Sữa Đậu Nành (Soy Milk)

Yesterday, while my girls and I were browsing through the aisles at Henry's Farmers Market, my eyes caught on to the bin of soy beans.  I have always wanted to make fresh soy milk but for some reason haven't gotten around to it. So this time, I was determined to make fresh soy milk for my family to enjoy this summer.

The thought of fresh homemade soy milk always brings back so much memories of my childhood.  As I was a child growing up, just about my daughters' age now, I loved being in the kitchen.  I often begged the workers at my family's coffee shop to let me do something such as washing the dishes but I could never convince them. I could only watch from afar. I still remember how I sneaked around to see the workers ringing the soy milk from the cloth. I loved to breathe in the pleasant, nutty aroma that filled the kitchen during the boiling process.

My kids love to make soy milk but they are not very fond of drinking it. I'm trying to coax them.  My husband loves it and requests to have a glass every morning. Making soy milk at home is so inexpensive, healthy and easier than you think.  It costs about $1 to produce 5 liters of soy milk. But more importantly, you know exactly what's going into your soy milk. 

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RECIPE: Sữa Đậu Nành

Make about 5 quarts

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Printable Recipe

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Ingredients

3 cups Soy Beans

15 cups or 4 liters Water

1/2 cup Sugar, optional

4 Pandan Leaves, tied into knots

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Directions

Preparing the Beans

Rinse the beans a few times until water is cleared. Soak the beans in a large amount of cool water overnight as these beans soak up lots of water and they expand quite bit.    

Use your palms to scrub the beans to separate skin from beans. Remove the skin of bean that floats to the top of the water. Pick through bean and discard those that haven't expanded. Rinse beans a couple times. Drain and set aside.

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Blending the Beans

In a Vitamix blender, add beans with water. Let your blender run at maximum speed which is 10 and on high for about a minute or until blended. You want to blend the beans as smoothly as possible. Pour it in a large bowl.  Continue blending the remaining batches until done.

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Straining the Beans

Pour the blended soy milk into a fine mesh bag.  Milk the soybean blend until there is no liquid left. I made the soy milk spontaneously, so I cut off my thin t-shirt and used it as a strainer. (Yes, it was washed with soap then boiled to sterilize before using.)

Repeat a few times until done. 

The residue that's left after straining the soy milk is called Okara. There are many recipes that called for Okara, so you might want to save it to use later.  Okara would also make great compose for your plants.

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Boiling the Soy Milk

Before boiling the soy milk, use a strainer to filter it into a pot one more time. Discard the foam.  Set aside.

Bring the pot of soy milk and pandan leaves to a boil.

Reduce heat and let it simmer for another 5 minutes. Make sure to stir the soy milk occasionally to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pot. 

While it's cooking, there are layers of soy milk foam on top; skim them off. These layers are called tofu skin or bean curd skin (tàu hủ ky). I actually like to eat off these layers but you can also collect and dry them. 

Add sugar and taste it as you go until you reach your desire sweetness. Some people prefer to drink it bland but I like it with a taste of sweetness.  Turn off the heat. 

Let the soy milk cool down. Transfer it to a glass jar and keep it refrigerated.  It will last for a week.

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Presentation

I love to enjoy a warm glass of soy milk when it's fresh off the stove. Soy milk also tastes great when served cold.

To enrich the flavor of soy milk, you can also mix soy milk with roasted peanut paste, roasted mung bean powder, almond powder or flavoring of choice.

Eat well.  Stay healthy.

Kem Flan (Crème Caramel)

It has been flan fever in my kitchen since I got this new recipe. Thanks to Ha V who visited me recently.  After a big lunch, I served her my flan. She then shared a favorite of hers and said that everyone who's ever had it, loved it; she was not over-exaggerating. I like my original flan recipe but this one is even better.  The texture is silky smooth.  Even my girls agreed.  They were asking for more.  Though I did make some minor changes to the recipe for my own taste,  I am sure it wouldn't have made a difference.  

Flan is served cold and back in the old days - at least in Pleiku where I grew up - I recalled that flan was served with shaved ice to keep it cold.  Flan is delicate and decadent; it's usually served as a small and round cut.  I like to garnish flan with fruits such as blueberries, raspberries and strawberries to not only balance the flavor and sweetness of the caramel sauce, but also to bring out its beauty.

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RECIPE: FLAN

Printable Recipe

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Ingredients

make 7-8 flans

400 ml Milk (1 3/4 cups)

300 ml Heavy Whipping Creme (1 1/4 cups)

5 Egg Yolks

1 whole Egg

1/4 teaspoon Vanilla Powder

6 tablespoons Sugar

For Caramel Sauce

1/2 cup Sugar
1 tablespoon Espresso, optional

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Directions

Turn oven to 350 degree.  Make a water bath for flan by placing a baking tray in the middle rack of the oven and add boiling hot water to 2/3 of the tray.  

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Making Caramel Sauce

Cook sugar in a sauce pan over a moderate heat. Watch the sugar closely as it heats. As the sugar begins to melt and turn from a clear liquid to a golden brown color around the edges, use a spatula move the liquefied sugar gently from the edges of the saucepan to the center. Be careful not to over stir the caramel-the sugar may start to clump up before it has a chance to melt. Caramel is done when it is just past the smoking point, and it has a deep amber color. At this point, turn off the heat and add the espresso if you like the taste of it.

Immediately, spoon a couple teaspoons of caramel sauce into each ramekin.  Set aside.

Click here to buy ramekins.

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Preparing Eggs

In a bowl, add eggs and gently mix until it's well blended.  Set aside.

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Preparing Milk Mixture

In a pot combine milk, heavy whipping cream and sugar and cook until the milk mixture is warm and sugar is dissolved.

