Recipe collected by Hajara-Yasmin Isa, Summer 2021
Tofu reminds me of evening family time. It brings back memories of when my family and I made trips to my parents’ hometown. I remember the busy life in the mornings as people get ready for work. Alongside the cacophony of merchants on the streets advertising their goods. The day time is very busy as people go from one place to another. As the sun sets the environment grows quiet and the smell of homemade food fills the streets. In the evening we would buy awara, which is tofu in Hausa, and eat together as a family. I thought it was just something we did together, but it turned out to be quite a common practice. When we go to our cousins’ houses their parents too go buy us fine delicacies such as awara. Tofu takes a while to prepare and people in my parents’ hometown make it fresh to sell so it takes the whole day to make. They start the process early in the day and by sun down they have customers lined up ready to purchase. It is most commonly eaten with hot spice as a dip, but you can also eat it plain. To me, awara symbolizes relaxing times with loved ones. During these times, which was mostly during our summer vacations so school is not in session, my siblings and I would watch movies with our cousins, play games, or just sit there and chat. Everytime we return to the US we bring with us a whole lot of different ingredients for making traditional food that are not commonly found here. One day I decided to take the opportunity and make some awara myself. It took me a day and half from start to finish because the soy beans really take a while to soften up. It was a long process but at the end of the day I was happy to serve my family the hot treat. I can remember standing over the table as I watched my family take their first bite waiting to hear their feedback. I felt like I was a contestant on Chopped or MasterChef. It took the majority of the day to complete it but it was a success.
Note: you can lower the quantity of your ingredients for a smaller batch
Ingredients
500g grams of soybeans
1500ml of water
Pepper and hot spice
Alum
Frying oil
Materials
Fast and durable blender
Muslin cloth or cheesecloth
Tofu mold
Stove and pan
Directions
You start with with washing your soybeans
Let them soak for 12hr to a day
Blend them
Strain out the milk in a pot
Add alum to the milk
Cook the milk till it starts to coagulate
Strain out the water (you can add other ingredients like onions at this step)
Put into a tofu mold and continue to strain
Fry the tofu
And serve