly, 腐皮 fu pí) in Mandarin
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yuba in Japanese
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đậu hũ ky in Vietnamese
I see that it’s 두부껍질 in Korean Hangul but do not know the Romanization. Help!
So . . . if tofu skin is just soy milk, why is it called “tofu skin” and not soy milk skin?
I suspect that it’s related to the Chinese term for it — dòu fu pi (豆腐皮, bean curd skin) or the shorthand, fu pí (腐皮, curd skin). So from that, it’s understandable why the generic term is “tofu skin”. Even so, you’ll see below that the term on packages varies quite a lot.
One note here — in English nowadays, we call bean curd by its Japanese term, tofu, not its Chinese name, dòu fu. Tofu originated in China. I discussed this with author
(who has an excellent newsletter about tofu in China) and neither of us know exactly how “bean curd” in America became “tofu”. But it is, despite tofu originating in China.
Refer to tofu as dòu fu and make a Chinese speaker extra happy! But many English speakers know soy bean curd as tofu.
Because Japanese food terms have a certain elevated status, tofu skin is often called “yuba”. Whatever term used, it refers to a wondrous tasty film of soy milk.
Boy, Asian food terms and culture are complicated and confusing. You’re just looking for the tofu skin! Knowing the terms in Chinese will help you decipher the labels on packages. You’ll see why below.
Where to look for tofu skin? Premium US-made tofu skin like Hodo’s is sold at places like Whole Foods. I see it at Chinese and Vietnamese markets because those retailers move the most tofu skin.