My Latest Squeeze: Soy Milk

Nope ... no hot gossip. Just literally "my latest squeeze", as in, hand-squeezed soy bean milk. I know it's such a dinosaur-age method and I do have a soy milk maker that grinds, boils and filters (all-in-one) but somehow (I can't quite put my finger on it) it doesn't taste right. Or maybe my machine isn't as good as it claimed to be...

So for a long while now, it's been sitting in storage,... oh wait, have I given it away? Whatever, it doesn't matter anyway. I've resorted to making it this way, not really prehistoric, since I'm using the blender (hehe) but squeezing out the goodness with a cloth strainer bag. Good finger exercise.

I like my soy milk rich but feel free to dilute with more water if you like.

Included in this recipe is a simple syrup flavored with pandan ... a tip handed down through the generations, to mask the beany taste of the beverage.

Makes about 2 liters.

INGREDIENTS (SOY MILK)

300 g soy beans, soaked overnight

1 1/2 cups water to every 2 cups of soaked beans

METHOD

Give the soaked beans a light rubbing to remove as much of the loose skin as possible.

Blend every 2 cups of beans with 1 1/2 cups of water. Pour small amounts at a time into cloth strainer bag, give it a twist to close off the top (so that there'll be no accidental spurts of juice and paste) and squeeze out the milk into a large pot.

Put aside residue. Continue until all beans are used up (each time saving the residue for a second squeeze).

Add another 1 1/2 cups of water to every 2 cups of the residue, blend and squeeze again.

Discard pulp.

Bring the milk to a rolling boil and remove from heat.

Add simple syrup to taste. Can be served hot or cold.

INGREDIENTS (SIMPLE PANDAN SYRUP)

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

1 pandan / pandanus leaf

METHOD

Put both sugar and water into a small pot. Knot the pandan leaf and place it into the pot together with the sugar and water. Heat pot over medium heat for about 10 mins or until sugar has dissolved completely. Discard pandan leaf.