From Nuts to Balls!
I've mentioned in the past that I use a soy milk maker (this one) to provide hot, fresh soy milk for the missus to enjoy for breakfast. The byproduct left behind after extracting the milk is okara, which is high in fibre and contains about 40% of the protein in a soy bean. Commercially, most of it goes to make animal feed, but in these times I ain't wasting it. Normally, I make either oatcakes or biscuits with it - in each case it's mostly a matter of disguising it. But a couple of times lately I have resurrected an old recipe that I haven't used for years, one in which it is made into balls that can be fried. They can then be used like vegetarian meatballs.
This is not set in stone, but something I make up as I go along. I take one batch of okara, which looks like rather wet mashed potatoes, and mix into it the following:
a handful of rehydrated and chopped morel mushrooms
a handful of chopped parsley
a generous dollop (we're using imperial dollops here) of Worcestershire sause
the same of soy sauce
some powdered garlic
salt and black pepper
a large onion chopped fine
These are all mixed together in a bowl, then quick oats and breadcrumbs/panko/rusks added and mixed in until the consistency is such that it can be fashioned into balls that will stick together. A couple of teaspoons of cornflour will help that. Then with clean hands you grab a suitable amount and shape and roll it on your palm into a ball a bit smaller than a golf ball. That gets rolled in flour (I use wholewheat) and placed on a baking tray. When all the mixture is made into balls this way, the tray goes in a 350ºF oven for 20 minutes, then the balls are turned over and they go back for another 20 minutes. At this point they can be frozen for later use or served now. They do need 5-10 minutes in a hot frying pan to turn the outsides crispy and heat them through (sesame oil is good for this). Here they are frying:
To serve today, I made a bed of rice, cooked some red cabbage and mixed it with a bottle of homemade applesauce, placed on the balls and prepared a jug of peanut sauce to pour over it. The balls have only a little nutty flavour of their own, despite all my efforts, so something poured on top like sweet and sour sauce or the peanut sauce helps a lot. The peanut sauce is made from ½cup crunchy peanut butter, 2 tsp soy sauce, 1tsp vinegar, a pinch of garlic powder and a few drops of your favourite hot sauce. Mix together and then thin to the right consistency with about ½cup water. Serve warm from the microwave. Like this:
The batch of okara resulting from making a litre of soy milk with the other ingredients made 28 balls, so seven servings of a protein from something usually discarded! Worth the effort.
Okara Balls
Okara Balls
"Je n'ai pas besoin de cette hypothèse."
Pierre-Simon de Laplace
Pierre-Simon de Laplace
Re: Okara Balls
Amazon sell them, but are out of stock.
https://www.amazon.com/NEW-Soymilk-Make ... 001EUA0V4/
The advantage this one has over others I've owned is that it is filterless. When the beans are ground the milk has to be separated from the okara, and you do this yourself with this machine - I pour through a sieve into a jug, then pour that through a finer sieve into the final jug. The contents of the sieves are what gets saved as okara. Some makers place the soaked beans in a filter cup around the blades. In order to allow free flow of water through the filter cup it has a grid size that lets the milk be gritty as particles escape - so you end up sieving it yourself anyway. On the other hand, some have fine grids, and these gum up - leaving a mess inside the filter and insufficient transfer of milk solids into the water. Better to filter it yourself (and this is what lets the machine make almond, rice, or mung bean milks in addition to soy).
I think this machine looks like it has no filter, so it ought to work as well as mine:
https://www.amazon.com/Joyoung-Automati ... 082XWW5H3/
BTW, once you have soy milk, you'll find it works well for cooking, though not everyone likes to drink it, as it has a slightly green grassy flavour. I put a tablespoon of sugar and a dash of vanilla in each litre. You can make yoghurt with it but it's not as easy or as successful as cows' milk for this. You can buy little packs of CaCl₂ and a plastic press and cloth (came with my machine), and make tofu as easy as anything. I buy soybeans at Bulk Barn and they keep pretty much forever.
Finally, you can do it the way Chinese peasants do: soak beans overnight, boil and then mash (I know you have a stick blender!). The stuff then has to be boiled for 5-10 minutes, but it foams like crazy. Machines have a sensor that detects the rising hot foam and turns off the heat for a few seconds then starts again. You'd have to lift the pan off the stove each time it threatened to boil over. Then you strain it and separate milk from okara. A lot more work!
If you're very keen, I can take photos next time I make the soy milk and you'll see how it works.
https://www.amazon.com/NEW-Soymilk-Make ... 001EUA0V4/
The advantage this one has over others I've owned is that it is filterless. When the beans are ground the milk has to be separated from the okara, and you do this yourself with this machine - I pour through a sieve into a jug, then pour that through a finer sieve into the final jug. The contents of the sieves are what gets saved as okara. Some makers place the soaked beans in a filter cup around the blades. In order to allow free flow of water through the filter cup it has a grid size that lets the milk be gritty as particles escape - so you end up sieving it yourself anyway. On the other hand, some have fine grids, and these gum up - leaving a mess inside the filter and insufficient transfer of milk solids into the water. Better to filter it yourself (and this is what lets the machine make almond, rice, or mung bean milks in addition to soy).
I think this machine looks like it has no filter, so it ought to work as well as mine:
https://www.amazon.com/Joyoung-Automati ... 082XWW5H3/
BTW, once you have soy milk, you'll find it works well for cooking, though not everyone likes to drink it, as it has a slightly green grassy flavour. I put a tablespoon of sugar and a dash of vanilla in each litre. You can make yoghurt with it but it's not as easy or as successful as cows' milk for this. You can buy little packs of CaCl₂ and a plastic press and cloth (came with my machine), and make tofu as easy as anything. I buy soybeans at Bulk Barn and they keep pretty much forever.
Finally, you can do it the way Chinese peasants do: soak beans overnight, boil and then mash (I know you have a stick blender!). The stuff then has to be boiled for 5-10 minutes, but it foams like crazy. Machines have a sensor that detects the rising hot foam and turns off the heat for a few seconds then starts again. You'd have to lift the pan off the stove each time it threatened to boil over. Then you strain it and separate milk from okara. A lot more work!
If you're very keen, I can take photos next time I make the soy milk and you'll see how it works.
"Je n'ai pas besoin de cette hypothèse."
Pierre-Simon de Laplace
Pierre-Simon de Laplace
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Re: Okara Balls
Showed my son how to operate the soy milk maker this week, and how to make okara balls. As a display of independence, he declined to flavour them with soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce, but added handfuls of curry powder. I liked the attitude, but the result disappointed - not flavoursome enough now I make curries with individual spices.
What I really need is to invent a way to make okara into cheese. I can do it with the soy milk, but not the other 40% of the beans. Hmm. Need to think.
What I really need is to invent a way to make okara into cheese. I can do it with the soy milk, but not the other 40% of the beans. Hmm. Need to think.
"Je n'ai pas besoin de cette hypothèse."
Pierre-Simon de Laplace
Pierre-Simon de Laplace