walnut tofu: not pretty, but cool

in 2006, i did a temple stay (shukubo) at ekoin, a shingon buddhist temple in the japanese mountain town of koya-san. koya-san is home to a massive cluster of monasteries, a ton of buddhist monks, and the glorious, mystical graveyard okunoin, where kobo daishi's remains hang out (as do the remains of lots of other famous buddhists and important folks who wanted to be buried near kobo daishi). the temples are pretty famous for their shojin ryori -- traditional gourmet buddhist vegetarian food -- and it might not surprise you that at least part of the reason that i went to koya-san was to eat it! and more than two years later, i still remember the sesame tofu -- a light, slippery square with such a rich taste that i didn't miss meat for a second. that memory fired me up to make another type of "not-tofu" tofu out of walnuts.

ingredients
about 2/3 cup blanched walnuts
(note: blanching = boiling in water until slightly softened)
2 packages gelatin
2 cups water
1 t sugar
1 t salt

directions
blanch the walnuts.
begin heating the water. add the gelatin before it gets hot. dissolve the gelatin in the water, whisking pretty constantly to make sure it doesn't clump.
grind the walnuts in a food processor until they form a thick paste.
add the salt and sugar.
gradually add the gelatin-water. keep processing until it looks sort of like a thin milkshake.
strain out the solids.
pour the walnut liquid into a mold (if you have one) or any old bowl.
let cool. refrigerate until set.

this stuff ended up being really neat, quite a bit like a creamy walnut jell-o in a gorgeous shade of pale lilac. the creaminess (and hint of sweetness) reminded me of a delicious nut-milk shake at cafe gratitude, and it was so unexpected coming from this wobbly little bit of goo. i'll definitely try it with sesame seeds and edamame and probably with almonds. i'm also curious how much the texture would change if i used the more traditional kuzu method (which would also enable me to serve the tofu warm). whole foods has kuzu ...