Turn off heat and let it cool down.  You might want to transfer it to another bowl to speed up the cooling process.  

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Preparing Flan Mixture

Once the milk mixture is cooled down, add eggs and vanilla powder. Gently mix until blended.

Use a strainer to strain the mixture to remove any egg shell or tiny pieces of egg white.

Pour mixture into ramekins.

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Baking Flan

Arrange the ramekins in the hot water bath.  Place a piece of foil loosely on top of the flan tray to prevent flan from burning.

Bake for about 50 minutes, depends on your oven and the size of the ramekin.  The flan is ready to be removed from the oven when the edges are set. Gently shake the ramekin, the center of the custard should jiggle slightly. You can also insert the tip of a toothpick into the custard near the center. If the flan is still liquid, it needs more time in the oven.  Remove from the water bath and let them cool down.

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Presentation

Keep flans cold in the fridge until serving.  Refrigerating the flan overnight is best.  When ready to eat, use a knife to loosen the edge by going around the ramekin before flipping it onto a plate.

Serve by it self or with a scoop of shaved ice placed on top of the flan.

As an extra, you can also add a half teaspoon of fresh coffee or espresso onto the flan for a more complex flavor.  

Bon Appeite!

Chè Táo Xọn Vỏ Quýt (Sweet Mung Bean with Tangerine Peel)

My mother always like to create various chè for a certain ritual or ceremony. There would always be extra chè to share with every household in our neighborhood.  Though I've never been fond of sweets, I always like to make desserts for my family and friends to enjoy after a meal. Especially when the summer ends, and the cold starts creeping in, I love to bake and cook warm chè.  The warm, wonderful aroma of fresh baked goods and chè give the home a sense of warmth and comfort.  

Most of the time, my pantry and freezer are filled with frozen corn, grated cassava, pandan leaves, coconut milk and all kinds of dried bean and flour.  All these ingredients are readily available for me to make desserts should an occasion or spontaneity arise.

Once of the desserts that I like to make when I have little time is Chè Táo Xọn Vỏ Quýt.  I've learned from  my cousin in Vietnam that the reason why people in southern Vietnam call this sweet mung bean dessert  chè "Táo Xọn". It's simply a literal translation. "Táo Xọn" is Chinese for mung bean.  In northern Vietnam, they called it chè Hoa Cau which is suitable as these tiny yellow mung beans look like the flower of  Areca.

As I always like to incorporate natural ingredients in my food, I decided to throw tangerine peel in chè and called it Táo Xọn Vỏ Quýt (Sweet Mung Bean with Tangerine Peel).  The pleasantly fresh, sweet and citrusy aroma of tangerine peels mixed with the starchy and mildly sweet taste of mung bean blended in cool  and    clear tapioca starch is just perfect.

To make this chè, all I need are mung beans, coconut milk, sugar and  tangerine peels; I can produce a pot of chè in less than 30 minutes. The two healthhy ingredients in this chè are mung beans and tangerine peels.  According to vitawise.com, mung bean is popular as the perfect food for reducing weight. It is recommended as a food replacement in many slimming programs, as it has a very low fat content. It is a rich source of protein and fiber, which helps one lower the high  cholesterol level in the blood system. While tangerine peels has two major benefits such as its cholesterol lowering capabilities and cancer fighting properties. The disease fighting flavonoids tangeretin and nobiletin are found in higher concentrations in peels that in the juice we commonly drink. The only downside of this chè is the amount of sugar and coconut milk.   I think the benefits outweighs the risks here though.

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RECIPE: Chè Táo Xọn Vỏ Quýt

Printable Recipe

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Ingredients

1 bag (1 1/2 cups) Mung Beans, peeled

1 Tangerine Peel, finely chopped

10 cups Water

1 1/4-1 1/2 cups Sugar, 

2 teaspoons Salt

1/2 cup Tapioca Starch Flour
1 cup Water
1 Pandan Leave, tied in a knot 

1 bag Vanilla Sugar, optional

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Coconut Milk Topping

1 can (14 oz) Coconut Milk

1 tablespoon Sugar
1 teaspoon Tapioca Flour
2 teaspoons Water
1/2 teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract  or

1 Pandan Leaf,  tied in a knot

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Preparing Mung Bean

If you're not pressed for time, soak mung beans in water for 1 hour or overnight, this will shorten the cooking time and make the beans more digestible. Then rinse a few times until the water is clear.

Otherwise, skip the soaking process.  Place mung beans in a steamer, and steam for about 20 minutes.  If steaming pre-soak mung beans, it takes about 10 minutes to cook.

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Preparing Tapioca Flour

In a bowl, combine flour and water and mix well.  Set aside.

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Cooking Chè Táo Xọn

Bring 10 cups of water and a knot of pandan leaf to a boil.

Add sugar, salt, and tangerine peel then stir until melted. Bring it back to boil.  Reduce heat to low while waiting for mung beans to be cooked.

When mung beans are ready, stir the tapioca flour mixture again then slowly pour it into the pot while constantly stirring it gently so that flour won't clump.

The consistency should be thicker at this stage. 
Add cooked mung bean and stir gently.  Bring it back to boil at medium heat. Reduce heat to low, add vanilla extract or vanilla sugar if used, and stir gently for a  minute.

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Preparing Coconut Milk Sauce

In a sauce pan, bring coconut milk, sugar, salt and a knot of pandan leave to a low heat.  Once the coconut sauce starts boiling, reduce heat to low.
In a small bowl, mix tapioca starch with  water to dissolve, then add to the pot while constantly stirring it.

Add vanilla extract if used.  Remove from heat. Set aside.

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Presentation

Ladle chè  into a small bowl, then top with coconut milk.

Ăn Ngon!