Shan Tofu not jelly-like but rather crumbly

Question

I tried making Shan tofu. Unfortunately, my version does not have the slight jelly-like consistency and texture that Shan tofu in Myanmar had. It is firm, but a bit on the crumbly side.

This was my 3rd attempt, but it finally came up respectable. The first two attempts used locally-sourced "chickpea flour". It ended up tasting like unflavored humus. This time I used "besan flour" and the results were more along the lines I was expecting.

I used the recipe from http://www.marystestkitchen.com/burmese-tofu-the-easy-vegan-soy-free-tofu/. I compared this to other recipes, and there is not much difference.

Can you suggest things to try to make it more jelly-like?

Answer 1

If it is crumbly you are probably using not only a little too much flour, but also have a problem with hard water, which means lots of calcium dissolved in the water. One way I remove calcium is to boil the water for about 5 minutes, let it cool down for an hour and then pass through a coffee filter. Otherwise try cooking with a non-fortified artesian spring water.

I will probably get a lot of hate for the following recommendation, but in extreme cases, I sometimes use distilled water in cooking. It probably isn’t healthy to drink pure every day, but it’s really magic when you are making sauces or pressure cooking vegetables.

You could also add agar agar to gel it up.