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How to make Nufu (Peanut Curd)
Nufu is the protein curd extracted from peanuts (groundnuts). It is similar to tofu (soybean curd). Nufu can be made at home with simple equipment, but you will need two types of tofu coagulators to make it work. Makes around 1kg (36oz) curd from 500g (18oz) peanuts
You'll need about 500g of peanuts. They can be skin on or off, but not salted.
Soak the peanuts overnight (8 hours) in clean cold water.
The soaked nuts will have swollen and gone softer to the bite.
Divide the peanuts into four, and blend each batch with a litre (4 cups) of water. Blend each batch for three minutes on full speed.
Put a large sieve over a large stockpot and line it with a piece of fine muslin (cotton cloth). Pour in each batch of blended peanuts in turn.
Once the milk has drained into the stockpot, you'll be left with peanut okara in the cloth - this is the fibrous residue.
Gather up the muslin and squeeze out all of the remaining fluid as firmly as you can.
The peanut okara should now be really dry - you've got all of the soluble protein out of it. You can put the okara in your compost bin.
You now have around 4 litres of protein-rich peanut milk in the stockpot.
Bring the peanut milk to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring frequently to stop it burning. Be careful it doesn't foam up and boil over.
Allow the boiled peanut milk to cool down for 10 minutes until it reaches 80C (175F). Use a sugar thermometer to get the temperature right.
The two coagulators you need for nufu are nigari (magnesium chloride) and gypsum (calcium sulfate).
Mix half a teaspoon of each coagulant together in a little water then add to the peanut milk. Stir just enough to mix in the coagulants then leave to stand.
After 20 minutes, the peanut milk will split into curds and whey.
To press the curds into a block you'll need a tofu press. If you don't have one you can use a sieve and a heavy weight.
Line the tofu press with a clean piece of fine muslin, then scoop out the curds from the stockpot and drop into the tofu press.
Fill up the tofu press with peanut curds, then fold over the muslin several times.
The whey that will drain through the muslin should be clear but a little cloudy.
Put in the top part of the tofu press... and press. Keep pressing firmly while the whey drains out. You can move the top of the press around to help keep the whey flowing. Press very firmly once most of the whey has drained to form the curds into a block.
Unwrap the muslin and there you have a block of nufu. Repeat with the rest of the curds.
You should get four good blocks of nufu out of your curds. Refrigerate for a few hours to firm up, then to store for longer you need to place the nufu in plastic boxes and fill with water, then keep refrigerated for a day or two at most.
For ideas on what to do with your nufu, see four things to do with nufu on our sister site veganoo.net
How to make Nufu (Peanut Curd)

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