March 4, 2011

Okara (Soy Pulp)/おから

This post is continued from the March 1 post on a soy milk maker.
豆乳メーカーに関する3月1日の投稿の続きです。

I have made three batches of soy milk so far. My father is quite generous, and he told me that I could have the soy milk maker, and asked me to order another for him. So, the soy milk maker is now mine!
今まで豆乳を3回も作りました。父はとても太っ腹で、この豆乳メーカーを私にあげるから、新しく注文してくれ、と頼まれました。と言うわけで、この豆乳メーカーは私の物になりました!


This evening, I cooked the okara from three batches of soy milk.
今日の夕方、豆乳3回分でできたおからを料理しました。

Unlike store-bought okara, this okara contained a lot of soy milk because I didn't bother to squeeze it out, so I tried to evaporate the water for some time.
店で売っているおからと違い、豆乳を絞らなかったので、おからには豆乳がいっぱい含まれていました。しばらく、水分を蒸発させました。

I just added julienne carrot, dried shiitake, and chopped naga negi, and seasoned with 2 tbsp each of soy sauce, mirin, and sake and 2 tsp instant dashi.
ニンジンの千切り、干しシイタケ、長ネギのみじん切りだけ入れて、しょう油、みりん、お酒を大さじ2杯づつ、出汁の素を小さじ2杯で味付けしました。

After simmering on low heat for about 20 minutes, the okara was still watery.
20分くらい弱火で煮ても、おからはまだ水ぽかったです。

I later added some sesame seed oil for flavoring.
後で香り付けにごま油を少し入れました。

To be continued.
続く。

4 comments:

Kiki said...

Dear Hiroyuki-san,

lucky you. Sadly I don't own a soy milk maker. Usually good soy beans, my kitchen machine, a fine metal sieve, a water cooker, a linnen cloth and a big pot worked out fine (but a little time consuming) for me. I make my own tofu (using nigari) because around here shops are selling disgusting tasting imported tofu. I always press the okara in the linnen cloth (make a bundle and wring it) in the sieve to extract as much "milk" as possible so the okara is pretty dry. Pressed dry okara is good for pan frying and for cakes, cookies, patties or for fried okara crocettes. Just check it out by yourself.
Today I baked a poppy seed pound cake from fresh okara, so good!!!

Hiroyuki said...

Kiki: You are a great maker of soy milk and okara!! I used the supplied sarashi (cotton cloth) for the first time this morning, and I found it really cumbersome to squeeze out soy milk from okara. I think I have to find a better way by using a large bowl, a sieve, cotton cloth, and a weight.
I'm kind of hooked on soy milk making right now. My next target: Making obora (or yose) dofu.

Kiki said...

Today I made fresh tofu because tomorrow I am going to make Jiǎozi 餃子 filled with tofu/ shrimpmeat, codfish/green onion and tofu/brokkoli.
I squeezed the okara dry and used 1/2 for your recipe (little changes using vegetables due to my fridge mingle-mangle: 1 carrot, 1 small sweet potatoe, 1 small leek in slices and 1 celerystalk, shiitake, 1 knob ginger and 2 garlic gloves) went really great with very thin italian pasta (3 minute spaghettini). First I stir fried the vegetables and than I added the dry okara and stir fried it a little more. Later on came the dashi, mirin and so on. It developed a nice nutty flavour. Thanks for your recipe, my husband loved it - so tasty and quick to cook!

The other 1/2 of the okara went into an apple bread - not too sweet and low fat apple cake.

Hiroyuki said...

Kiki: Apple bread? That sounds quite yummy!

I am still thinking of good uses for okara. So far, I have come up with:
Okara miso soup
Okara okonomiyaki
Okara gyoza (Japanese name for jiǎozi)
Okara chahan (fried rice)

I really enjoy making and having soy milk and okara on a daily basis. I have already convinced my wife how nutritious they are and how good they are to women!