Tahoooooooo!

When my kids hear the sound of the taho vendor, they stop whatever they do and immediately ask me to buy them some. They join the other kids in the neighborhood to gather around the taho vendor and wait with mouths open as plastic cup after plastic cup is filled to the brim with taho, sago pearls, and sugar syrup. After a cup is filled, the vendor inserts an oversized straw and hands the cup to a kid. Even with some teeth missing, the receiving kid smiles with satisfaction as if he just received a precious gift from Santa.

Such is the magic and tastiness of taho that even old people are seen milling around with the kids and patiently waiting for their turn to be handed out their filled plastic cup.

Taho is one food I can tolerate my kids to eat anytime of the day. It is delicious, filling and unlike other foods liked by most kids, it is considered a health food.

Taho is a soya bean concoction and very rich in protrein. In fact, soya is a recommended alternative to meat for avowed vegetarians. Soya is believed to improve bone density and to reduce the chances of cardiovascular diseases, cancer and post menopausal syndromes.

I tried to look for the English translation of taho in the internet. So far, I have not found any which made me believe that taho is a truly Filipino invention.

Ti may taho man sa inyo da sa abroad?

For those who miss Philippine taho and would like to make one just to savor this delicacy or possibly to engage later in taho business, here’s a procedure to make taho which I downloaded from the internet months ago. Unfortunately, I have not recorded the source website.

Taho Recipe

Ingredients:
• 500 grams soybeans
• 3.5 liter water
• 2 bars white gelatin,
• 250 grams brown sugar

Tools, equipment and utensils needed:
• Blender
• Stove, pot, weighing scale
• Basting spoon
• Knife
• l-yard cheesecloth
• Dial/cooking thermometer,
• plastic basin
• Strainer

Procedure:

Select newly harvested and good soybeans. Good soybeans are spotless, smooth, and free from infestation. Wash them, then soak them overnight or for at least 6 hours. After soaking the soybeans, wash and clean them; by then they would have expanded to three times their original size. Remove the beans from the water and peel the hulls. Blend the soybeans to be turned into taho into a puree. Similarly put the puree for the “taho” into a bowl and mix in water gradually, but this time use only 1.5 L of water. Then using cheesecloth, filter the soy puree to derive soymilk.

Cook the gelatin by dissolving the bars in a liter of boiling water.

Put the soymilk in a pot and heat in low fire. After 10 minutes of boiling, the temperature would reach 80° C. At this temperature, let the milk boil for another 7 minutes or until the beany flavor disappears.

Pour and mix the dissolved gelatin into the boiling soymilk. Remove the froth that forms on top of the mixture. Afterwards, remove the pot from the stove and let the mixture cool. Using the cheesecloth, strain the mixture and remove unmixed gelatin bits. Then pour the mixture into a mold. Set it aside and let it cool and harden for an hour.

While waiting for the soymilk mixture to solidify, prepare the syrup and the sago pearls.

To make the syrup, boil 200 ml of water and dissolve 250 g of brown sugar in the water.

Once the soymilk mixture solidifies, get a few scoops, add sago pearls, pour in the syrup, then serve.

This recipe can make about 2 kilos of soymilk mixture with a shelf life of 1 week.

Enjoy your taho. @