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Tahu Sumedang (Acid-Set Tofu Fried Hollow)

Name: Tahu Sumedang (Acid-Set Tofu Fried Hollow)
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 1 h 20 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Indonesian
Ingredients: 300 g dried soybeans; 2 L water; 4 tbsp vinegar; 1 L oil for deep frying; 1 tsp salt; 12 bird's-eye chillies; 3 tbsp kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)

Fried tofu from Sumedang in West Java. The soy milk is set with acid rather than a calcium salt; in Sumedang the coagulant is the whey left from the last batch, kept two or three days. Fried in very hot oil, it comes out with a crisp, mottled brown shell and an inside so soft it can be half empty. Served with bird's-eye chillies.

Ingredients

4servings

Steps

Blend the soaked beans with the 2L of water until fine and squeeze through a cloth. That is the soy milk.
⏲ 15 min
Bring the soy milk to the boil, lower the heat and simmer 10 minutes, stirring so the base does not catch. The raw bean smell should be gone.
⏲ 10 min
Take it off the heat for 1-2 minutes. Pour in the vinegar water in three goes, stirring slowly once or twice. When white curds separate from yellowish whey, leave it 10 minutes.
⏲ 12 min
Ladle the curds into a cloth-lined mould or sieve, fold the cloth over and press under a weight 30 minutes.
⏲ 30 min
Cut the tofu into 3cm pieces, sprinkle with a little salt and pat dry.
⏲ 5 min
Heat the oil very hot, 180C. Fry a few pieces at a time 6-8 minutes, until the skin is brown, crisp and puffed. Too many at once drops the oil temperature (deep frying).
⏲ 8 min
Drain and serve hot with the chillies, and kecap manis to dip if you like.
⏲ 1 min

Variations

The Sumedang coagulant. Instead of vinegar, use the whey left from the last batch, kept two or three days. It turns sour, and that acid sets the soy milk.
With bought tofu. Ordinary, not-too-firm tofu, cut, drained and fried the same way, comes close. It hollows out less.
What goes with it. Lontong (rice cake steamed in leaves) or sambal are often served alongside.

Tips

Very hot oil, big flame.
Fry a few pieces at a time.
Eat it the day it is fried. Tofu made the traditional way turns sour within hours and the crisp skin goes leathery. Keep leftovers in the fridge.
Always cook the soy milk.

More detail and the reasons why (3)

Two ways of not throwing whey away. Ricotta reheats the whey left from cheese to set the protein still in it. Sumedang keeps its whey until it sours and uses it to set the next batch of tofu.
The coagulant decides the tofu. Douhua sets soy milk with a calcium salt such as gypsum, which turns the whole pot into one gel with no curds to lift out. This tofu is set with acid. Curds separate from whey, and the curds have to be gathered and pressed to become tofu. Ricotta sorts the ways of setting milk into acid, a calcium salt or rennet, and soy milk splits the same way: douhua is the calcium salt, this tofu the acid.
The hollow comes from the speed of frying. In very hot oil the skin sets first while the inside is still soft. That is why Sumedang tofu is creamier inside than ordinary tofu, and some pieces come out half empty or wholly empty. If the oil cools, the skin sets late and soaks up oil.