Okara

A couple of days ago I had a chance to "chat" with CT from Mexico. She asked me what I was doing and I told her I had just finished making some cookies with "soy bean pulp".

"Oh! You mean with okara."

"You know about okara?!!? You even use the word okara in Mexico?"

Okara is a byproduct of tofu and soy milk. Actually I have no idea how okara is made but I think soy beans are soaked in water and then pureed and the "milk" is pressed out leaving only the pulp. The soy milk can then be made into tofu or yuba (soy milk "skin"). Since it is all left over, okara is very cheap and makes a great non-fattening filler for hamburgers or meatballs though Japanese will use it to make main okara dishes. It has a lot of protein and fiber and is rich in nutrients, but mostly I think it gets sent on to feed companies for making cattle and pig feed. It doesn't have any taste and most of my Japanese friends snif and say

"Okara. It is so bland and dry. I don't like it much."

So, when chatting with CT I was surprised that Mexico even had any soy products. Shows you how much I know about Mexico. I thought Japan was the only country that used soy beans for things like tofu, soy sauce, miso, yuba and okara.

"Oh no. We used lots of soybeans in Mexico. I love miso soup and we just had miso soup with hon-dashi (fish broth) today."

"What!? You know about miso? You know about hon-dashi?!"

CT and I chatted for quite a bit more about recipes we know using okara. And for the rest of this week I've been telling all my students...

"Did you know that in MEXICO they know about okara and miso? Isn't that fascinating?"

So this is what I've been making with my okara. I made hamburgers one night using okara for half the amount of meat. Delicious. I made cookies using okara for half the amount of flour. Pretty good. I blended in okara to my chicken stew. Yum, extra creamy. And on the advice of CT I added okara to this week's batch of granola. Fantastic!

And Tetsu (who doesn't like okara) didn't even notice.

Nice talking to you CT!

Granola and yogurt

Oh dear... Nothing going on around here today. I need to make granola this afternoon.

I have made granola for the past 5 or 6 years. And about two years ago Tetsu started eating it with me in the mornings (he used to call it horse food. Now he loves it!) There is an odd wholesale place not far from us and I can get raisins, coconut, sesame seeds and a variety of nuts for a good price (at least compared to what I buy at the supermarket). I have to buy in bulk so my bill always makes me gasp but I do realize that I save money by buying at the wholesale warehouse.

But they do not sell oatmeal. I have asked numerous times if they sell oatmeal yet and you would think they might get the hint that they have a potential customer (but I guess one customer isn't too enticing) but nope... Go buy your oatmeal at the grocery store. And grocery store oatmeal comes in small expensive packages.

I finally figured out that I can buy oatmeal through Japan's Amazon and that is what I've been doing for the last year. It works. I still end up paying about $18 for this 10 lb container of oatmeal but again, it is a better price than at the grocery store. (This is my oatmeal still wrapped in shipping plastic.)

I saw this same package at Sam's Club this summer when I went shopping with Marcy. And I THINK the price was about $6! Could that be right? Oh, how I wanted to buy Sam's Club's oatmeal! But I sure wasn't going to waste my precious luggage allotment on oatmeal!

Let's see... What else goes in my granola? Bran flakes (from the supermarket), okara (a soy byproduct from tofu), banana chips, oil and honey sometimes dried cranberries (I brought back a bag from Sam's Club.) I bake my granola up in my tiny oven for about an hour and voila! I have two weeks supply of granola.

I also make my own yogurt on a weekly basis. Someone gave me Caspian yogurt starter years ago and with the addition of milk and left to sit on the counter (no heating!) in a few hours I have yogurt! Tetsu and I have been very careful not to let the yogurt starter die.

Doesn't the above post make me sound homebodyish and organic? Granola and yogurt are about the only things I can make. The kitchen and I are not friends.