sooyindotcom

Two weeks ago, K and I were talking about how hard it was to find good soyabean milk here in KL. I find that the soyabean milk, or tau cheong, sold by most of the roadside stalls too diluted, too milky and too sweet. Let’s not even begin to talk about the packet or bottled ones…I find those totally unpalatable. What we both agreed on was that soyabean milk should be thick and creamy…in fact, we were both agreeable to giving up tau foo fa if we could even find one stall that sold tau cheong the way we wanted it!

Of course we could not, hence began our quest to make tau cheong ourselves.

While K embarked on finding a good soyabean milk maker (one that could grind and boil the soybeans), I ended up at my parent’s house last week learning how to make it orang-matically. The end result was just how we envisioned it to be…really thick, really creamy, and not too sweet. Heaven!

I made another batch today, and this time, I took photos…so for those who have some spare time on your hands, here you go…a step-by-step pictorial guide on how to make soyabean milk!

I use organic soybeans which I bought from Just Life @ Ikano for RM5.90. The salesperson told me that they sell three types there, ie. soybeans that were made in China, Australia and Canada. I’m using the ones made in Australia.

Wash the beans and soak overnight in water (or at least 8-10 hours). The beans will expand slightly by the next morning.

Blend the beans with water…I use a 1:2 ratio, ie. the amount of water should be double the beans.

You’ll end up with a thick, creamy paste, not unlike a smoothie!

Pour the blended soybean batch by batch into a muslin cloth.

Here’s where the hours of practicing piano comes in handy… Squeeze and squeeze somemore to strain the soyabean milk from the pulp.

What you’ll get, other than tired hands, is raw soyabean milk…

…and the ‘dried’ pulp, which is called okara. Some websites say that you can use the okara in cookies and cereals by toasting it beforehand in the oven. I’m too lazy to try, but hey…if you’re free, you could add some coloring and turn it into the nation’s [insert suitable adjective here] [insert some M'sian object here] and get into the book of records…

Add a couple of pandan (screwpine) leaves for flavour and sugar to taste (I use rock sugar). Start boiling the soyabean milk in a large pot (you’ll know why later).

Remember to keep an eye on the pot as you really do not want the soyabean milk to burn and waste all your hard work! Cooking the soyabean milk will get rid of the ‘beany’ taste (and some undesirable inhibiting enzymes). Stir constantly…

…and watch out when it starts to bubble as it’ll boil over very quickly. Yes, this is why you need the large pot… Turn off the fire once the soyabean milk boils…

…and voila! You’re done! What I did after that was to let the soyabean milk cool down, and then strain it again to get rid of the thin film that will form on top.

For a change in flavour, I scooped some of the soyabean milk out and reboiled it with some vanilla bean paste…yummy!

Now, if only I can find gypsum powder…I really want to try making tau foo fa!

Not as cute as this, but fun nevertheless!

Simpsonize yourself here!

Remember the Moo stickers I received recently? The one where the last two pages were spoilt?

I emailed Moo’s customer service earlier this evening to ask if I had to send back the whole sticker-book or if I could just send the last two pages to ask for a reprint. In less than an hour, I received an email from Moo apologizing for the defects PLUS they gave me a coupon to order another set of stickers (plus free shipping!).

I’m amazed at the speed at which they replied, not to mention getting the free coupon which was rather unexpected.

One wonders what would’ve happened if this was a local Malaysia-sentiasa-boleh company?

I received my Moo stickers yesterday.

Unfortunately, the last 2 pages of the tiny booklet were spoilt…the glossy thingy used on top of the stickers were crumpled…

I’m wondering if I should take the trouble to return it and get them to send me a new one, or just forget about it and write-off those two pages.

Common sense says send it back.

Sooyin sense says it’s too much bother.

Tried it? Rate it here!

Good golly…I know I’m going to King Crab quite often, but that’s the thing about new places. You want to bring your parents there, then your friends, and then you want to go there by yourselves to try other dishes that you didn’t get a chance to try (and not necessarily in that order!).

Anyways, we had dinner there tonight with my folks. We ordered the Guiness Pork Ribs and Fried Salted Egg Yolk Squid, and two new dishes:

Broccoli with fresh scallops, which was cooked just right…the broccoli was nice and crunchy, while the scallops were fresh and sweet…

…and another dish that sounds like something right out from a Wuxia novel…

Snow Mountain Flying Fox (actually, I just found out from Wiki that there IS a Wuxia novel called Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain… )!

It’s basically fish that has been covered liberally in sea-salt and then bbq-ed (there’s a similar recipe in one of Jamie Oliver’s cookbooks…wonder who copied who!), and it’s served with chilli sauce and belacan.

The skin is removed when it’s served, leaving the fresh and succulent meat for us to enjoy. For dishes such as these, it’s imperative that the fish is super fresh and I’m glad to say that the one we had was absolutely tasty. I ate it with a teeny bit of the sea salt and it went perfectly with plain white rice.

************************************************************************

I should probably relate the experience we had during dinner with the kids from three tables, all seated near ours (all families are unrelated).

Table A: Halfway during dinner, we heard a glass smash and turned to see an old man (probably Granpa) literally hitting a little boy who had somehow dropped the glass. Poor boy was howling like the world had come to an end, and the worst part was that while everyone scrambled to get out of the way, the little boy was left on his chair with Chinese tea soaking into his pants. Finally, the glass was cleared, but the boy was still crying miserably and pointing his finger at yeh-yeh (gramps)! This went on for some time. One of the relatives (or perhaps the boy’s father?) went off and came back with a new diaper and dry clothes for the boy and everything seemed to be ok again until I heard *phiak-phiak-phiak*…I turned around to see Gramps smacking the boy again because he apparently refused to put on a new t-shirt. Oh dear…poor boy started howling again! I kinda felt bad for him coz Gramps looked really fierce and those smacks sounded like it really hurt!

Table B: Three kids from that table were running up and down the makeshift stage the whole time we were there. They were jumping, screaming, running around and literally making a nuisance of themselves to the other diners. You would expect their parents to discipline them, eh? Oh no, their parents were encouraging them, egging them on, and even taking pictures of their oh-so-cute devils prancing around on the stage. They made such a racket that a man from Table C called a waitress over and asked her to please tell the people in Table B to control their kids as they are disturbing the rest of the guests! By the time we left, the kids were still on the stage, albeit quieter. While I was walking down the stairs, I saw one little guy reaching up to the flower stand…it would’ve served him right if it fell down!

Table C: Four kids on table C. And not a peep outta them the whole time we were there! They sat there like well-behaved kids, and the one time one of the kids tried to run off in between meals, he was sternly called back by his mom to ’sit down and finish your food’.

What a world of difference, eh?