Asian Tofu: Discover the Best, Make Your Own, and Cook It at Home by Andrea Nguyen

Asian Tofu: Discover the Best, Make Your Own, and Cook It at Home Reviews

• 
  Rachel

  Despite how much most people complain about tofu, I actually like it. And I'm always looking for new ways to cook it. This book, goes a step beyond simple recipes and tells you how to make it at home. Starting with homemade soy milk and ending up with tofu skin, soy lees and tofu blocks, with a few simple tools, you can prepare it at home. The author is very thorough with her tofu buying guide, basic cooking tips, and then the recipes themselves from all parts of Asia, including China, Japan, Vietnam, Korea, and India. I'd seen variations of some of the recipes before in other cookbooks, but was pleased to see a whole variety of ones I'd never seen before, such as Tofu, Tomato and Dill Soup, Soft Tofu and Seafood Hot Pot, Spicy Yuba Ribbons (basically tofu skin briefly cooked with spices), and Cashew and Cardamom Fudge. The gorgeous photos of nearly every recipe helped a lot with the unfamiliar dishes. Highly recommended, 5 stars.
• 
  jess

  I only wish I had more of the patience and equipment for taking on making tofu these days...
• 
  Elizabeth Leonard

  The book is very informative and the recipes are great. I was hoping for more vegetarian dishes being that it is a tofu book, but I still very much enjoyed it.
• 
  Sara Jamshidi

  Warning: Do not read this book on an empty stomach. The pictures are too delicious-looking for hungry eyes.
  
  This is a pan-asian cookbook centered around tofu and it's so interesting! It is full of engaging stories and cool facts (for example, Burmese tofu is made from legumes and formed in polenta-like blocks). The author goes over how to make most things from scratch and offers alternatives to the more exotic ingredients (for those who don't have a foreign-goods store nearby). If you don't wish to make items from home, she gives you tips on how to select these items in a store. She also provides cooking instructions for those who find tofu baffling.
  
  The recipes are not exclusively vegetarian/vegan. I would say about 40% of the recipes use meat (much of it pork) and a handful use eggs, but they can be easily adapted to a vegetarian/vegan diet. It is, however, mostly dairy-free. So if you have a dairy allergy or sensitivity and you like tofu, you are going to love this book.
  
  The recipes are doable but sometimes too involved. I also don't like that the author seems to hate soymilk makers, an appliance I rely on. I didn't have problems making tofu skin from soymilk out of my Soyajoy4.
• 
  Aja Marsh

  i think the most valuable thing about this book is the how-to tofu instructions in the first chapter or so of the book. lots of great photos and clear instructions with some anecdotes. but she makes making tofu seem approachable, without making it seem like it's without its difficulties. there are lots of great recipes from china and southeast asia (not all vegetarian) included in the rest of the book that seem really interesting. a cool resource!
• 
  Leslie

  Andrea Nguyen's instructions for making fresh tofu are perfect. It requires no special equipment, only patience. The results were wonderful. She also includes recipes for using all the byproducts of the tofu making process: tofu skin, lees, and whey. I used the lees to make her Gingery Chocolate Chip Cookies and my family loves them. This will be come a habit in our home. I'm looking forward to seeing checking out her other cookbooks.
• 
  Meg Le

  If you're on vegan or vegetarian diet, and you're interested in Asian dishes. This is the book that you should look up to explore plenty of recipes. I'm a fan of Andrea Nguyen cook book. Can't miss this book in my cookbook collection
• 
  Thitirat B. Luu

  Very plain and very boring. Nothing new.
• 
  Ariela Housman

  This is my favorite cookbook.
  
  I particularly love that Nguyen doesn't just give a bunch of recipes, she teaches techniques, gives advice on how to stock your pantry and how to make good purchases. She assumes competence rather than knowledge, so her book covers everything from the very basic on up to extremely complex, but it all builds up and you could pick up the book knowing nothing about tofu and, with practice, get all the way to the complicated recipes.
• 
  Samantha

  If you have ever been curious about making your own tofu I strongly recommend you getting this book. It makes the process easy and simple to complete and shows you all the different types you could make. After which it gives you recipes on how to cook your newly made tofu. I'm a vegan so let me warn vegans or vegetarians now, this book is not totally veggie. It does contain a few recipes containing meat products. But those recipes can be so easily converted that it's not really an issue. You can either substitute or omit completely. The book even provides a few recipes for mock meats inside. If your ready to step up your tofu game I recommend this book to you.
• 
  Cailia

  Overall, this is a good book on creating different styles of homemade tofu, from silken to super-firm, as well as incorporating tofu into a broad variety of recipes. Organic, non-GMO and hexane free silken tofu is unavailable where I live, so fully understanding how to prepare my own was very desirable. I would have rated this book higher if meat and other animal byproducts were not included, but they were included in enough recipes to make them impossible to overlook. Also, sprouted tofu is not covered and the issues with conventional tofu brands (GMO's, pesticides, hexane extraction, etc.) were not adequately addressed. So, the highest I could give this book is a solid 3 stars.
• 
  Greymalkin

  One of the best books on tofu I've read. I liked the range of recipes, gorgeous pictures and the nice step by step instructions for the basic tofu recipes. And explanations of what wouldn't work were quite helpful.
• 
  Yodamom

  A whole family favorite. Filled with great recipes and photos. There is also a wonderful section on making your own soy bean products. Everything we tried was a tasty treat.This is one of the few cookbooks I have purchased to keep on my kitchen shelf.
• 
  Eling

  Great resource, especially regarding types of tofu and how to make it yourself. Not sure I'm feeling quite that ambitious yet, but if I ever do want to make my own tofu, this is the book I'll pick up first. Lovely photos as well.
• 
  Cherie

  Not what I was hoping for - I wanted more vegetarian recipes, and more cooking with tofu recipes. Detailed instructions on how to MAKE tofu yourself, wow. Some good tips for cooking tofu and interesting stories.
• 
  Dan

  Well written introduction to the world of tofu, whether you're looking to make your own soy products from scratch, or simply use tofu and related ingredients in one of the great collections of recipes from all over Asia.
• 
  Liz

  Simmered greens with fried tofu...YUM!!
• 
  Les

  this is the book i've been looking for....with instructions for making your own tofu. I'm gathering ingredients now!
• 
  Jennifer Miera

  Wow. A lot of meat in these recipes. I could be inspired to make my own tofu based on this book, however. I've owned my own tofu press for about 12 years and have yet to unwrap the thing.
• 
  Autumn

  Amazing reference. Kind of too detailed for me to cook out of at the moment. But very excellent for true tofu fiends.
• 
  Derek Barnes

  Another great cookbook from Andrea. Tofu is much more interesting than you probably thought. It's not just for vegan hippies, you know.
• 
  Shelton TRL

  What a great book all about ... Tofu! This book takes tofu to new heights! The only things better than the the beautiful presentation are the excellent and unique recipes.
• 
  Lex

  Excellent resource with clear instructions and great pictures. Most of the ingredients are easy to either make yourself or substitute with things you already have at home!
• 
  Laureen

  i never knew there were so many kinds of tofu!
• 
  Monique

  I really like this cookbook, not only for the way it presents the making of tofu but the recipes are quite good.I would buy this recipe book.
• 
  Lynne Faubert

  I bought the augmented ebook rather than the printed one, I recommend you do so too because of the videos, etc. Have tofu will explore. Love.