The Okara Cookbook: Soysage

Monday, October 1, 2012

Soysage

This isn't my recipe - it's from Shurtleff and Aoyagi's Book of Tofu, which is just about the only book you need if you're interested in soy DIY. While this is yummy, and a good and basic faux meat, I'm not an "I can't believe it's not sausage!" kind of person, and I think it's best if we learn to appreciate these kinds of recipes for what they really are, rather than what they're trying to be. Serve fried soysage as part of your breakfast fry up, or in a muffin, biscuit, or burger bun. You can also form the mixture into sausage shapes, wrap in baking parchment and foil, steam until set, and serve like hot dogs with all the trimmings. Don't forget the ketchup and mustard!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups okara

3/4 cup wholemeal flour

2 tbsp. Maggi seasoning or soy sauce

1 tsp. mustard

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. oregano

1 clove garlic, minced

dash pepper

1-5 tbsp. milk (dairy or soy) or water

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180oC. Combine all ingredients except milk or water, until well mixed. Add just enough liquid to make a medium-firm dough.

2. Oil the inside of a cylindrical mould (a nut loaf tin is good for this) and pack mixture in. Cover with foil. Place in baking pan and pour in enough water to come 2.5cm up the side of the pan. Bake for 30 min.

3. Allow mixture to cool in moulds, then shake out. Cut into slices and fry like sausage.

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What is okara?

Okara is the Japanese name for soybean lees - the fibre-rich byproduct of making soymilk.

Anyone who makes his or her own soymilk and tofu knows about okara. If you’re not careful and forget to use it, soon your fridge and freezer are bursting with little bags of clumpy white stuff. In desperation, you can feed it to the dog or add it to the compost heap, but this is a real shame, because okara is very nutritious stuff. It’s the fibre your body needs. It’s where the nutrients that didn’t make it into the tofu ended up.

Adding okara to your baked goods – muffins, bread, pancakes, whatever – is a no-brainer, and no recipes are needed for this. Adding it to other “dump and guessem” dishes like soups, stews, and chilies, is also a no-brainer. There are also many traditional Chinese or Japanese recipes for simmered and stir-fried okara. These are delicious, and worth chasing up.

I turned to the Internet in desperation years ago when I got my first soymilk machine, and didn’t find what I was looking for - hence this cookbook. It was originally a simple page, hosted on a public server, and I used to get masses of hits on a daily basis. But times have changed: the Internet is a bigger places, there are more people making their own soymilk, more cooks willing to share their tips, and there are lots more recipes out there now. I hope my collection will be a good addition to the wealth of knowledge out there. Excuse the lack of pictures! The recipes are from the original page - when posting pictures of your recipes was Just Not Done - and I'll add them as I can.

Aknowledgements must go to William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi, whose seminal work, “The Book of Tofu”, has inspired me and countless others to turn to soy and reap the benefits.