Num-Tao-Hoo, Soy Milk

When I was a little girl my aunt had to chase me around the house just to give me a glass of milk - I just don't like drinking it. One day we went to a restaurant, still trying to coax me to drink milk, she ordered a bottle of Vitamilk for me. As soon as I saw a white liquid in the bottle, my face turned into an Eeekkk face. She said, " It is not a kind of milk you don't like, this one you will like it." and yes I like it because it is soy milk.

Soy milk is a desert to me. I remember there is a lovely soy milk place in my home town, Chumporn province, where we go to have a bowl of warm soy milk. In Thailand, soy milk is served hot with tapioca, Thai barley seeds, fuzzy melon candy, red beans, plain jello, eggs in one bowl - or you just tell them what you want, what you don't want. Simple syrup is added to sweeten soy milk right when it's served, so that you can tell them what sweet level you want for your bowl. Somebody loves having a bowl of warm, plain soy milk to drink along with fried bread sticks called pa-tong-goh or Youtiao in Chinese.



A bowl of warm soy milk is easy to find in Chinatown, but, since my usual place closed down I started to make it myself. It is SOOOOOO easy to make and the best thing is you know exactly what it is in your soy milk.

Start with soy beans

note: I don't really measure the recipes. You can just test it as you go, nothing's complicated.

- 2 bags of 12oz soy beans
- warm water
- sugar
- a pinch of salt

Get set, Go ¡

- Rinse all soy beans a few times.
- bring soy beans to the heat, toast them till they are dry, but, not burn though. You will see the paper thin skin start to bubble up and a nutty smell touches your nose. Take them off the heat.
- Soak them in warm water up to two-four hour.



- Rub soy beans with your hands in water to loosen up the skins. Fetch the thin skins off. (don't have to beat yourself up to get rid off all skins, you will end up blend them eventually.)



- In a pot used for boiling soy milk - cover the pot with cheese cloth.
- In a blender put soy beans with some water just to cover the beans, and blend them well.



- Pour the blended bean into a preparing pot - repeat until you finish all soy beans.
- Close the cheese cloth, twist and squeeze to get the juice out off blended soy beans as much as you can.
- Add more water to the pot - be careful not to add too much otherwise you will thin out the milk.



- Bring it to the heat at 210F for 15-30 minutes. Heat through, but do not let them reach the boiling point - stir it constantly to prevent a cake-on at the bottom of the pot and keep skimming out the foam as the milk getting hot.

Panden leaves



- To cover up the natural soy smell, I put Panden leaves into it. Panden leaves have a sweet scent to give foods a yummy smell, just like vanilla.
- Add a pinch of salt and sugar (starts with a heap of table spoon and test it, now you can season the milk as you like - add more sugar if you like)