okara

What to do with Okara (Milking the Soy Bean, Part 3)

maki — Sat, 08 Apr 2006 14:36:08 +0200

This is the concluding article of my 3-part series on Milking The Soy Bean. In Part 1, I described how to make soy milk with no special equipment, and in Part 2 I showed how to make tofu.

The by-product of turning soy beans into soy milk or tofu is the ground up fibrous part of the bean. This is called okara or, more quaintly u no hana (卯の花) in Japanese. (I don't know what the u part is, but hana means flower, so it's the u-flower.) Okara is a nutritional powerhouse, containing soluble and non-soluble fiber, protein, calcium and other minerals. It's even more nutritious (because of the high fiber content) than soy milk or tofu. However, I have to confess I end up throwing much of the okara that's produced when I make tofu away. Most tofu makers actually either throw it away or give it away as feed to farms - most commonly to pig farms in Japan. (We asked a small local tofu manufacturer what he does with his okara, and he said he gives it to a local dairy farmer. Swiss cows eating okara...now that's Fusion for you.)

The problem with okara is that it's utterly bland. When it's fresh, having been squeezed of all its milk, it has a rather interesting texture, but unlike creamy tofu, it's not something that you can just eat as-is. In addition, okara has almost as short a shelf life as tofu or soy milk, so you have to hurry up and process it before it goes bad. I'm always looking for tasty ways of using okara though because throwing away all that goodness seems like such a waste.

This is what fresh okara looks like.

Dried okara is also available in Japanese/Asian food stores. Here's a pack, that proclaims its nutritional benefits.

The easiest way to preserve okara is to freeze it, but I prefer to dry it and keep it as a powder. Spread fresh okara out on baking sheets, and dry in a low oven, turning every 15-20 minutes or so. Once it's totally dry, it may be a bit lumpy so whirl it a bit in a food processor to make it finer in texture, then pack into airtight plastic bags.

Using reconstituted or fresh okara

To reconstitute dried okara for use in various foods, simmer until it's soft and smooth in water or milk, then drain in a fine mesh sieve to get rid of excess moisture.

I have found that fresh or reconstituted soft okara lightens the texture of any food it's added to. I've posted a recipe for Asian sweet and sour meatballs with okara and tofu mixed in with the ground meat. Okara can also be added to Italian style meatballs that are simmered in a tomato sauce, at the ratio of about 4 parts meat to 1 part fresh or soft/reconstituted okara. However, adding okara straight to meat sauce doesn't work - it makes it oddly grainy in texture.

Another way of using okara is to add it to polenta. Just add about 1/2 cup of dry okara to 1 1/2 cups of dry fine-ground cornmeal, and then cook in 4 cups of milk with 2 chopped garlic cloves until soft and smooth. Add salt and pepper and lots of grated Parmesan. Somehow the okara makes the polenta creamier.

The traditional Japanese way of eating okara is to flavor it up by stir-frying it with dark sesame oil and soy sauce, then to mix it together with vegetables or put it into a soup.

Fresh/soft okara is used in this tuna salad recipe. Again, the okara lightens up the texture. Be sure the okara is totally soft and smooth before you use it.

Open-faced okara and tuna salad sandwich

1/2 cup of soft okara
1 can (200g / 7 oz) can of tuna packed in water
4-5 Tbs mayonnaise (the light kind makes it healthier)
1 Tbs Dijon style mustard
1 Tbs lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
A few grinds of black pepper
2 Tbs. finely chopped green onion
Dash of sweet paprika
Lettuce leaves
6 slices of toast

Mix together the soft okara, drained and mashed up tuna, mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice, salt, pepper and 1 Tbs. of the green onion until smooth. Place the lettuce leaves on the toast, a heaping tablespoon of the tuna-okara mixture on top, and sprinkle each with a little paprika and the remaining green onion.

Using dried okara

Dried okara powder adds an intriguing lightness and texture to baked items. Be sure to use dried okara, not soft/fresh, in baking - the texture comes out a lot better. I think that there are lots of possibilities for using okara powder in gluten-free recipes; I haven't explored this area myself in depth yet.

Here is a banana-okara quickbread (that is one that's raised with baking powder and eggs instead of yeast) that I adapted from a banana-coconut bread recipe in Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book Of Breads, using toasted okara and brown sugar instead of coconut and white sugar. It's light, a little sweet, nutty, and very delicious. It's not gluten free since it does use regular white flour.

Banana-Okara Bread

1 cup dried okara
1/4 cup (50g, or 1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup light brown or raw sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk or soymilk
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp lemon juice
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 medium ripe bananas, mashed

Pre-heat the oven to 175°C/250°F. Grease and flour a loaf pan.

Heat up a non-stick frying or sauté pan. Toast the okara, stirring frequently, until it's a golden brown in color. Let cool.

Mix together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and milk or soymilk, almond extract and lemon juice. Add the mashed bananas.

In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture, mixing just until it's combined. Fold in the okara.

Put the batter into the loaf pan. Bash the loaf pan hard on your work surface - this settles the batter and gets rid of any large air pockets. Bake for about an hour, until it's toasty brown in color and a skewer stuck in the middle comes out clean.

Take out of the loaf pan and let cool before slicing.

Note: you can also bake this as muffins, in which case the baking time will be much shorter (about 20-25 minutes).

