Japanese style Tofu glutinous rice balls + Packing

I am attempting to pack up my life into 20kg this week.

The last time I packed like this, it was 5 years ago when I had to move to Illinois to study. I learnt back then, that living on 20kg for a year is doable ;)

This time, I am making the transition into the next chapter of my career in a different industry...and a different city - Melbourne! Lots of changes for sure. Definitely exciting and very scary.

So it's a jam-packed week for me this week as I am trying to do a gazillion last-minute things and catch up with my Sydney friends. It is times like these you need quick and easy recipes for snacks (snacks are essential when you pack...really!).

I normally don't make rice balls but the only reason I made these was because the recipe uses tofu! I was curious. I was intrigued. I also look for every opportunity to health-ify and experiment with my food as you may know! While I couldn't taste the tofu at all, they did make the rice balls softer...nom nom nom.

I flavoured a third of the dough into green-tea (matcha) and also dipped the rice balls in 3 different 'dressings' - freshly grinded black sesame, soy bean powder (this stuff is amazing) and lastly the left-over sweetened red bean from the fridge.

This recipe is inspired by Masa, a Japanese foodblogger living in Taiwan. I bought his cookbook when I was in Taiwan few weeks back. Go and check his other recipes if you can read Chinese :)

Anyways, here's the recipe below and I hope you do make this and enjoy it as much as I have.

Oh, and I hope you smile today too :)

Japanese style glutinous tofu rice balls 
Adapted from MASA
Serves 4

• 100g silken tofu (do not use firm tofu)
• 100g glutinous rice flour (I recommend the Japanese version which are in flakes)
• 1/2 tsp matcha (green-tea) powder
• 1/4 cup ground black sesame (I blasted my sesame in a food processor)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened soy bean powder (can be purpose from Asian stores)
• 1/4 cup sweetened red-bean (may use cans but I boiled mine and added sugar)
• ~4 tbsp sugar

1. Combine the tofu and the glutinous rice flour in a bowl. Break up the tofu as much as you can with your hands and knead until a dough that is not too sticky is formed. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour as required. If the dough is too dry, add more tofu.

2. Take 1/3 of the dough and knead it again with green-tea powder until combined.

3. Roll out the each of the dough (one plain, one green) on a clean surface and stretch into long strips. Divide into however many rice balls you want and roll each part into a small ball with your palms.

4. Fill up a saucepan with water to the top and bring it to boil. Place the balls into boiling water and immediately stir the water to make sure each ball doesn't stick to the bottom. Cook until the balls float onto the surface of water. Drain them and place into a bowl of ice cold water. (I forgot to boil the water first - catastrophe! The photo below is a big no-no as the water wasn't boiled and not enough!)

5. Once cooled down, add 3 rice balls to each skewer (you may have to twist the skewer or you might end up squashing the rice balls!)

6. This step is optional, but I like to grill my skewers of rice balls lightly. It makes the surface less sticky and the rice balls softer. You can wrap the ends of the skewers with foil as I have done.

7. Prepare the 'dressings'. In a bowl, mix the black sesame with ~2 tbsp of sugar (I used dark brown) and in another bowl, mix the soy bean powder with ~2 tbsp of dark brown sugar depending on how sweet you prefer the powders. 

8. Sprinkle or dip the skewers into the powders or sweetened red-bean paste.

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Making soy milk at home

In the work fridge, we have a selection of skim, low-fat and full-fat milk, and then there is soy milk for the lactose intolerant (why do we have so much choices these days?!)

I think I wouldn't find it too difficult if I was lactose intolerant as I love soy too much (or perhaps not, can you imagine soy panna cotta?!) I always find myself pouring both milk and soy into my mug for that faint taste of soy at work. It might be because I grew up drinking it as it's a very popular breakfast drink in Taiwan.

Ever since my local Coles decided not to stock my favourite Bonsoy anymore, I have been making my own at home. As I do not own a soy milk maker at home, everything has to be done manually but it really doesn't take too much time!

I prefer to to use organic soy beans (from health food stores) as you can really taste the difference.

Anyways, here are the instructions, fellow soy-lovers (and I'm not expecting many)...

Adapted from here

Step1: Ingredients

You need about 125 g whole soya beans to make 1 liter of soy milk.

Step2: Soaking and dehulling the soya beans

Clean the soya beans and soak them in water overnight (at least 10 hours). Although not necessary, you can remove the hulls be kneading the soya beans and flushing the loose hulls with water. After soaking overnight, the beans should expand at least twice their original size.

Step3: Grinding the soya beans

Grind the soaked soya beans and 1 liter water in a blender for a few minutes until its as fine as possible. (I used 1 cup of soaked soy with 4 cups of water as my ratio).

Step 4: Sieve

Sieve the mixture trough a cheese cloth or muslin cloth and recover the soy milk. The insoluble material which remains on the sieve is called okara, and can be used as an ingredient for bread making!

Note: I used a normal sieve to do this job as I do not have a cheese cloth available. The resulting milk is not as smooth/fine due to the larger holes on the sieve but I personally don't mind! Fiber is my friend... ;)

Step5: Boiling the soy milk

Heat the soy milk till boiling point and continue boiling for about 5 to 10 minutes. After cooling, the soy milk is ready and can be kept in the fridge for another 3 days.

Note: I actually steamed my soy in my huge rice cooker as it is less of a hassle than boiling.

Step 6: Final step

Pour it into a container through the sieve again (just to remove that extra insoluble material for a finer texture).

I tend to keep the left over okara - or insoluble part of soy and use that to make shallot pancake...picture/recipes to come later! Nothing should go to waste right? ;-)

Voila - you've just made your own soy milk!

So, how do you normally flavour your soy milk?

I usually cook sliced ginger with dark brown sugar and water on a stove until it boils, then pour it into my unflavoured soy.

Or, I just melt Okinawan Kurozato (a type of coarse brown sugar similar to Muscovado sugar that I buy when I'm in Japan) with hot soy...

Ready to pour hot soy over pieces of kurozato sugar in the mug!

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