Keep Cool and Carry On

What's with the soy milk?

We got hit with lots of snow, and the weather outside is brutally cold. In this kind of weather, for me, there is nothing better than having a bowl of hot soy milk with all kind of side-dishes.

It is such a comfort treat in a very cold day. So I decided to make a big pot to fight off this dreadful weather.



As I'd mentioned, soy milk is not only considered as a drink, it is also a dessert-drink in some Asian countries.

In Thailand, we love to put some soy milk side-dishes, such as pearl tapioca, boiled Job's tears seeds, gourd candy, bean curd, jelly in hot soy milk and eat it as dessert. Some people even love to put a soft-boil egg in it as well.

See how I make soy milk here.

This time I added just a few side-dishes - only things I could easily grab from Asian market like black sesame seeds, pearl tapioca , Job's tears seeds, which is good enough for me to enjoy a bowl of hot soy milk before bed.

Boiled pearl tapioca

Boiled Job's tears seeds (some mistaken as Asian Barley)

ground toasted black sesame seed.

My husband cried for gourd candy, so I told him, " buy me plane tickets, and you will have gourd candy to eat with soy milk."

My favorite of all to put in the bowl is toasted ground sesame seeds. It gives the milk an extra nutty smell, and add more nutrient into the milk.



Now, go ahead, hit me more, Mr. snow storm. I'm ready to be stuck in the house with my hot soy milk as you are blowing your head off the roof, and I'll be fine with that.

Lime-shake for The Dog Days

Holy Moly!!...We hit 103F today in NYC. It made me feel like a lame chicken in an oven. Normally our apartment can be tolerant the heat very well, but, not today when the heat waves has no mercy.

We usually turn on the AC only at night and turn it off in the morning, which is enough for the cool air to linger inside the room during the day time. With the help of an electric floor fan, we able to manage the temperature inside the apartment at 72F when the outside was 92F. But today is a record.


I could feel the heat right after half an hour of turning off the AC, still I had the orders to finish off and I needed the iron on, so I beat my self up to finish all the orders off before noon and turned on the AC all day and made each of us a glass of lime-shake.


It's my favorite non-alcohol, non dairy drink in the hot days. It is truly simple refreshing with just pure fresh lime juice, simple syrup and a half cup of ice. From this easy recipe, you can make tons of delicious cocktails - Mojito, Amaretto Sour (fresh lime version), Margarita etc.





Make Simple Syrup
- 1 : 1 granulated sugar and water (I love to add a tiny pinch of salt to make the sweetness a little bit round)

Put them together in a pot, heat to bubbling boil, reduce the heat, keep stirring til all the sugar melted. Turn off the heat and let it cool completely.

Shake Shake Shake
- 2 fresh limes, juiced
- 2 table spoons simple syrup
- 1/2 tea spoon salt
- 1 cup of ice
( put in some mint leaves is another good choice)

Put everything in a blender, blend until it becomes smoothie ice and enjoy the hot day. It really works, trust me.

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)