Okara, the next In Food (maybe)

I have only started to scratch the surface of the possibilities of okara myself. It's so good for you that it has all the star power, I think, to become a Trendy Nutritious Food with claims that it can cure all human illnesses. (It can't, of course, but you know how these things go.) In any case, I am first and foremost about taste. If I find or develop more okara recipes that I really like, I will post them here in the future. At the moment I'm working on a müesli with toasted okara in it...

Technorati Tags: soy bean, okara, soy milk, tofu

IMBB 24: Sweet and Sour Okara Meatballs with Bittersweet Vegetables In Under 30 Minutes

maki — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 19:11:49 +0100

I've promised an article on what to do with okara, the fiber-rich fluffy byproduct of making soy milk or tofu. This is not it. But I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and show one way of using okara in everyday cooking, in a dish that can be made in under 30 minutes, making it suitable for Is My Blog Burning edition 24 hosted by Too Many Chefs.

These meatballs are very light and soft, thanks to the okara, tofu and chopped shiitake mushrooms. They are deep fried because the meatball mixture is so soft, and trying to stir-fry them makes them fall apart. The oil is very well drained off and they only have a light coating of cornstarch, so they aren't greasy at all. The very simple to make sweet and sour sauce finishes them off, but if you like the crispy texture of the freshly-fried meatballs you can have them just like that too and serve the sauce separately for dipping.

Accompanying the meatballs is a simple vegetable stir fry of the flowers of my new vegetable discovery, catalogna or puntarelle, and slim Asian style eggplants (aubergines). Puntarelle flowers have a mild bitterness and a crunchy texture that I find very addictive, which is balanced nicely by the soft, creamy texture of the eggplant.

This dish plus some plain white rice makes a quick and very tasty dinner. Chopping the vegetables and whizzing up the meatball mix in a food processor does help to speed up things, but you can do it by hand too. The key to making all of this within 30 minutes is to prepare all the vegetables first, heat the oil while mixing up the meatball mix, and to do the stir-fry while frying the meatballs. It gets a bit hectic but can be done. As for the rice...I have a rice cooker which really helps, otherwise you can cheat and use an instant type rice. (You can cook rice on the stove at the same time too, provided you have at least 4 burners on your cooktop. Just put the rice on at the start of your 30 minutes.)

The flavors in this dinner are a sort of Japanese-dominant Asian Fusion. I love this kind of food. This will serve 4 people.

Sweet and Sour Okara Meatballs

For the meatballs:

450g / 1 lb. ground pork, or ground chuck
1 cup fresh or de-frosted moist okara, or about 1/2 cup of dried okara (available from some Japanese food stores) plus enough water to moisten it
1/2 cup crumbled firm tofu
6 medium sized fresh shiitake mushrooms
3 green onions
1 piece fresh ginger
1 Tbs tahini (sesame paste) or peanut butter
2 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs miso
1/2 tsp salt
Several grinds of pepper
1 egg
Cornstarch
Peanut oil or safflower oil for frying

For the sweet and sour sauce:

5 Tbs rice vinegar
3 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs miso
2 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs chinese rice wine (Shaoxing) or sake or sherry
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 pickled plums (umeboshi; available from Japanese or Asian food stores), de-seeded and mashed up
1 1/2 Tbs. cornstarch dissolved in 1 cup of cold water

Start heating the oil for frying. (A dedicated deep fryer helps, but I just use a deepish pot.)

Chop the shiitake mushrooms and green onion finely, reserving a little bit of the green onion for using as garnish later. Peel and grate the ginger.

Mix all the meatball ingredients together in a bowl except for the cornstarch. The mixture will be quite soft due to the okara. Form into balls with wet hands, and coat with the cornstarch.

Drop the meatballs in batches into the hot oil, and fry until they are a deep golden brown on all sides. Drain well on paper towels.

In the meantime, make the sweet and sour sauce. Combine all the ingredients in a small pan over medium heat, and mix. If you can't get the umeboshi just omit them - it will still be good. Add more red pepper flakes if you want it to be real spicy. Cook the sauce until it's clear and a bit thickened.

Toss the hot meatballs together with the sauce, and garnish with the reserved chopped green onions.

Note: if you can't get a hold of okara, use 1 cup of fresh white breadcrumbs instead. The texture won't be the same, but it will still be good.

Puntarelle Flower and Eggplant Stir Fry

Flower buds from one puntarelle
4 slim Asian eggplants (a lot of regular supermarkets sell these now, or try Asian or Indian groceries)
3 cloves of garlic
Peanut oil for stir-frying
Salt and pepper

Cut out the flower buds from the puntarelle, reserving the leaves for a salad. Cut off the step part of the flower buds if they are woody. Slice the flower buds lengthwise in quarters.

Slice the eggplant lengthwise, so they are more or less the same thickness as the sliced puntarelle flower buds.

Chop the garlic.

Heat up a wok or sauté pan with a little peanut oil. Toss in the garlic, then the puntarelle. Stir around until the punetarelle turn a bit limp, then toss in the eggplant. Stir fry over the highest heat you can manage until the eggplant is limp. The puntarelle should be crisp-tender. Season with salt and pepper.

Note: If you can't find puntarelle, you can use green asparagus instead.