stone powder tofu
I was distraught to find out that Hurstville Asian grocery stores did not stock stone powder (石膏粉). I had already bought my bean milk to make tofu flower/tofu-fa (豆腐花). Alas, the stone powder was too elusive and now I will have settle for just drinking it. It's good I didn't buy the sugarless bean milk. [Now I realise that 石膏 is a chinese medicine, there is still hope]The story started from when Mary enlightened us with her delightfully smooth tofu flower. It tasted fantastic and was also very simple it was to make. It only required 2 ingredients: bean milk (豆奶) and stone powder.
If I remained ignorant as to what tofu flower is actually made of, then I wouldn't have minded eating it for the rest of my life. But now that I know the vital ingredient is stone powder = gypsum (edible grade), then I start to question whether I have already caused my body enough damage by eating tofu flower over my short 23 years?
Gypsum is the main mineral in cement, talcum powder, chalk and plaster. Had I eaten an entire pack of chalk already? Maybe it's for the best that I just drink the bean milk by itself. Or maybe I can get the coagulation to work with just cornflour (鷹粟粉)? I have read that it doesn't work, and will not achieve the smooth texture that's desired.
After a little research, I find out that tofu in itself is made with using the same edible grade gypsum as coagulant. Gypsum is actually calcium sulfate, and it is because of this that tofu is also very high in calcium. Glucono delta-lactone is also another commonly used coagulant along with gypsum to create silken tofu. So many chemicals.
So after all that I come back full circle. I'm going to eat gypsum anyway from eating tofu normally, so what's a little quarter-teaspoon more going to do? Drinking nice cold bean milk nonetheless still makes me feel very shiawase (幸せ).
benny | Sunday, March 29, 2009 
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Mags
benny
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no, people just don't sell it. as for those that do, they conveniently ran out...
mary bought hers from the city.
i already drank the bean milk so too late
benny |
Wednesday, April 01, 2009 7:12:00 pm
Haha.. I wouldn't worry so much about what I eat unless it was artificial. Humans need vital elements (gypsum included) to survive. So even if we are eating rock, it's no big deal.
Just like we need iron (that's in no way suggesting that you go out there and bite into a chunk of iron - not edible grade, y'see...) it's still healthy for people to take iron tablets, and eat red meat. :P
But umm, strange that they don't sell it in H'ville. Could they just have been out of stock - as I'm sure my mummy has bought it from H'ville before?