Making soy milk at home

In the work fridge, we have a selection of skim, low-fat and full-fat milk, and then there is soy milk for the lactose intolerant (why do we have so much choices these days?!)

I think I wouldn't find it too difficult if I was lactose intolerant as I love soy too much (or perhaps not, can you imagine soy panna cotta?!) I always find myself pouring both milk and soy into my mug for that faint taste of soy at work. It might be because I grew up drinking it as it's a very popular breakfast drink in Taiwan.

Ever since my local Coles decided not to stock my favourite Bonsoy anymore, I have been making my own at home. As I do not own a soy milk maker at home, everything has to be done manually but it really doesn't take too much time!

I prefer to to use organic soy beans (from health food stores) as you can really taste the difference.

Anyways, here are the instructions, fellow soy-lovers (and I'm not expecting many)...

Adapted from here

Step1: Ingredients

You need about 125 g whole soya beans to make 1 liter of soy milk.

Step2: Soaking and dehulling the soya beans

Clean the soya beans and soak them in water overnight (at least 10 hours). Although not necessary, you can remove the hulls be kneading the soya beans and flushing the loose hulls with water. After soaking overnight, the beans should expand at least twice their original size.

Step3: Grinding the soya beans

Grind the soaked soya beans and 1 liter water in a blender for a few minutes until its as fine as possible. (I used 1 cup of soaked soy with 4 cups of water as my ratio).

Step 4: Sieve

Sieve the mixture trough a cheese cloth or muslin cloth and recover the soy milk. The insoluble material which remains on the sieve is called okara, and can be used as an ingredient for bread making!

Note: I used a normal sieve to do this job as I do not have a cheese cloth available. The resulting milk is not as smooth/fine due to the larger holes on the sieve but I personally don't mind! Fiber is my friend... ;)

Step5: Boiling the soy milk

Heat the soy milk till boiling point and continue boiling for about 5 to 10 minutes. After cooling, the soy milk is ready and can be kept in the fridge for another 3 days.

Note: I actually steamed my soy in my huge rice cooker as it is less of a hassle than boiling.

Step 6: Final step

Pour it into a container through the sieve again (just to remove that extra insoluble material for a finer texture).

I tend to keep the left over okara - or insoluble part of soy and use that to make shallot pancake...picture/recipes to come later! Nothing should go to waste right? ;-)

Voila - you've just made your own soy milk!

So, how do you normally flavour your soy milk?

I usually cook sliced ginger with dark brown sugar and water on a stove until it boils, then pour it into my unflavoured soy.

Or, I just melt Okinawan Kurozato (a type of coarse brown sugar similar to Muscovado sugar that I buy when I'm in Japan) with hot soy...

Ready to pour hot soy over pieces of kurozato sugar in the mug!