The Okara Cookbook: Thai soy cakes

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Thai soy cakes

Other than the breads (which don’t really count seeing as they’re the Staff of Life and everything), this is my favourite way with okara.

(Makes 12 soy cakes)

Ingredients:

1 cup okara, firmly packed

150g tofu

3/4 cup rolled oats (not instant oats)

2 slices fresh bread, cut into pieces

1 Spanish onion, finely chopped

1 tbsp. minced garlic

1 tbsp. sweet chili sauce

1 tbsp. chopped mint

3 tbsp. chopped coriander (cilantro)

1 tsp. salt

1 egg

cooking spray

extra sweet chili sauce, or fresh salsa of your choice, to serve

Method:

1. Place all ingredients in a bowl, and mix with your hands, mashing the tofu and the bread as you go, until well combined and cohesive. Allow mixture to rest 20-30 min.

2. Heat griddle over medium heat and coat with cooking spray. Form mixture into 12 cakes. Cook cakes for a few minutes on each side until golden. Serve with sweet chili sauce or the fresh salsa of your choice.

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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.